Ukwanda engages in constructive community interaction. This takes the form of multiple initiatives such as advocacy on important health issues and specific projects that involves rural and underserved communities. The Avian Park Service-Learning Centre (APSLC) is the culmination of the aspirations of a number of role-players who wanted to provide the residence of Avian Park with access to basic healthcare. Stakeholders from the local community, the health authorities at provincial and municipal level, Ukwanda, community-based services and clinicians collaborated to conceptualize a model by which research, teaching and other health-related activities have developed.
Capacity Development: SUNSTRIPE
Stellenbosch University Network for Strengthening Rural Inter-Professional Education for HIV(SUNSTRIPE) is the Stellenbosch University partner with the UCSF-AFREhealth STRIPE project and is managed by Ukwanda with Ian Couper as the Principal Investigator.
The initial aim of SUNSTRIPE was to capacity building in a number of rural sites across the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape provinces of South Africa, using 2-day STRIPE HIV workshops, and supporting the development of local facilitators.
Workshops conducted:
- October 2019: Dr Harry Surtie Hospital, Upington
- Facilitated by SUNSTRIPE team
- 12 local facilitators identified: Training of trainers (ToT)
- 33 participants from Medicine, Nursing, OT, PT, SLHT, Pharmacy and Audiology.
- January 2020: Dr Harry Surtie Hospital, Upington
- Preceded by a Training of Trainers session.
- Co-facilitated by 2 SUNSTRIPE team members and 4 local facilitators, two taking a lead on some modules
- 52 participants from a range of health professions
- February 2020: Kimberley
- Collaboration with Henrietta Stockdale Nursing College: the Training of Trainers carried out for 7 local facilitators to assist in the workshop, including one from Kimberley Hospital
- 60 participants, mainly nursing students
- Co-facilitated by 2 SUNSTRIPE team members and 2 facilitators from Upington
- February 2020: Worcester
- 50 participants, with a majority being medical students; most of the rest were students from the Boland Nursing College, which represented a great potential collaboration, and dietetics students from SU.
- The College provided four local facilitators, who assisted the SUNSTRIPE team, and the Cape Winelands District family physician also lent her support.
- February 2020: Mthatha Eastern Cape
- Offered in collaboration with Walter Sisulu University.
- 45 participants attended.
- This focused on the Training of Trainers from various district health sites with a focus on future workshop facilitators
- March 2020: Dr Harry Surtie Hospital, Upington
- Organised and delivered by the 2 facilitators from Upington, with co-facilitation by 1 SUNSTRIPE team member
- 43 participants, of whom the majority were non-clinical: 3 professional nurses, 3 pharmacists, 1 social worker, 1 emergency medicine technician, 5 food service assistants, 5 general assistants, 4 finance clerks, 12 HR clerks, 5 ward clerks, 4 admin clerks
- Extended the concept of the healthcare team
- March 2020: Ukwanda Leaning Centre, Ceres
- 24 participants from across the health care team.
- Several senior participants were identified as potential facilitators.
- A follow up workshop was planned but cancelled due to Covid-19.
Through the above workshops, SUNSTRIPE trained 65 students from 3 health professional programmes, and 90 members of healthcare teams, who came from 11 different professional backgrounds.
SUNSTRIPE switched gear after Covid-19 hit and adapted the Covid-19 module developed by STRIPE as a 2-part online workshop. This training was successfully delivered to 577 people in our faculty, made up of 492 students from across undergraduate health professions programmes and 85 staff (mainly lecturers and clinical preceptors), as well as to 72 other health professionals outside of the faculty across a range of sites. Subsequent work involved repurposing and piloting HIV modules for online use, and the development of additional modules (on Wellbeing and Compassion and on Teamwork and Collaboration) to support healthcare team and capacity building of professionals.
Bursaries
Ukwanda manages several bursaries that focus on supporting students from and for rural areas.
Holland Stellenbosch Medical Foundation
The ongoing support provided by the
Holland Stellenbosch Medical Foundation is without a doubt a great help for our students, during these economically challenging times. Since piloting the bursary project in 2007, the bursary provides financial assistance to senior medical students from their fourth year of study.
2019:
- 8 students passed their year of study.
- 11 students passed their degree course and are now medical interns.
- One student, Ismail Allie Rawoot completed his final year of study in Hermanus and passed his degree cum laude with 10 out of 11 distinctions.
- The value of the individual bursaries in 2019 was R90,000
2020:
Despite a challenging 2020 all the students in the program did well.
- 14 students passed their year of study course.
- 10 students passed their degree course and are now medical interns.
- The value of the individual bursaries in 2021 was R100,000 per student.
Bosjes Trust
2016 saw the inception of the Bosjes Trust bursary for students from the Cape Winelands Region and the greater Worcester area.
This has enabled three MBChB students from this region to be awarded this bursary where there the financial constraints of parents meant they are not in a position to support their children to further their tertiary education.
The value of the bursary per student was R100 000.00.
2019: Two students passed their year course and one student graduated.
2020: The two remaining students passed their 5th year of study and are currently completing their final year.
Service Learning in Action
Speech Language and Hearing Therapy: Two students doing a speech and language assessment with a mother and child at De Doorns clinic.
Photographer: Mariza van Reenen.
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Speech Language and Hearing Therapy: Students doing a group therapy session at ASD/Sean Kelly Centre in Worcester – acting out a song.
Photographer: Mariza van Reenen. |
Dietetics/Human Nutrition: Nadia Visser and Bronwyn Gray presenting food service training to the food service personnel at Worcester Hospital
Photographer: Elria Joubert
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Dietetics/Human Nutrition: Students were providing breastfeeding training to Community Health Workers of De Doorns.
Photographer: Elria Joubert
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Dietetics/Human Nutrition: The two students busy with screening Road to health Booklets at an ECD in Stofland informal settlement in the Hex River Valley, are Bronwyn Gray and Estelle van Rijn.
Photographer: Nadia Visser
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Physiotherapy: Ceres students teaching the home based carers in Prince Alfred Hamlet about pressure sore prevention and management.
Photographer: Tasha Ainsworth
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Physiotherapy students visiting one of their clinical sites in Upington for clinical practice.
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Occupational Therapy: Snoezelen sensory room project at Huis Ebenhaezer, Innovation for the Blind
Photographer: Mia Prinsloo
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Occupational Therapy: OT student group block 4 2022
Photographers: Amanda Msindwana /Innocentia Lediga
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Occupational Therapy: Epilepsy training for the carers at Huis Ebenhaezer, Innovation for the Blind
Photographer: Mia Duvenage |
Occupational Therapy: Foot massages as part of a staff wellness project for carers at the Association for the Sensory Disabled
Photographer: Mia Prinsloo
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Occupational Therapy:Woman of Hope Sewing project
Photographer: Mia Duvenage
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