Yearly Archives: 2010
" alt="Bold leadership is needed to stop South Africans dying too young" />Bold leadership is needed to stop South Africans dying too young
29 November 2010
The private sector is already playing an important role in health care, including providing care to poorer people. Its role could be greatly expanded offering more affordable care to many more South Africans if we had the appropriate regulatory environment.
Ann Bernstein is executive director of the Centre for Development and Enterprise. Paul Davis is chairman of the Aurum Institute for Health Research. This article is based on a new CDE report, A Nation’s Health in Crisis, and was first published in Business Day on 12 November 2010. This study was funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies, and both CDE and the Aurum Institute are funded by the Anglo American Chairman’s Fund.
South Africa is in the grip of a major health crisis. Life expectancy at birth has dropped dramatically: from 63 years in 1990 to 48 years in 2007. The country is confronted with an HIV/AIDS and TB epidemic; increasing diabetes and heart disease, high levels of injury from road and other accidents and violence. The country is heading for the bottom of almost every table of international health indicators.
How does a nation compete if the majority of its workers are unemployed or on sick leave? Infant and child health problems reduce the effectiveness of education. Adult illness makes it difficult to secure and retain employment. Inefficient health treatment reduces national productivity with knowledge and skills being lost before they are consolidated or transferred to new workers.
" alt="Bridge the home-care health gap" />Bridge the home-care health gap
Caregivers like Sr Gladys Tshayinca of South Coast Hospice in KwaZulu-Natal take home-based care to isolated patients and families
This article was written by Erica Webster for the Sunday Times, originally published on 28 November 2010.
Home-based care is a crucial component in the fight against HIV/Aids; without it the formal healthcare system would not be able to handle the epidemic, says Adam Boros, CSI practitioner at Tshikululu Social Investments.
The World Health Organisation defines home-based care as “the provision of health services by formal and informal caregivers in the home to promote, restore and maintain a person’s maximum level of comfort, function and health, including care towards a dignified death”.
NGOs slam government’s proposed electricity mix
The government’s integrated resource plan (IRP) for this year has been heavily criticised, largely by civil society, which said it would be disastrous for the economy and the environment.
Participants in the public hearings were unhappy mainly with the fact that the plan still included coal and nuclear. The majority said they would prefer the plan to rely mainly on renewable energy.
ECD practitioners – unsung and underpaid
22 November 2010
The quality of early childhood development (ECD) programmes depends heavily on the knowledge and skills of those who work with young children. It follows that ECD practitioners require continual opportunities for high-quality training.
Despite this, little has changed since the government’s nationwide ECD audit in 2000 revealed that the vast majority of practitioners were underqualified (58%) or untrained (23%).
" alt="More youths like this are needed in South Africa" />More youths like this are needed in South Africa
Students in Free Enterprise and the thousands of other young South African entrepreneurs represent the kind of youth that is needed to take this country forward.
Written by Vivian Atud, an economist with the Free Market Foundation who specialises in socio-economic issues.
Only South Africa’s young professionals can take this country in a new direction. Young people whose minds are not polluted with all this anti-colonial and anti-apartheid rhetoric and garbage. Those who are capable of clear thinking, can see things with acute clarity, and can understand that the leadership must be held accountable for the mess in South Africa.
Tshikululu office move – notice to stakeholders
17 November 2010
To accommodate our growing operation, and to make ourselves more physically accessible to our clients, Tshikululu has moved to new office premises.
Our new physical address is:
Block B
Metropolitan Office Park
8 Hillside Road
ParktownOur postal address remains:
P O Box 61593
2107 Marshalltown
JohannesburgOur new telephone number is:
011 544 0300
Our new fax number is:
011 484 5997
Website (www.tshikululu.org.za) and email addresses remain the same.
We pledge not to allow this process to negatively affect our delivery of first-rate services, and we look forward to welcoming you to our new Parktown home.
For additional information, please contact Paul Pereira on 078 823 1025, ppereira@tsi.org.za.
Call for Proposals: FNB Community Care Programme
12 November 2010
Theme: Family Preservation
Deadline for submission: 6 December 2010
First National Bank (FNB), one of South Africa’s major financial institutions, recognises that investing today in family preservation will help ensure a better tomorrow. Through the FNB Fund, the company provides social development support to organisations that focus on transforming the lives of disadvantaged communities in South Africa. The FNB Fund forms part of the FirstRand Foundation and, as such, has adopted the Foundation’s programmatic approach to corporate social investment. This has translated into well-researched and meaningful giving.
The Community Care Programme started in 2009 and, until 2010, focused on strengthening organisations that work to prevent social pathologies and that provide care, protection and support to children, youth and victims of gender-based violence. The programme has been implemented across the country, targeting centres of excellence in different provinces and sectors.
Mother-baby HIV box aims to reduce transmission
11 November 2010
It’s no great medical breakthrough, just a simple colour-coded box packed with HIV drugs and pictures, but Unicef hopes it may help finally end transmission of HIV to babies.
The box contains all the medicines and instructions needed to protect an HIV-infected mother and her newborn, even if she never visits a health clinic again until after the baby is born, and even if she can’t read properly.
FirstRand’s quiet heroes honoured in Johannesburg
In the last year, teams of volunteers from various FirstRand business units have been very, very busy.
They sponsored and assisted with the planting of a permaculture garden for a community living on a rubbish dump in Mooiplaas. Community volunteers were taught how to make their own compost and grow their own vegetables. Orphans have been sponsored for a full season of rugby coaching and received assistance from a maths tutor to help improve their results. 200 Grade 11 and 12 learners across Gauteng, KZN and the Western Cape have attended a Lifeskills and Mentorship programmes in each province, every Saturday morning, for 26 weeks.
Over and above this, 4 500 employees participated in a an environmental awareness campaign, over 104 volunteers funded and co-ordinated a Schools Soccer Fun Day at the Chris Hani Stadium in Orange Farm and purchased soccer kits for all 420 children from 25 schools. During May and June, 77 000 cans of food and over 4 800 blankets were donated to the needy.
The world is getting fat
Global policy group the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says obesity levels are rising fast. In a report in the Lancet medical journal, it says low-income countries cannot cope with the health consequences of wide scale obesity.
Rates in Brazil and South Africa already outstrip the OECD average.
Increasing prosperity in some developing countries has led to a rise in “Western” lifestyles. The consequences of rising obesity rates are considerable. Excess weight increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, osteoarthritis, several forms of cancer (including esophageal, colorectal, breast, endometrial, and kidney cancer), and many other illnesses.
