SHAWCO
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Founded | July 1943 |
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Founder | Andrew Kinnear, Golda Selzer |
Type | Student-run NGO |
Registration no. | NPO 002-830 |
Focus | Health, Education, Social Entrepreneurship |
Location |
|
Area served | Cape Town metropolitan area |
Employees | 30 |
Volunteers | 2,000 |
Website | www.shawco.org |
SHAWCO, the Students' Health and Welfare Centres Organisation is a student-run NGO based at the University of Cape Town, that seeks to improve the quality of life for individuals in developing communities within the Cape Metropolitan area.
SHAWCO was founded in 1943 by Andrew Kinnear, a medical student who was moved to action by the need which he saw in the impoverished communities of Cape Town.[1] The organisation has grown over the years and now has 1200 student volunteers running over 15 health and education projects in 5 SHAWCO centres as well as other locations around the Cape Metropolitan area.
SHAWCO is divided into 2 main sectors: Education and Health. A third "staff sector" coordinates the SHAWCO community centres, transport, resource development, administrative oversight and project support.
History
SHAWCO was started in July 1943 by Andrew Kinnear, a University of Cape Town medical student, who spent the vacation driving an ambulance to earn money to pay for his medical training. Andrew Kinnear asked Dr Golda Selzer of the Pathology Department at Groote Schuur Hospital to assist him in establishing a clinic. Dr Selzer became one of the cofounders of SHAWCO and remained SHAWCO honorary life president until her death in 1999. In 2001, Mrs Graça Machel agreed to become SHAWCO's new life president.
What started as a one-man initiative has grown into one of the largest student volunteer organisations on the African continent, attracting over 900 UCT students, close to 300 foreign students, as well as about 20 community volunteers every year. SHAWCO's developmental strategies include healthcare projects and multi-purpose community centers with skills training and recreation projects.[2]
SHAWCO Health
![](../I/m/Shawco_Health_Logo.jpg)
The Free clinics run by SHAWCO rely on volunteer medical and allied health science students in all years of study and qualified doctors.[1]
During clinics, around 25 patients are seen by medical students under the supervision of a qualified volunteer doctor who oversees the proceedings, verifies diagnoses and provides advice. Clinical year students are responsible for clerking, examination and treatment of the patients, while also guiding and teaching pre-clinical students who observe and examine patients under guidance.
Services offered
SHAWCO provides a primary health care service, treating conditions such as diarrhoea, respiratory tract infections, sexually transmitted infections, muscular-skeletal ailments and other non-specialty disease.[3] The clinics provide holistic management, which includes care provided by physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, dietetics and audiology students who have great dedication to helping provide an appropriate service to the community.[3] The pharmacy offers free drugs to patients attending the clinics.[3] Students work very closely with community health workers within the community. These community health workers contribute to decisions made concerning the various clinics and help educate patients around specific health issues. When confronted with a patient requiring a higher level of care or a patient for whom facilities to treat are not available, the patient is referred to the local day hospital or secondary hospital.[3]
Clinics
Evening Clinics[4]
SHAWCO Health co-ordinates six clinics which operate at night on a weekly basis in various Cape Town communities.
Monday:
Newrest (in Gugulethu)
Simthandile (in Khayelitsha)
Tuesday:
Masiphumelele (in Noordhoek)
Brown’s Farm (in Nyanga)
Wednesday:
Du Noon (in Dunoon, Milnerton)
Paediatric Clinics
The Saturday morning paediatric clinic alternates every 2 weeks between Imizamo Yethu, an informal settlement in Hout Bay, and Du Noon.[4]
SHAWCO also runs a Wednesday morning paediatric screening clinic, in collaboration with the School of Child and Adolescent Health at the University of Cape Town.[4] These clinics often serve as the only port-of-call for community members who work during the day, or who cannot make the trip to the neighbouring day hospital. The clinics either operate from permanent health facilities or from SHAWCO Health’s three fully equipped mobile clinics.
Statistics
Year | Number of clinics | Number of local student volunteers |
Number of international student volunteers |
Total student volunteer sessions |
Number patients |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2011[5] | 251 | 600+ | 200+ | 2600+ | 5,130+ |
2010[6] | 248 | 644 | 180 | 2515 | 5,488 |
2009[4] | 180 | 557 | No record | 1970 | 4,806 |
2008[4] | 160 | 477 | No record | 2093 | 4,208 |
2007[4] | 134 | No record | No record | No record | 3,596 |
2003[7] | 115 | +/- 150 | No record | No record | 2,005 |
1963[3] | 3 fixed sites | 63% of all medical students at UCT | No record | No record | 14,716 |
2009
In 2009 a new data capturing system was introduced to track student attendance, patient demography and disease characteristics.[4]
Two-thirds of patients seen on the clinics were female, with the average age of patients 22 years. Approximately 44% of patients seen on the clinics were under the age of 18. The leading complaints on the clinics were respiratory tract infections (29.5%), skin rashes (16.5%), gastro-intestinal disorders (14.9%), Orthopaedic and Rheumatological complaints (9.6%) and sexually transmitted diseases (5.3%).[4]
Additional Projects
International Students Programme
2009 was the first year Shawco Health ran an international students project. In January 2009 a group of 12 Australian medical students from the University of New South Wales in their final year came over to South Africa for their elective block and ran the clinics. Traditionally, UCT students only begin SHAWCO clinics in February, thus the Australian students were able to add one extra month of services to the communities.[4]
In June/July, 12 Norwegian Students came to run the clinics during UCT’s 3 week vacation, adding another 3 weeks to SHAWCO's services.[4]
Rural Health Programme
In July 2009, nine medical students, an audiologist and a nursing sister from Mowbray Maternity Hospital traveled to Coffee Bay in the Eastern Cape, an extremely rural part of South Africa where people have to travel for many hours to access health care.[4] The team worked in partnership with Zithulele Hospital, running health promotional and educational activities in the local clinics, specifically pertaining to HIV and breastfeeding practices. Over 5 days, the students also ran clinics for over 360 patients, concurrently training around 60 clinic staff members regarding correct breastfeeding practices.[4]
This was a pilot programme with the long-term vision being a multi-disciplinary intervention (health students, engineers, lawyers, social workers etc.) by students from various universities throughout South Africa.
The 2010 version of the Rural Health Programme brought with it some changes: the health focus was more on screening, with students offering blood pressure, weight, glucose, HIV and pap smear testing, as well as paediatric health screening. The UCT branch of Engineers Without Borders, EWB UCT, partnered with SHAWCO to develop and install rainwater-harvesting tanks, including filtration systems, at Zithulele Hospital.[8]
Grand Ward Rounds
SHAWCO hosts grand ward rounds for all UCT medical students. These offer students the opportunity to report on cases they had seen on SHAWCO clinics and share their learning with their peers.[4] In addition, there is always a guest speaker who addresses the students on a topic pertinent to primary health care (PHC). Previous topics have included "common dermatological problems encountered in PHC" and "PHC Paediatrics".[4]
SHAWCO Response to Xenophobic Attacks, May 2008
On 12 May 2008 a series of riots started in the township of Alexandra (in the north-eastern part of Johannesburg) when locals attacked migrants from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.[9] Many African nationals were threatened, assaulted and displaced in the wave of Xenophobic violence that swept through South Africa, and in the following weeks the violence spread to Cape Town.[10] SHAWCO responded to the needs of the people affected by this violence.[11]
SHAWCO volunteers conveyed donated clothing, food and hygiene products which were distributed to the different sites of refuge around Cape Town.[12] The Health sector, headed up by Thandi de Wit and Britta McLaren, working in partnership with other civil society organisations (Treatment Action Campaign and Médecins Sans Frontières), ran the first standardised assessment across 33 sites two days after the mass exodus of foreign nationals from the townships.[12]
This assessment collected data on many things including numbers of men, women and children, shelter, food provision, health needs, health services and safety. The framework used for this data collection later adopted by the City of Cape Town Disaster Management Team.[12] From the data gathered, SHAWCO was able to identify sites in need of extra health support. SHAWCO ran an additional 9 clinics to sites of refuge around the Cape Peninsula, treating over 600 people.[12]
SHAWCO Education
SHAWCO Education is a UCT student-run development programme which facilitates tutoring of school learners in previously disadvantaged communities and the focus of all projects is to help children learn. Academic subjects such as Maths, English, Science and Life Orientation are taught, as well as extra-curricular programmes. There are also several special interest projects which run sessions on topics such as environmental awareness, legal education, and entrepreneurship.[2]
Leadership
Education Leadership
Year | President | Vice President | Treasurer |
---|---|---|---|
2018 | Kaylin Paterson | Sukayna Bassier | Anele Buthelezi |
2017 | Julian M. Siebert | Meshanya Naidoo | Mercy Chimpelo |
2016 | Lebohang Mokoena | Nadia Solomon | |
2015 | Ruth Urson | Pascal Despard | |
2014 | Julia Norrish | Cleo Mazower | |
2013 | Steven Bourhill | Senzo Hlophe | |
2012 | Baveena Naidoo | Bakang Moetse | |
2011 | Rachel Mazower | Maya Jaffer | |
2010 | Yumna Moosa | Sheree Lang | |
2009 | Jonathan Hodgson | Joanne Beckwith | |
2008 | Jonathan Hodgson | Lauren Losper | |
2007 | Nick Friedman | Dimakatso Morebudi | Lauren Losper |
Health Leadership
Year | President | Vice President |
---|---|---|
2018 | James van Duuren[13] | Behnazir Mohamed |
2014 | Abbaas Allie [14] | Jess Price [15] |
2013 | Saadiq Moolla [16] | Abbaas Allie [17] |
2012 | Rudo Pswarayi [18] | Juaneta Luiz [19] |
2011 | Simon Mendelsohn [20] | Rufaro Nyamuda [21] |
2007 | Megan Borkum [22] | |
2006 | Gareth Mannheimer [23] | |
Student Volunteerism
SHAWCO serves as a vehicle to foster in student volunteers the acquisition of the civic literacy, knowledge and skills necessary to build a more just, equitable and unified South African society. Year-on-year SHAWCO provides the space for approximately 2,000 student volunteers from the University of Cape Town, as well as international students, to provide primary healthcare services, education, and to engage in experiential learning and service-learning.[24]
The SHAWCO Saturday School and SHINE Programmes
These programmes were established to assist school learners in core academic areas such as Mathematics, Physical Science, Accounting, Life Sciences and English. With seed funding received in 2007, from Bombardier Transportation in South Africa, this programme has grown from providing educational support to 200 learners in Khayelitsha, into a programme of excellence, now known, as SHAWCO Academic Interventions Programme (AIU). Based at the SHAWCO Head Office, at the University of Cape Town, SHAWCO AIU now comprises three programmes, viz. (i) SHAWCO Saturday School; (ii) SHAWCO SHINE (a fee paying programme) and, (iii) SHAWCO Learning Excellence (LEx) - part of the SHAWCO Saturday School Programme.
From its humble beginnings in 2007, SHAWCO AIU expanded to Nyanga in 2008. After two years of consolidating its offering the programme expanded again in 2009 and partnered with 34 schools in the Cape Town Metropolitan area with close to 250 learners. The methodology was that the SHAWCO SHINE (fee paying programme) would subsidise the SHAWCO Saturday School (non-fee programme). This worked very well, and SHAWCO AIU was able to provide needed tuition for learners from low-resourced schools.
In 2011 SHAWCO AIU had 200 Saturday School learners and 170 SHINE learners. By the end of 2011, it was apparent that the number of fee-paying learners would increase dramatically and we prepared to take on 600 learners across all of the programs. Our dream of financial self-sustainability will be realised by 2013. SHAWCO’s unique ‘Robin Hood effect’, which employs the resources of those who can afford to pay tuition fees to subsidise those who cannot, ensures the longevity of the Saturday School and SHINE Program. In 2012, there are 200 learners fully subsidised by SHAWCO in the Saturday School Project, 300 learners in the SHAWCO SHINE Project (Gr 10, Gr 11 & Gr 12) and 100 learners from the University of Cape Town (UCT) 100-UP Programme. In total SHAWCO now had 600 learners and 32 teachers in this programme. The demand for admittance into the SHAWCO SHINE Program remains overwhelming. With 425 learners currently registered in the Saturday School and SHINE Programmes, UCT upper campus of is now taken over by these learners on Saturdays throughout the year.
The programmes follow the same teaching methodology: intensive learning and revision; small classes (15-20 learners); top Educators; strict rules; career guidance; academic excellence.
All SHAWCO AIU Educators are highly professional and recruited with the assistance of curriculum advisors in the Department of Education, and word of mouth. As qualified teachers, they are all currently employed in schools around the Western Cape region. All Educators are contracted and paid by SHAWCO. Educators are required to follow the lesson plans which have been created in conjunction with the pace setters from the Department of Education. The Educators therefore follow the Department’s prescribed syllabus for Grade 10, 11 and 12 pupils, to ensure that learners receive relevant tuition.
With the assistance of the Department of Education and SHAWCO’s AIU Programme Manager, Educators are required to create a workbook for each subject where the learners will work from each week. Included in the workbook are notes, worksheets, tutorials, assignments examples etc. The SHAWCO AIU Programme Manager evaluates the performance of each Educator through teaching assessments completed by the scholars, academic results of learners and observational techniques (performance standards) that have been developed by SHAWCO AIU Programme. If SHAWCO AIU is satisfied with an Educators’ performance, then their contract is renewed for another six months.
All learners are selected from low resourced communities around the Western Cape region. SHAWCO predominantly focuses on areas in which the organisation has community centres and where there are established relationships with partnering schools. Over time, SHAWCO extended its boundaries into different areas within the Western Cape region. The Programme, SHAWCO engage 42 different schools throughout the Western Cape region in pursuit of recruiting learners with academic potential. The partnership between the schools and SHAWCO Saturday School includes regular meetings with these schools and their Grade 12 coordinators. The schools also assist SHAWCO in tracking attendance, assisting with parental participation, and providing academic information.[25]
References
- 1 2 Selzer G, Gordon H. SHAWCO: the students' health and welfare centres Organization of the University of Cape Town. SAMJ. 1963 (19 Jan); Vol. 37, pp. 58-9.
- 1 2 "SHAWCO - History". SHAWCO. Archived from the original on 18 March 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2010.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Katz, D. The Students' Health and Welfare Centre (SHAWCO). British journal of medical education. 1967; 1 (3):178-182.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Lewin W. SHAWCO-GrandWest CSI Community Health Project Report 2009. SHAWCO. 2009, 30 November. Available online at: http://www.shawco.org/uploads/2009_SHAWCO_Health_GrandWest_Report.pdf
- ↑ Mendelsohn S. SHAWCO Health Annual Report 2011. SHAWCO. 2011, 1 November.
- ↑ Mendelsohn S. SHAWCO-GrandWest CSI Community Health Project Report 2010. SHAWCO. 2010, 1 November. Available Online at: http://www.shawco.org/uploads/2010_SHAWCO_Health_Report.pdf
- ↑ SHAWCO Annual Report 2003. Available Online at: http://www.shawco.org/uploads/2003_Report.pdf
- ↑ "UCT Monday Paper: "Engineers show enthusiasm and craft without borders"". UCT. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
- ↑ "South African mob kills migrants". BBC. 12 May 2008. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
- ↑ "SA leader orders army to deploy". BBC. 21 May 2008. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
- ↑ "SHAWCO's Response to Xenophobia". SHAWCO. Archived from the original on 8 June 2010. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
- 1 2 3 4 Favish, J. 2009. The Role of Public Universities: Examining one university's response to xenophobia. Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement. 2:160.
- ↑ "SHAWCO Health's new president". www.news.uct.ac.za. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
- ↑ "SHAWCO Annual Report 2014" (PDF). www.shawco.org. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
- ↑ "SHAWCO Annual Report 2014" (PDF). www.shawco.org. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
- ↑ "SHAWCO Annual Report 2013" (PDF). www.shawco.org. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
- ↑ "SHAWCO Annual Report 2013" (PDF). www.shawco.org. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
- ↑ "SHAWCO Annual Report 2012" (PDF). www.shawco.org. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
- ↑ "SHAWCO Annual Report 2012" (PDF). www.shawco.org. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
- ↑ "SHAWCO Annual Report 2011" (PDF). www.shawco.org. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
- ↑ "SHAWCO Annual Report 2011" (PDF). www.shawco.org. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
- ↑ "SHAWCO Annual Report 2007" (PDF). www.shawco.org. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
- ↑ "SHAWCO Annual Report 2006" (PDF). www.shawco.org. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
- ↑ www.shawco.org
- ↑ www.shawco.org/index.php/academic-interventions-unit