| Founder(s) | Andrew Kinnear, Golda Selzer |
|---|---|
| Type | Student-run NGO |
| Registration No. | NPO 002-830 |
| Founded | July 1943 |
| Location | Braemar Cottage UCT Medical School Anzio Road Observatory 7925 South Africa |
| Area served | Cape Town metropolitan area |
| Focus | Health, Education, Social Entrepenurship |
| Mission | To improve the quality of life of individuals in developing communities within the Cape metropolitan area. |
| Volunteers | 2,000 |
| Employees | 30 |
| 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.
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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 Graca 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]
Since 1943, SHAWCO has developed a reputation of delivering quality primary health care in under-resourced communities. 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. This fulfils another major role of the clinics – providing education and experience to future doctors and instilling a passion for primary health care. The students who volunteer for SHAWCO clinics say that they are better prepared to deal with the rigours of their community service year and are more likely to stay on in South Africa thereafter.[2]
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]
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:
Zibonele (in Khayelitsha)
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.
| 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 |
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]
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]
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]
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]
On May 12, 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 is a development program that facilitates tutoring in various subjects for school learners and young adults in previously disadvantaged communities. Academic subjects such as Maths, English, Science, Geography and Life Orientation are taught, as well as extra-curricular programs like Arts and Sports. There are also several special interest projects which run sessions on topics such as environmental awareness, legal education, and entrepreneurship.[2]
SHAWCO Education runs 13 different educational projects.
STEP tutors Maths, English and Life Skills to primary school learners in Khayelitsha. Beyond the core numeracy and literacy academic content, this project aims to instill a love of learning in its young participants. Working with grades 3-7, grade 7s graduating from the project are encouraged to join Stepping Out in their grade 8 year. It is one of the oldest of the SHAWCO Education projects, having been founded in 1990.
KENSTEP tutors Maths, English and Life Skills to primary school learners in Kensington. Similar to STEP, it incorporates as much fun and creative learning as possible. It also encourages its graduating grade 7s to enroll in SOLL in their grade 8 year.
Stepping Out tutors Maths, English and Life Skills to grade 8 and 9 learners in Khayelitsha. The project was established at the Khayelitsha K2 Centre in 2002. It provides academic support during the often difficult transition from Junior to High School, while seeking to persuade the learners to consider higher education and training after High School seriously. The purpose of the project is to improve the marks, work attitude and life skills of Grade 8 and 9 learners in under-resourced Khayelitsha schools by providing a good understanding of basic high school mathematics, promoting efficient communication in English, and providing information to deal with everyday challenges and to make informed subject choices. The project aims to enhance students' university experience by providing an extracurricular activity that encourages personal development through meaningful social interaction in a challenging environment and contributes to community development.
Through the help of 30 student volunteers, 65 Grade 8 & 9 learners are provided with tutoring in English, Mathematics, and Life Skills. The Thursday and Friday afternoon sessions are held in the classrooms in Masiyile Secondary School (close to K2). In 2010, learners were recruited from Masiyile, Iqhayiya and other Secondary Schools in Khayelitsha.
Stepping Out participants have 3 contact hours with SHAWCO tutors over two sessions per week. This is divided between Mathematics tuition, and English and Life Skills. An outing is also run each term, including a camp for the Grade 9 learners.
Learners from the STEP project (Grade 3 – 7) are channelled directly into the Stepping Out project (provided their high school is close enough to reach lessons on time) and Stepping Out learners are channelled into the SMART project (Grade 10 -12).
Sixty grade 8 and 9 students from four different high schools in Kensington are tutored in Maths, English and Life Skills on Monday and Wednesday afternoons at the Kensington Shawco centre. With exactly the same aims as Stepping Out, Stepping Out Live and Learn is a linchpin in SHAWCO's strategy of persuading students that learning is fun and that higher education is a viable option for their future.
The SHAWCO Student Mentored All Round Tutoring (SMART) project aims to provide learners in Grades 10, 11 and 12 from disadvantaged schools in Khayelitsha, who have shown academic potential and an enthusiasm for learning, the opportunity for further educational and self development.
Learners who participate in the programme take pure maths and physical science at school and are tutored weekly by volunteering UCT students, following a curriculum which is developed by members of the SHAWCO project committee.
Learners also participate in weekly Careers & Communication sessions, which run on a Saturday. These sessions are aimed at equipping learners with skills which will assist them in making career choices, and ultimately apply to tertiary institutions.
Apart from developing the learners academically, the project also aims to create an environment which allows the Student Volunteers to establish mentoring relationships with the participants such that the volunteers themselves may have a holistic SHAWCO experience.
Kensington Student Mentoring and All-Round Tutoring (SMART) tutors Maths and Physical Science to grade 10, 11 and 12 learners in Kensington. As in SMART, support is provided to ensure that all learners participating in the program are able to make as informed choice as possible about their future.
Masizame is a student project which works with a wide range of learners living in Lieliebloem and St Georges children's homes. As well as providing the academic tutoring offered by other projects, special focus is put on individualised interaction with the learners.
The Arts Project runs in Manenberg, and incorporates the teaching of many different art disciplines in a structured manner.
The Sports project aims to develop the skills, team work and ethics on the sports field of the children in these different communities. The project offers soccer, rugby, cricket, netball and hockey coaching in Manenberg, Nyanga and Khayelitsha to children from grades 5-9. The goal of the project is to develop a healthy nation by promoting a healthy lifestyle among the participants.
The only project to work with young adults, post-school, Masizikhulise provides training in Entrepreneurship so as to facilitate personal development and job creating in Khayelitsha and Nyanga.
LAWCO (Legal Welfare Community Organisation) is a student initiative that runs legal workshops for grade 10-12 learners in the Cape Town metropolitan area around practical aspects of the law, giving them a foundation of knowledge as well as skills to use in their day to day lives.
LAWCO aims to enable communities to access legal knowledge while at the same time give law students the opportunity to apply and share their knowledge in communities. In this, the project sensitises future lawyers to the broader challenges within South Africa and endeavours to contribute to the development of South Africa’s constitutional democracy.
Workshops are run at six schools: Aloe Secondary, Princeton High, Lavender Hill High, Masiyile High, Manyano High and Thandokhulu High. Themes at these workshops include aspects of basic South African law; human rights; civil and political rights; socioeconomic rights; labour law; family law; criminal law and consumer protection.
Masifundisane provides tutoring in school Geography for grade 11s and 12s once a week in Khayelitsha. It also runs weekly environmental awareness workshops in schools in Khayelitsha.
The Saturday School Boost Program is a staff run project, which employs professional teachers to provide focused remedial Saturday teaching to two hundred grade 12 learners from across the Cape Town area. Included in those two hundred learners are the most promising learners from the student run academic projects, SMART and KenSMART. The primary goal behind the program is to provide the final academic push to disadvantaged learners to access tertiary education.
The iconic SHAWCO Kensington Community Centre was once the headquarters of the organisation, and is home to a full suite of academic projects (KenSTEP, Stepping Out Live and Learn and KenSMART). In addition, it houses the SHAWCO adult Day Care Club, providing meals-on-wheels to approximately 45 people in the area, and also houses a number of local organisations: the Union of Jewish Women's crèche, a home-care training facility, a church group, a community newspaper, as well as the Provincial Administration of the Western Cape (PAWC) social services. After hours, the hall is used as a venue for Judo, ballroom dancing, a pension payout point twice a month and is also available for hire.
SHAWCO Manenberg Community Centre. The Performing and Visual Arts Project, taking place at the centre, involves UCT students volunteer who help local primary and secondary school learners develop communication skills and leadership qualities through art and drama. The Manenebrg Sport Project also takes place at the centre. It involves more than 100 children participating in various sporting codes with the help from UCT students' volunteers. In addition, the centre houses a local crèche, family and child support services and serves as a pension payout point.
SHAWCO Nyanga Community Centre is home to Masizikhulise (Let us help one another grow) Project. The Nyanga Sports Project takes place at a near-by community hall. The centre also runs an Adult Day Care Club for older and disabled people, and delivers meals-on-wheels to elderly and disabled residents in the area.
SHAWCO Khayelitsha K1 Community Centre is home to the Noxolo Adult Day Care Club, as well as a number of local NGOs providing family and rape counseling, working with Aids orphans and offering other family-related counseling services. SHAWCO has raised funds in the name of the late Dr Golda Selzer, to upgrade and expand the centre in order to transform it into a UCT teaching site and therapy centre, where members of the Noxolo club, as well as other Khayelitsha residents can receive occupational therapy, physiotherapy and other kinds of therapy from UCT students.
SHAWCO Khayelitsha K2 Community Centre is home to the STEP, Stepping Out, SMART, Masifundisane, Masizikhulise and Sports projects.
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