SHAWCO , The Student Center for Health and Welfare Organization is an NGO run by students based at the University of Cape Town, which seeks to improve the quality of life of individuals in developing communities within the Cape Metropolitan region.
SHAWCO was founded in 1943 by Andrew Kinnear, a medical student who was moved to act on the needs he sees in the impoverished Cape Town community. The organization has grown over the years and now has 1200 student volunteers running over 15 health and education projects in 5 SHAWCO centers as well as other locations around the Cape Metropolitan region.
SHAWCO is divided into 2 main sectors: Education and Health. The third "staff sector" coordinates SHAWCO community centers, transportation, resource development, administrative oversight and project support.
Video SHAWCO
History
SHAWCO began in July 1943 by Andrew Kinnear, a medical student at the University of Cape Town, who spent the holidays driving an ambulance to earn money to pay for his medical training. Andrew Kinnear asked Dr. Golda Selzer of the Department of Pathology at Groote Schuur Hospital to assist him in setting up the clinic. Dr. Selzer became one of the founders of SHAWCO and remained the lifelong honor president of SHAWCO until his death in 1999. In 2001, Mrs GraÃÆ'§a Machel agreed to become president of SHAWCO's new life.
What started as a one-man initiative has grown into one of the largest student volunteer organizations on the African continent, attracting over 900 UCT students, approaching 300 foreign students, and about 20 community volunteers each year. SHAWCO's development strategy includes health care projects and multi-purpose community centers with skills training and recreational projects.
Maps SHAWCO
SHAWCO Health
The free clinic run by SHAWCO relies on volunteers of health and allied medical students in all study years and qualified doctors.
During the clinic, about 25 patients are seen by medical students under the supervision of qualified volunteer doctors who oversee the process, verify diagnosis and provide advice. Students of the clinical year are responsible for clerking, examination and treatment of patients, while also guiding and teaching pre-clinical students who observe and examine patients under guidance.
Services offered
SHAWCO provides primary health care services, treat conditions such as diarrhea, respiratory infections, sexually transmitted infections, skeletal muscle disease and other non-specialized diseases. The clinic provides holistic management, which includes the care provided by physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, dietetics, and audiology of highly dedicated students to help provide appropriate services to the community. Pharmacies offer free medication to patients attending the clinic. Students work very closely with public health officers in the community. These community health workers contribute to decisions made about clinics and help educate patients about certain health problems. When confronted with patients requiring a higher level of care or patients with no care facility, the patient is referred to a local hospital or secondary hospital.
Clinic
Night Clinic
SHAWCO Health coordinates six clinics that operate nightly every week in various Cape Town communities.
You:
Newrest (di Gugulethu)
We love it (in Khayelitsha)
Tuesday:
Masiphumelele (di Noordhoek)
Brown's Farm (di Nyanga)
Wednesday:
Joe Slovo (dalam Milnerton)
Du Noon (in Dunoon, Milnerton)
Pediatric Clinic
Pediatric clinic Saturday morning alternates between Imizamo Yethu, informal settlements in Hout Bay and Du Noon.
SHAWCO also runs a children's screening clinic on Wednesday morning, in collaboration with the School of Children's and Adolescent Health at the University of Cape Town. The clinic often serves as the only call for community members who work during the day, or who can not travel to a hospital near the hospital. The clinic operates from a permanent health facility or from three SHAWCO Health's complete mobile clinics.
Statistics
2009
In 2009 a new data retrieval system was introduced to track student attendance, patient demographics and disease characteristics.
Two-thirds of patients seen at the clinic were women, with an average age of 22 patients. Approximately 44% of patients seen at the clinic are under 18 years of age. The main complaints in the clinic were respiratory infections (29.5%), skin rashes (16.5%), gastro-intestinal disorders (14.9%), Orthopedics and Rheumatologic complaints (9.6%) and sexually transmitted diseases 5.3%).
Additional Projects
International Student Program
2009 is the first year of Shawco Health running an international student project. In January 2009 a group of 12 Australian medical students from the University of New South Wales in their final year came to South Africa for their elective block and managed the clinic. Traditionally, UCT students only started SHAWCO clinics in February, so Australian students could add an additional month of service to the community.
In June/July, 12 Norwegian students came to run the clinic for 3 weeks of UCT holidays, adding another 3 weeks for SHAWCO service.
Rural Health Program
In July 2009, nine medical students, an audiologist and a nurse sister from Mowbray Maternity Hospital traveled to Coffee Bay in the Eastern Cape, a very rural part of South Africa where people had to travel for hours to access health care. The team works in partnership with Zithulele Hospital, conducts promotional and health education activities at local clinics, particularly those related to HIV and lactation practice. Over the course of 5 days, students also manage clinics for more than 360 patients, simultaneously training around 60 clinical staff members on correct breastfeeding practices.
This is a pilot program with a long-term vision of being a multi-disciplinary intervention (health student, engineer, lawyer, social worker, etc.) by students from universities throughout South Africa.
The 2010 version of the Rural Health Program brings with it several changes: more health focus on screening, with students offering blood pressure, weight, glucose, HIV and pap smear tests, as well as child health checks. The UCT of Engineers Without Borders, EWB UCT, partnered with SHAWCO to develop and install a rainwater catcher tank, including a filtration system, at Zithulele Hospital.
Grand Ward Rounds
SHAWCO organized a large round of wards for all UCT medical students. This gives students the opportunity to report cases they have seen in SHAWCO clinics and share their learning with their peers. In addition, there are always guest speakers addressing students on topics related to primary health care (PHC). Previous topics have included "common dermatological problems faced in PHC" and "PHC Pediatrics". SHAWCO_Response_to_Xenophobic_Attacks, _May_2008 "> SHAWCO's Response to Xenophobic Attack, May 2008
On May 12, 2008, a series of riots began in the Alexandra township (in northeastern Johannesburg) when residents attacked migrants from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Many African nationals are threatened, assaulted and abandoned in the waves of Xenophobic violence that struck South Africa, and in the following weeks violence spread to Cape Town. SHAWCO responds to the needs of those affected by this violence.
SHAWCO volunteers donate clothing, food and hygiene items distributed to various shelters around Cape Town. The Health Sector, led by Thandi de Wit and Britta McLaren, works in partnership with other civil society organizations (Treatment Action Campaign and MÃÆ' Â © decins Sans FrontiÃÆ'¨res), runs the first standard assessment on 33 sites two days after the mass exodus of foreign nationals from the cities.
This assessment collects data on many things including the number of men, women and children, shelter, food supply, health needs, health and safety services. The framework used for data collection was then adopted by the Cape Town City Disaster Management Team. From the data collected, SHAWCO was able to identify sites requiring additional health support. SHAWCO manages 9 additional clinics to the refugee camps around Tanjung Peninsula, caring for more than 600 people.
SHAWCO Education
SHAWCO Education is a UCT-managed student development program that facilitates the teaching of school students in previously harmed communities and the focus of all projects is to help children learn. Academic subjects such as Mathematics, English, Science and Life Orientation are taught, as well as extra-curricular programs. There are also some special interest projects that run sessions on topics such as environmental awareness, legal education, and entrepreneurship.
Leadership
Educational Leadership
Health Leadership
Student Volunteer
SHAWCO serves as a vehicle for fostering student volunteers to acquire the literacy, knowledge, and civil skills necessary to build a fairer, just and united South African society. Year by year SHAWCO provides space for approximately 2,000 student volunteers from the University of Cape Town, as well as international students, to provide primary health care, education, and to engage in learning experience and service learning.
SHAWCO Saturday School and SHINE Programs
These programs are established to help school students in core academics such as Mathematics, Physics, Accounting, Natural Sciences and English. With the funding of seeds received in 2007, from Bombardier Transportation in South Africa, the program has grown from providing educational support to 200 learners in Khayelitsha, becoming a program of excellence, now known as the SHAWCO Academic Intervention Program (AIU). Based in SHAWCO Headquarters, at the University of Cape Town, SHAWCO AIU now consists of three programs, namely. (i) Saturday School of SHAWCO; (ii) SHAWCO SHINE (fee payment program) and, (iii) SHAWCO Learning Excellence (LEx) - part of SHAWCO's Saturday School Program.
From a modest beginning in 2007, SHAWCO AIU expanded to Nyanga in 2008. After two years of consolidating its offer, the program expanded again in 2009 and partnered with 34 schools in the Cape Town Metropolitan area with nearly 250 participants. The method is SHAWCO SHINE (fee payment program) will subsidize SHAWCO Saturday School (non-fee program). It works very well, and SHAWCO AIU is able to provide the necessary education for students from low-resource schools.
In 2011 SHAWCO AIU has 200 Saturday School students and 170 SHINE students. By the end of 2011, it is clear that the number of participants paying the fees will increase dramatically and we are ready to take 600 participants in all programs. Our dreams of financial independence will be realized in 2013. SHAWCO's unique 'Hood Hood Effect', which uses their resources to pay tuition to subsidize those who can not, ensure the long life of the School and Saturday Programs. In 2012, there are 200 students fully subsidized by SHAWCO in School Project Saturday, 300 students in the SHOW SHOW Project (Gr 10, Gr 11 & Gr 12) and 100 students from the University of Cape Town (UCT) 100-UP Program. Total SHAWCO now has 600 students and 32 teachers in this program. Requests for entry to SHAWCO SHINE Program remain outstanding. With 425 learners currently enrolled in the School's Saturday Program and SHINE, the top UCT campus is now taken over by these learners on Saturdays throughout the year.
The programs 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 very professional and recruited with the help of curriculum advisors in the Ministry of Education, and by word of mouth. As qualified teachers, they are all currently working in schools around the Western Cape. All Educators are contracted and paid for by SHAWCO. Educators are required to follow the lesson plans that have been created along with the speed regulator of the Ministry of Education. Therefore, the Educator follows the Department's specified syllabus for Grade 10, 11 and 12 students, to ensure that learners receive relevant lessons.
With the help of the Department of Education and Program Manager AIU SHAWCO, Educators are required to create workbooks for each subject where participants will work from each week. Included in the workbook are notes, worksheets, tutorials, examples of tasks, etc. SHAWCO AIU Program Manager evaluates the performance of each Educator through a teaching assessment completed by the scholars, the learner's academic outcomes and the observation technique (performance standards) developed by the AIU SHAWCO Program. If SHAWCO AIU is satisfied with the performance of the Educators, then their contract is renewed for the next six months.
All students are selected from low-resource communities around the Western Cape region. SHAWCO primarily focuses on areas where organizations have community centers and where there is a well-established relationship with partner schools. Over time, SHAWCO extends its boundaries to different regions of the Western Cape region. Program, SHAWCO involves 42 different schools throughout the Western Cape in pursuit of recruiting learners with academic potential. The partnership between school and SHAWCO Saturday School includes regular meetings with these schools and their Grade 12 coordinator. Schools also assist SHAWCO in tracking attendance, assisting parent participation, and providing academic information.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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