Life Healthcare Foundation
Most recent and ongoing projects
The most recent and ongoing projects of the Life Healthcare Foundation include the following:
Kangaroo mother care
Our group’s foundation, in collaboration with the Wits Paediatric Fund, contributed
funds in aid of the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital’s kangaroo mother
care initiative. This low cost, low technology intervention harnesses the remarkable
benefits of skin to skin contact between a mother and baby to assist in stabilising
premature and low birth weight babies. A dedicated ward has been set up at the hospital
to accommodate mothers who have to commit to a ten week stay in hospital in order
to offer this type of care. To enhance the environment for the mothers, the Life
Healthcare Foundation sponsorship was used to purchase furniture for use by mothers,
visitors and staff, a TV and DVD for recreation, a few kitchen appliances, educational
material, and a breast milk pasteuriser. These items were formally handed over to
the hospital in November 2009.
Early childhood development (ECD)
In support of early childhood development (ECD), the Life Healthcare Foundation,
together with the Bright Kid Foundation, sponsored two classroom units, to the Akani
Diepsloot Foundation, situated in Diepsloot informal settlement north of Johannesburg.
The Bright Kid Foundation, a non-profit organisation, is dedicated to ECD and works
with non-governmental educational organisations with a sound infrastructure and
well trained teachers.
The Life Healthcare Foundation funded two free standing classroom ‘edutainers’ made from used
shipping containers. The classrooms can accommodate 25 to 30 children in Grade R,
and provide a safe and productive learning environment. These units were decorated
on the outside and are bright, airy and fully fitted inside. Selected books, teaching
aids and educational toys are also included in the ‘edutainers’. The new classrooms
have been delivered to the Akani Diepsloot Foundation and have been installed.
One of the two edutainers, which the Life Healthcare Foundation and Bright Kid Foundation
sponsored to the Akani Diepsloot Foundation in support of early childhood development.
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Inkandla sanitation project
In 2007, the Nkungumathe Youth Development Forum of Inkandla approached the Life
Healthcare Foundation to sponsor the construction of 66 toilets at Nkungumathe Primary
School, Phalane Primary School, Masisizane Special School and the local Nkungumathe
Crèche, all located in the district. This request aimed to address the lack of basic
sanitation in the Nkungumathe district, which had earlier led to an outbreak of
cholera.
The Life Healthcare Foundation partnered with the South African branch of the African
Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) to construct the toilets and provide community
education on personal hygiene and sanitation in a bid to prevent water borne diseases,
improving the environment and providing social dignity to the people in the district.
In March last year, the project was officially handed over to the community by the
then KwaZulu-Natal MECs for Health and for Education, Peggy Nkonyeni and Ina Cronje.
The handover function was attended by S’bu Ndebele, premier of KwaZulu-Natal at
the time, and members of his cabinet, traditional leaders and key members of the
Inkandla community.
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Mobile clinic for kids’ heart health
Since late 2007 the group’s foundation has partnered with the University of Cape
Town’s Department of Medicine/Groote Schuur Hospital in a research project aimed
at promoting kid’s heart health.
The awareness, screening, advocacy and prevention (ASAP) project is running over
five years and is raising awareness of rheumatic fever and facilitating screening,
advocacy and prevention activities among school children in disadvantaged areas
in the Western and Eastern Cape.
Our foundation sponsored a customised and fully fitted mobile clinic, the maintenance
of the vehicle and its staffing for the duration of the five year project. The research
project is also looking at the development of a vaccine against rheumatic heart
disease.
Since its launch, 1800 scholars of a target 3000 from eight schools have been screened.
Of those screened, 800 echo images have been reviewed by the paediatric cardiologist
to confirm the screening results. A significant number of children were identified
as having echo features consistent with Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD), which is
then to be confirmed by a full cardiac examination within the specially established
RHD clinic.
Furthermore, four post-graduate students from the university have joined the project
and are using it as a platform for their research. One of them is busy with the
second year of her clinical masters degree in public health, another is in his final
PhD in Epidemiology year, while the other two are second year MSc and MPhil
in Health Promotion students.
Above: Pictured at the official handover of the mobile clinic for
kids’ heart health in December 2007 were, from left: Minister of Health at the time,
the late Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang; Prof Bongani Mayosi, Head: Department of Medicine,
University of Cape Town/Groote Schuur Hospital; Prof Thandabantu Nhlapo, Deputy
Vice-chancellor, University of Cape Town/Groote Schuur Hospital; and Life Healthcare
MD, Michael Flemming.
Above: The Life Healthcare Foundation sponsored mobile clinic at
St Louis Primary School, one of the disadvantaged schools where rheumatic fever
screenings were done.
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Mobile eye care units
The Life Healthcare Foundation’s partnership with the South African National Council
for the Blind (SANCB) and the Bureau for the Prevention of Blindness was launched
in October 2006 to improve access to eye care services in poorer communities throughout
South Africa. The foundation donated a vehicle fully fitted with ophthalmic equipment
to serve as a mobile eye clinic, and is also sponsoring its maintenance for five
years. This mobile unit has strengthened the SANCB’s fleet, which previously comprised
four such vehicles.
The first sponsored mobile unit visits hospitals in rural areas according to a schedule
agreed upon by the SANCB’s management and the provincial Departments of Health.
A second mobile unit, to be donated by the Life Healthcare Foundation in 2010, will
be dedicated to servicing the 18 priority districts in the country, as identified
by the Department of Health. These are the Alfred Nzo, Amathole, Cacadu, Chris Hani,
Oliver Tambo and Ukhahlamba District Municipalities in the Eastern Cape; the Thabo
Mofutsanyane District Municipality in the Free State; the Metsweding District Municipality
in Gauteng; the Amajuba, iLembe, Umkhanvakude and Zululand District Municipalities
in KwaZulu-Natal; the Mopani District Municipality in Limpopo; the Ehlanzeni District
Municipality in Mpumalanga; the Bojanala Platinum and Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati
District Municipalities in North West; the Kgalagadi District Municipality in Northern
Cape; and the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality in the Western Cape.
This initiative is significantly benefitting rural communities. Since its first
community tour in October 2006, up to April 2010, the first mobile clinic has conducted
91 tours, screened 16 669 patients, issued 5 624 spectacles, detected 712 cases
of glaucoma and performed 2 932 cataract extractions and 45 other eye procedures.
Above: Jill Wagner, national executive director of the South African
National Council for the Blind (left), accepts the keys to the mobile eye care unit
from Life Healthcare MD, Michael Flemming, with the then MEC for Health in Gauteng,
Brian Hlongwa (right) looking on.
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Mobile libraries
To promote reading amongst disadvantaged learners, the Life Healthcare Foundation
has donated two mobile libraries, with 1 000 and 800 books respectively, and with
the latter also incorporating a TV and DVD player for the screening of educational
programmes. These libraries are now in use at Willow Park Primary School in East
London and the Nkungumathe crèche at Inkandla in KwaZulu-Natal.
Above: Life Healthcare Foundation chairperson, Dena van den Bergh,
(middle) pictured with two of the steering committee members, Adam Pyle (left,)
and Peter Scott (right) at one of the mobile libraries.
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Cleft lip and cleft palate repair
The Life Healthcare Foundation partnered with the Dick Williamson Trust to perform
pro bono cleft lip and palate repair operations at Life Wilgers Hospital during
2008 and 2009. Suitable patients for surgery were identified by the dental and oral
clinic at the University of Pretoria. Since the launch of this project 10 children
on the public sector waiting list have had birth defects of the upper lip and roof
of their mouths repaired as part of this initiative.
Above: Eighteen month old Livhiwani Baloyi with his mother, Agnes
Baloyi and Annelise Smit, registered nurse. He was the first child to undergo pro
bono cleft lip and palate repair surgery at Life Wilgers Hospital in April 2008.
Above: Five month old, Alexander Erasmus pictured before his pro
bono cleft lip and palate repair operation at Life Wilgers Hospital, and boasting
his new smile after his successful surgery in July 2008.
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Above: Eight month old, Nokwazi Maseko safe and sound with her mother,
Nomrimelelo Maseko and Gerda van der Merwe, unit manager at the children’s ward
at Life Wilgers Hospital and (left) six month old, Musud Jamal Bakar, with his mother
Muna Mahardi Bakar, after both patients had undergone pro bono cleft lip and palate
repair surgery in November 2008 and February 2009, respectively.
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Above: Ten month old Otlotleng Tiro before her pro bono cleft lip
and palate repair surgery in June 2009 and after the operation with her mother and
Annelise Smit, registered nurse at Life Wilgers Hospital’s children’s ward. Otlotleng
was the final and tenth fortunate patient to receive a pro bono cleft lip and palate
operation.
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Cochlear implants
The Life Healthcare Foundation will sponsor the costs of cochlear implants to be
performed on three children who are on the waiting list at Livingstone Hospital
in Port Elizabeth. The first of these implants has already been done by specialists
at Life St George’s Hospital in 2009.
Cataract extractions
In support of the World Health Organisation (WHO) VISION 2020, Eye Awareness Month
and World Sight Day, free cataract surgery for indigent state patients was once
again performed during October 2009 at a number of participating Life Healthcare
hospitals throughout the country, in conjunction with supporting ophthalmologists
and anaesthetists.
Since the project’s launch in 2006, our foundation has contributed to 800 free cataract
extractions for patients on the public sector waiting lists.
Above: One of the supporting ophthalmologists at Life Carstenhof
Clinic doing an eye examination on a patient from Tembisa Provincial Hospital.
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Play pumps
The foundation has sponsored six play pumps at schools and communities without running
water, in support of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry’s (DWAF) initiative
to give 3 242 schools situated in rural villages access to clean drinking water.
These pumps have been installed at the Nkamelwane Village, Lootshoek Primary School and Kalabashi Primary School in KwaZulu-Natal, the Sizane Primary School in Mpumalanga, and the Dikthakwana Primary School and Kpanang Community Centre in the North West Province.
The pumps are easy to operate and highly effective. Boreholes, identified by the department, are sunk and roundabout pump heads are installed on top thereof. As the children spin on these roundabout play pumps which operate on basic windmill equipment, water is pumped from underground into a 2 500-litre storage tank, standing a few metres above the ground. The tanks are fitted with a simple tap to provide easy access to clean drinking water. The systems are maintained by a South African NGO, Play Pumps International, and health awareness messages are displayed on the tanks.
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Left: Kids in a rural area playing on a roundabout, which triggers water to be pumped into a storage tank. |
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Hip and knee replacements
| Since the launch of this project in 2006, 14 pro bono hip and knee replacements have been undertaken for patients on the KwaZulu-Natal public sector waiting lists, in conjunction with Life Entabeni Hospital, the provincial Department of Health and the Rama Krishna Society, which is a faith based organisation in KwaZulu-Natal. |
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| Right: An overjoyed Vusi Kunene, who received two free hip replacements at Life Entabeni Hospital, pictured here with Anne Williamson, left, nursing services manager, and RN Gina Nolazana, unit manager of Fyfe 2 orthopaedic ward. Vusi was on the public sector waiting list for some time before he received his hip replacements. Says Vusi, a 49 year-old bus-body builder, previously employed at KwaZulu-Natal Transport: “I am absolutely delighted; I haven’t worked for two years before the operations because of pain. The operations have made me mobile and independent, and I can’t wait to use public transport again.” |
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