Life Healthcare Foundation impacts on health and wellbeing of disadvantaged communities

Since the Life Healthcare Foundation was established in 2007 to channel and expand our group’s corporate social initiatives, focusing on establishing charitable resources and efforts in the health and education arenas, it has been involved in a number of projects which have made an impact on health and wellbeing in disadvantaged communities.

Through the foundation’s focus on establishing charitable resources in the health and education arenas, it is reflecting the group’s purpose of making life better for all. The foundation is run as an independent trust, with company and independent trustees, and application has been made to register it as a public benefit organisation. It is especially heartening that a number of organisations, specialists and suppliers with whom the group has relationships, have partnered with the foundation to add impetus to its various initiatives.

Organisations and individuals, with whom the group has relationships, are encouraged to participate in the foundation’s activities to add impetus to its initiatives. A number of specialists who use the Life Healthcare facilities, and some of our suppliers and industry stakeholders have already supported the foundation’s social upliftment efforts.

Most recent and ongoing projects

The most recent and ongoing projects of the Life Healthcare Foundation include the following:

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 this 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.

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 bring access to clean drinking water to 3 242 schools situated in rural villages.

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.

Left: Kids in a rural area playing on a roundabout, which triggers water to be pumped into a storage tank.

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, 900 scholars from eight schools have been screened. Ninety of these children were referred for further investigation and a second review. A follow-up clinic was also established for family members of children with confirmed rheumatic fever.

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 first year of her clinical masters degree in public health, another is in his penultimate PhD in Epidemiology year, while the other two are both first 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, 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.

Mobile eye care unit

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 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. The main focus of these field tours is on blindness prevention, aligned with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Vision 2020 initiative.

This initiative is significantly benefiting rural communities. Since its first community tour in October 2006 up to March 2009, the mobile clinic has conducted 65 tours, screened 12 783 patients, issued 4 670 spectacles, detected 474 cases of glaucoma and performed 2 078 cataract extractions and 23 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.

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.

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.

	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.

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.

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 earlier 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 2008 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 600 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.

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.

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.”

Completed Projects

Cervical cancer screening and education

Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among South African women, but can be successfully treated if diagnosed early through a simple PAP smear test. The Life Healthcare Foundation’s cervical cancer screening project - undertaken nationally in conjunction with the Department of Health, the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA), and the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) during 2006/07 – exceeded its initial target of screening 10 000 woman.

Screenings were performed at selected public sector primary health clinics and other facilities in nine provinces over a five month period. Of the 12 500 women screened, some 25 percent were referred for further investigation, treatment or management. In addition, Life Healthcare has sponsored 100 000 information leaflets, which were distributed at the primary health clinics to help raise further awareness of cervical cancer, to help empower women’s health.

Following on the success of the initial 12 500 screenings, the foundation and its project partners undertook a further 5 000 screenings during the latter part of 2007.

Operation Smile sponsorship

Operation Smile conducts high volume surgical missions for children with facial deformities, such as cleft lip and palate, tumours etc, throughout the world. Basic life support (BLS) and advanced paediatric life support (APLS) training is an international requirement for all healthcare personnel of Operation Smile, and the Life College of Learning has contributed to training on three missions namely in Ethiopia; Empangeni and Swaziland. Over 240 nurses and anaesthesiologists were trained on a pro bono basis during these surgical missions.

Basic Life Support (BLS) refresher training

It is mandatory for all emergency medical services (EMS) personnel to undergo a refresher programme every two years. To this end, the Life College of Learning provided free BLS refresher courses to 159 public sector EMS personnel in 2006/7.

Projects under consideration

A number of other projects are currently under consideration for future implementation.