The SHAWCO paediatric clinic goes out once a month on Saturdays. Students from a variety of disciplines: medicine, dietetics and occupational therapy work together in providing a service that both treats important health problems in children and has a focus on promoting health through education of care givers and growth monitoring. Child health is something to be passionate about and when you volunteer on the clinic there is a strong chance that this passion will take a hold of you too. It is an opportunity to practice communicating with care givers and examining children. The teaching and experience on the clinic is excellent and very soon you will become an ace in diagnosing and managing common childhood conditions.  The clinic runs from Little Lambs pre-school in the Imizamo Yethu township which is situated on the eastern slope of Hout Bay.

                                       The clinic is run in Khayelitsha, town 2. Khayelitsha is one of the largest townships in South Africa. The clinic goes out on Wednesdays at 18h00, the buses leave outside the New learning centre in the Health Sciences faculty. We have both a fixed clinic which is used as a daytime clinic and a mobile clinic. We use the building as a waiting area so that our patients do no get rained on, during the cold winter nights. This is one of the smallest SHAWCO clinics, any help is greatly appreciated.

Message from the committee

Thanks to everyone who has helped us make a difference in the community of Khayelitsha. Our clinic is the best place to be on a Wednesday night even on the raining winter nights, if you have not been already you are missing out. If you are looking for a clinic that is not overly populated where you know that you will always have a seat every time you want to go then  Zibo is just the right place for you. Come and be part of our small family!

Our Clinic mainly serves the people of Joe Slovo in Milnerton and a few other people from the surrounding areas.  The community of Joe Slovo is a friendly and truly appreciative one.  The clinic is run on a 'lavish' Mobile clinic which parks opposite the  local shopping market.  Unfortunately, we don’t have a constructed waiting area and our patients wait underneath the stars or rain! We go out every Wednesday night and by the end of the night we have usually seen close to 30 patients and sometimes up to 40 patients!!!   We all have a ball on this clinic and even have our very own, paeds clinic which is mostly run by 5th year students. Overall, this clinic is a great one and the  people truly appreciate the service we provide them with.

The Joe Slovo Clinic is run on a mobile clinic that goes out every Wednesday and is situated near Milnerton. Joe Slovo is an informal settlement and the community is mostly Xhosa speaking but we do get the occasional Afrikaans speaking patients (great place to practice these languages). On a regular day we see between 30-40 patients and on some occasions we had more than 50 patients and had to turn them away, but we never turn away the little kiddies. The buses leave at 18h00 outside the new learning centre in the Health sciences faculty. The clinic runs from 18h30 till 21h00-22h00, depending on the number of patients we have. We park inside the local high school and make use of some of the classrooms as a waiting area for our patients. This is a major improvement from the previous years when our patients used to wait in the open and get rained on in the winter nights. Since most of our patients are children, we have paeds clinics which are run by 5th and 6th year medical students. Previously we used to open another classroom to be used for the children, but now that we have two mobiles every night we use 2 cubicles for paeds and the other 6 for adults. The great thing about Joe Slovo is that we have clinical students and doctors who love teaching and our regular doctors Dr Nordien, Weinreigh, Parollis, Ntusi, Abrahams and Van-Zyl Smit really enjoy the clinics and enjoy teaching the students. They are warm towards patients and students and very patient too.

Most importantly we try our best to make the students, international or local, to feel at home, enjoy the clinic and learn as much as possible. Last but not least there are cookies and drinks after every clinic :-).

Innocentia, Clinic head (2009).

It ‘s a mobile clinic that goes to Nyanga on Tuesdays. Their common patient complaints are URTI, STIs, diarrhoea and fever (children). They have great doctors who are always willing to teach in which we could count Dr. Dlamini, Dr. Nordien and Dr. Harris. Siyabulela a 3^rd MBChB said, “ I enjoy going  there because there is always a good interaction between the doctor, clinical and pre-clinical students which makes one to feel comfortable. There’s few clinical students who go there so I get to be more hands on.”

Their clinic heads are:    

                                         Simthandile clinic is run in the SHAWCO Golda Selzer community health care centre in Khayelitsha. Khayelitsha is a partially informal township on the outskirts of Cape Town in the Cape flats. It goes out on Mondays at 18h00, buses leave outside the New learning centre in the Health Sciences Faculty.

Services offered

We have:

• Doctors: wonderful doctors who are willing to teach and have dedicated their time to our clinic, to assist the students in giving the patients the best health care we can offer
• Medical students
• Health and rehabilitation students
  

• WREMS- Waiting room education by medical students  - A non-profit organisation that educates patients on common health conditions in the waiting rooms of our clinics.
•  International students - their presence is much appreciated and we hope to be of much help to them
• Sign language interpreter – twice a month.

Message from the clinic commeette:

We would like to thank our volunteer doctors and students for their support and everyone who has been involved and have dedicated their time to the clinic.

The SHAWCO Newrest health clinic is run on Monday nights in the informal settlement of Newrest, Guglethu.Newrest is situated a stones throw away from the N2 freeway and Cape Town Internation airport.

Although only a 15 minute drive from Groote Schuur Hospital and UCT medical school, the surroundings are vastly different. One is struck by the rudimentary living conditions of the area. First-timers are always taken aback that it is possible that an area such as this can support human habitation… Whilst poverty is widespread and unemployment rife, this community is rich in the spirit of ubuntu. A community that treasures SHAWCO.

Our clinic is the busiest of the six SHAWCO health clinics. We see more patients than any other clinic; we have more UCT medical students coming out on the clinic and attract the largest number of the international students on the clinic. There is a great loyalty amongst the medical students about the welfare of the SHAWCO Newrest health clinic. It often happens that we have more students arriving for the clinic than can fit on the bus!

In 2006, we saw just under 1000 patients during the course of the year. We also managed to cancel only 1 clinic during the entire year, an amazing feat.

Some stats for the first half of 2007 that might interest you:

Total number of clinic so far: 15
Total number of patients seen: 541
Average number of patients per clinic: 36
Number of students attending the Newrest Clinic: 299
Average number of students per clinic: 20

We provide a primary health care service, treating conditions such as diarrhoea, respiratory tract infections, muscular-skeletal ailments and other non-specialty disease. When we are confronted with a patient requiring a higher level of care or a patient for whom we do not have the facilities to treat, we refer them to the local day hospital or even take them to one of Cape Town’s secondary hospitals, such as GF Jooste or sometimes even tertiary hospitals, such as the Red Cross Children’s Hospital.

It is really a holistic management that we provide. This holistic management includes the wonderful care provided by the physiotherapists who have great dedication to helping provide an appropriate service to the community.

So I encourage any health sciences student to come and experience the SHAWCO Newrest magic. It is a truly humbling experience.

A big thank you to all the loyal staff and students who have been involved in the clinic in the past and continue to be involved. I salute your dedication.

It is a fixed, Monday clinic located in Gugulethu. The common patient complaints are URTI, STIs. Nkanyezi a 3^rd MBChB student said, “It is great because it is fixed and therefore the is adequate space within the cubicles and there is privacy. We get a variety of complaints (whooping cough last year). We have a proper waiting room and so WREMS has a place to teach patients”.

Their clinic heads are:

In 2006, at a ceremony on 15 November, the SHAWCO K1 Centre was officially renamed the Golda Selzer Community Health Centre. The centre was declared officially open by the guest of honour, Sir Franklin Berman KCMG QC, and Prof Golda Selzer’s sons, Prof Robert & Arthur Forman.

Whereas SHAWCO’s other 4 centre focus primarily on the Education Projects run by SHAWCO, this centre has made health its focal point.

SHAWCO’s Golda Selzer Community Health Centre (GSCHC) is host to the Noxolo Adult Day Care Club – a group of senior citizens and persons on disability pension, who are provided with daily security, food and activities at the centre. Occupational Therapy students from UCT play an important role in running the group, engaging the members in various arts and crafts, as well as individual therapy. While OT students are based at the GSCHC, they also render services to the local schools.

In 2006, Physiotherapy students from UCT were also placed at the GSCHC and offered services to both the Noxolo Adult Day Care Club as well as members of the greater community. Four times a year, fourth year medical students from UCT run various community research and health promotion projects as part of their curriculum.

SHAWCO Health runs a weekly clinic on Monday nights for residents in the surrounding community.
 
The SHAWCO Golda Selzer Community Health Centre hopes to be a hub of community activity. Along with the Noxolo Adult Day Care Club, it already hosts a range of other social service providers. Sakhisizwe offers family counselling services; Vukuzakhe offers support to children who have been orphaned or otherwise made vulnerable by HIV & AIDS and Ilitha Labanthu offers family counselling as well as running workshops at the local schools. SHAWCO also hosts the Sizizamele Educare centre, which caters to children between 6 months and 5 years – preparing them for pre-school. The Zoe Bible Church has offices within the centre and runs counselling from the centre within the week time and church services over the weekend.  The hall is used for training offered by various NGOs in fields such as HIV & AIDS (Soul City) and Debt Relief and Financial Management.

The centre also hosts the Community Health Forum, the Police Community Forum, SANCO, various community events and gatherings, and support groups for people living with HIV and children who have been orphaned, as well as providing a base for various health promotion initiatives such as polio vaccination drives and eye tests.

The Vision for the Centre:

SHAWCO and UCT (through the Health Sciences Faculty Community Based Education programme based in the Primary Health Care Directorate) have entered into a unique relationship to develop a multi-partnered, community-based service-learning centre providing the community with continuous comprehensive healthcare. In partnership with the Department of Health, Corporate donors and the community, the aim of SHAWCO and UCT will be to provide Preventative, Curative and Rehabilitative Services, Health Promotion and Public Health Education and to conduct relevant Community Based Research through the Golda Selzer Community Health Centre. Through UCT, students from all the health disciplines will offer services to the community through the Golda Selzer Community Health Centre as part of their curricula. SHAWCO Health Students will continue to offer evening clinics and refer the clients and patients to the various paramedical services offered in the centre.  Along with the various NGOs and services operating out of the centre, the Golda Selzer Community Health Centre is set to become an indispensable resource to the community it serves.

This clinic (also called Simthandile by SHAWCO Health) runs on Monday nights from the SHAWCO Golda Selzer Community Health Centre in Khayelitsha