Wits students tackle social inequality in healthcare through new society

by | Jun 19, 2014 | Featured 1

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Health sciences students launched a new society dedicated to creating awareness about inequalities in healthcare. Photo: Provided.

Wits health science students launched the Student Advocates for Health society (StAH) at the Parktown campus last night. The society reflects the awareness of these students of the  socio-economic factors affecting the quality of healthcare in South Africa.

The idea for the organisation came about when a group of students doing shifts at a local hospital were outraged by a poster indicating that some patients were denied HIV treatment.

“We saw the social inequality and did not know how to do anything about it.  We [health science students] don’t know what’s happening in the world, we don’t know what politics mean.  This organisation is to inform students about the realities of what is happening in hospitals,” said one of the founders, Ndumiso Mathebula, 4th year MBBCh.

The society plans to facilitate opportunities for students to work with organisations like Section27, Doctors Without Borders, the Wits Citizenship Community Outreach, the Wits Transformation Office and the Treatment Action Campaign . Students will learn different skills of advocacy, said Mathebula.

Empowered students

Neo Mkhaba, 4th year MBBCh and StAH media officer, said as advocates, health science students would be empowered to “identify problems and come up with solutions that are comprehensive and sustainable.”

“We need more people to step into the darkness, because someone has to turn on the light.”

Joseph Tewson, anatomy honours, said: “I get very excited when things happen on campus.  We are a very laid-back generation.  We need more of this on campus.  We need more people to step into the darkness, because someone has to turn on the light.”

Lesnè Pucjlowski, 3rd year MBBCh was keen on standing up for her patients, “I’m really just interested in standing up for my patients’ human rights.  Our patients are important and their needs are important and I am happy that StAH will give me the opportunity to be proactive.”

Cybil Mulundi, 4th year MBBCh, wants to implement what she learns at StAH in her future career: “I am here to learn how doctors can make patients more aware of their human rights and make sure they are not taken advantage of.”

Monique Losper, 4th year MBBCh, added: “I would like to find out how to create a better relationship between doctors and patients in our careers going forward. I am expecting StAH to help enhance awareness of rights and responsibilities so that patients can receive good healthcare.”

The organisers used the event to commemorate the youth of 1976, who died for what they believed in, said Mkhaba.  The same spirit of activism should be carried by this generation, but it should not be destructive, emphasised Mathebula.  In the past, people had to destroy to get their freedom, he told Wits Vuvuzela.

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EDITORIAL: A little closer to home

by | Mar 24, 2014 | News

Last week, Wits was a hot bed of student action during Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). Scores of students took to the library lawns and media platforms to fight for their cause. This fight was, for many, a fight for human rights.

One cannot deny the legitimacy of this cause. No matter what side people are on, we understand the contestation and the need to bring issues of human rights to light.

The principle of human rights activism, as we interpret it, is to stand against the violation of human rights in any and all situations. But why is it that human rights violations on our doorstep fade in the shadow of international causes?
Last week, Wits Vuvuzela published a story about the torture of homeless people by police outside the Methodist church in Braamfontein. This without a doubt is a gross violation of human rights, but the reaction was muted. No questions were asked and no support was shown for the victims.

[pullquote]Activism should not be something that happens in shifts, there should be no “off” days for activists. [/pullquote]
Yet some Witsies were quick to take to the Twitter streets to complain about “misleading” IAW coverage in Wits Vuvuzela.

Activism should not be something that happens in shifts, there should be no “off” days for activists. While it is inevitable that people will feel closer to certain causes, it is problematic to ignore or hold in a lesser regard other issues of human rights violations, particularly those that are happening on our doorstep.

Where were our human rights activists when the Marikana miners were gunned down? Better yet, where were our human rights activists when our students were being sexually harassed?

Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “Our lives begin to end the day we keep quiet about things that matter”. When the people who should say something say nothing, humanity slowly whittles away and before we know it, it’s “okay” to disregard certain rights and certain people as being less important.

[pullquote align=”right”]When we can, we must make some noise, raise our voices above oppression and ultimately be the change that we want to see in the world.[/pullquote]
If all human rights are fundamentally equal and important, then the homeless people brutalised by the police in Braamfontein should garner the same support and raise the same level of passion between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian activists on campus.

Wits has always been a site of activism. The likes of Nelson Mandela and Ruth First paved the road to democracy on this very ground. They fought for us all, none more important than the other. If it had not been for them, we would not be here today.

We owe it to them, ourselves and future generations to ensure that human rights are afforded to everyone. When we can, we must make some noise, raise our voices above oppression and ultimately be the change that we want to see in the world.