Democratic Nursing Organisation of South
Africa (DENOSA), working together with North West University (NWU) and Mahikeng
community, ought to be applauded for their Non-Communicable Disease (NCD)
project that is taking place in the North West Province, Mahikeng.
The project, which involves both the health
professionals and Mahikeng residents, will be solely in the hands of the
community by the end of June 2013. The community is now in a position to handle
the project because it has been actively involved in the project. It is
encouraging to note this as sustainability of any helpful project is important.
The fact that the community will continue with the project after the study
confirms that DENOSA and parties involved are serious about sustainable community
development. This project is an example of what other unions and revolutionary
organisations should be occupied with since community work ought to be at the
centre of our revolutionary struggles. “We are members of the community before
we are students”, workers, professionals or anything else.
The venture is focussing on community gardening
and aerobics. A master’s student from NWU is involved as a researcher in this
wonderful project according to information in DENOSA website. SASCO should be
excited of this since the free education that we are fighting for should be
relevant to societal needs and respond to those challenges adequately. This can
be made possible through research that involves the community and organisations
such as unions in this particular case. Since the scourge of disease,
inactivity and hunger are a challenge in communities like Mahikeng, the focus
of the project is welcome.
Gardening (food production) and aerobics
(exercise) strike a good balance as access to good nutrition and exercise are
crucial requisite components in fighting diseases, preventing illness and in
the maintenance of good health. It is a known and acceptable fact that
non-communicable diseases are largely attributed to poor diet and lack of
physical activity. For example, obesity and strokes are mostly due to
malnutrition and lack of exercise. Therefore, DENOSA’s NCD project is likely to
yield good results for the community of Mahikeng which, like other South
African communities, is besieged by serious health problems linked to bad
socio-economic state of our society.
The results of the project are going to be
presented to the International Council of Nurses (ICN) in May 2013 by DENOSA.
One is confident that the presentation will show significant improvements to curbing
non-communicable diseases and thus recommend such projects to other communities
to distribute benefits of the study. Poor working class communities are bound
to gain a lot from such programs as their economic status does not allow them
to subscribe to expensive training facilities like Virgin Mobile and other
capitalist driven entities and the lack of recreational facilities in our
communities is also of no particular assistance to society. The forever rising
prices of healthy food is felt by every member of our disadvantaged class.
Thus, relevant community sport and recreational spaces and self food production
is vital for every working class community, not only for the fight against ill
health but for the alleviation of socio-economic challenges as well.
This project should be adopted by other
institutions and their respective communities all over South Africa and modify
the project to suit specific contexts of each community so as to make certain
that healthy living is encouraged in our society. This would go a long way in
ensuring that the health profile of SA is seriously transformed for the better.
Having said this, we should not forget that the department of health and other
relevant stakeholders should continue with their efforts of improving the
health system in their respective capacities because it is only through
everyone playing their role effectively that significant improvements could be
witnessed by the nation in fighting the disease burden in this country.
All other unions and civil organisations,
including SASCO, should take a leaf from DENOSA and forge partnerships with
institutions of education and communities to deal with other societal
challenges based on their fields of operation and expertise. For example,
student organisations like SASCO can have literacy campaigns to alleviate
illiteracy problem in our society. Since SASCO’s Strategic Perspective on
Transformation (SPOT) document lists community work as one of its pillars, it
can only be correct for SASCO to approach DENOSA to forge a partnership that
will work on the establishment of such projects in other communities around
South Africa. Noting that DENOSA is part of the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM)
and it has a progressive student chapter (DENOSA Learner Movement), it should
not be difficult to shape a good working relationship that shall benefit our
society.
Students and working class alliances have
proven to be a necessary revolutionary concoction that is crucial in any
progressive struggle. South African liberation history, for example, cannot be
honestly told without mention of the revolutionary role of students and
organised labour. Many community struggles were led and championed by students
and workers. It is therefore not too ambitious to suggest that the struggle against
the scourge of preventable non-communicable diseases that irk our society can
be dealt with by the alliance of students, workers’ unions and community,
without forgeting NGO’s.
The Mahikeng project is vital for the
community and should be an inspiration for other progressive forces. One would
like to send a word of appreciation to DENOSA, North West University and
Mahikeng community for their exemplary partnership.
VIVA DENOSA VIVA!!!
Dinileminyanya Sandile ‘Patriotic Valiant’
Latha is a member of SASCO and Board Member of Epilepsy South Africa in the
Eastern Cape. (He writes in his individual capacity)
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