A health pod, designed to take primary healthcare facilities to disadvantaged communities, in
Musina, Limpopo, is set for deployment following a recent donation of a R355 000 towing vehicle by
the South African Muslim Charitable Trust (SAMCT).
Unjani Clinics presently operates 164 care settings, inclusive of 154 clinics, two mobile clinics and
eight health pods nationally. The lack of a suitable vehicle has letithe organisation’s Musina-based
health pod stranded until the SAMCT vehicle sponsorship offer.
Reflecting on its sponsorship initiative, SAMCT representative, Mr Gaff Osman, said: “So many of
South Africa’s historically disadvantaged community members – and especially those located in
remote rural areas – do not have ready access to, or cannot afford transport to travel to healthcare
facilities whenever necessary. Accordingly, an urgent need has emerged in this country to take
primary healthcare to such communities and that is exactly what Unjani Clinics does.”
“Unjani Clinics is commited to providing community access to affordable, quality care. However, its
ability to extend such a service to those in the environs of Musina has been compromised by
transport issues,” he added.
Unjani Clinics exists to provide effective and inexpensive healthcare services to communities across
South Africa by creating a network of clinics owned and operated by Black female professional
nurses. The organisation’s primary objective is to empower Black women, improve the quality of and
access to healthcare and to create permanent new employment opportunities within targeted
communities.
Founded on an owner-operator model and social franchising principles, the organisation’s clinics
provide vital health facilities for the country’s under-served communities, ensuring the effective
delivery of quality healthcare at an affordable rate, together with the provision of medicines at the
point of need.
Mr Osman commented: “This is a most laudable venture and compliments the re-engineering and
strengthening of South Africa’s healthcare system through the creation of highly accessible
community-based healthcare capacity in places of greatest need. This organisation’s vision and work
is shitiing primary healthcare tasks to professional nurses, so ensuring greater numbers of people are
afforded access to crucial care and medication.”
“In view of the fact that Unjani Clinics is at the sharp end of the clinic delivery mechanism and
operates an exceptionally workable business model, we of the SAMCT were pleased to be in the
position to assist resolve an organisational shortcoming, by providing an appropriate vehicle so that
the Musina health pod might be brought into effective operation. By puting it to its intended use,
the organisation is now able to extend the reach of its dedicated team of nurses and the primary
healthcare services they offer to far greater numbers of disadvantaged people in this area,” said Mr
Osman.
The SAMCT was created in 2008, the result of a partnership between Old Mutual Unit Trusts and Al
Baraka Bank, for the creation, marketing and distribution of a suite of Shariah Funds. The
organisation provides funding, services and other resources for the improvement of the lives of the
vulnerable, deprived and disadvantaged. It has been singularly successful in delivering sizeable
assistance solutions throughout South Africa – irrespective of race or religion – and continues to work
to support needy organisations in the fields of healthcare, social development, poverty alleviation
and education.
According to the World Health Organisation, ‘primary healthcare is usually the first point of contact
people have with their healthcare system and, ideally, should provide comprehensive, affordable,
community-based care throughout life.’
Mr Osman said: “This is what Unjani Clinics is all about. It has broken the healthcare status-quo and
is working to empower communities with knowledge, skills and access to affordable healthcare, so
as to manage their health independently. The organisation is founded on the premise of educating
and training nurses, who become owner-operators, for positive development and healthcare
outcomes. Its innovative approach to delivering primary healthcare at the point of need is something
to be further encouraged and expanded upon for the undoubted benefit of otherwise deprived
communities. Accordingly, the SAMCT is both proud and privileged to be associated with Unjani
Clinics – an organisation so clearly dedicated to both the concept of taking healthcare to the people
and in promoting the spirit of entrepreneurship and employment creation through its owner-
operator nursing approach.”
“We are confident that our financial assistance will assist in giving renewed impetus to both the
delivery of primary healthcare and the additional promotion of entrepreneurship amongst nursing
professionals in the Limpopo’s Musina area going forward,” Mr Osman said.