An aging mobile healthcare clinic that has served Durban’s rural communities since 2015, providing essential primary healthcare services to thousands of patients annually, has been replaced with a new version, valued at R1 215 000, ensuring the uninterrupted provision of critical healthcare.
The Sherwood-based Islamic Medical Association operates the mobile healthcare clinic, but the rough terrain it is expected to traverse has taken its toll. Coming to the Islamic Medical Association’s aid was the South African Muslim Charitable Trust (SAMCT), which recently donated the new specially converted vehicle.
Commenting, SAMCT representative, Mr. Gaff Osman, said: “The current vehicle, with almost 300,000 km travelled, the organization was facing high maintenance costs as a consequence of the rough terrain in which it operates.”
The Islamic Medical Association comprises a body of Muslim healthcare professionals, formed in the 1980s to practice medicine within Shariah rules and provide healthcare services designed for the underprivileged and needy in South Africa. It was established by a group of young doctors who recognized that healthcare for the disenfranchised was compromised and of an inferior quality.
Mr Osman added: “To continue offering this vital service to under-served communities, vehicle replacement has emerged as a priority and the SAMCT, learning of the organization’s predicament, was pleased to lend a financial hand, sponsoring a new vehicle and interior conversion, giving effect to the seamless continuance of both its primary healthcare and outreach activities in rural areas. Its outreach endeavours encompass disaster relief work, such as the unfortunate Tongaat tornado, which caused havoc recently.”
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 organization provides funding, services, and other resources to improve the lives of the vulnerable, deprived, and disadvantaged. It has successfully delivered sizeable assistance solutions throughout South Africa – irrespective of race or religion – and continues to work to support needy organizations in the fields of healthcare, social development, poverty alleviation, and education.
Mr Osman said of the Islamic Medical Association’s work: “From humble beginnings and a small handful of members, this laudable healthcare operation is today represented by more than 1 000 healthcare professionals, delivering critically needed health services through four primary healthcare clinics – one of which is the mobile unit the SAMCT has sponsored. Given the need to take healthcare to rural people, the SAMCT is proud and privileged to have been able to ensure access to healthcare by our historically disadvantaged and far-flung communities.”
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For more information about the SAMCT or its Islamic Medical Association and Mobile Healthcare Clinic donation, please contact:
Rasheeda Motala
Social Responsibility Officer
Tel: 084 506 2280
Email: samct@samct.co.za
www.samct.co.za