Discovery Fund: providing access to healthcare facilities to communities in need
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The Discovery Fund is an independent trust established in 1999 to address community healthcare challenges within previously disadvantaged communities throughout South Africa. Through this fund, we invest in the public health sector that make it possible for poor communities to receive quality care. Our investments centre on primary healthcare initiatives, which include HIV and AIDS programmes, and projects that deal with infectious diseases. From time to time, we also embark on large capital infrastructure projects that help to enhance and improve the delivery of healthcare. |
Improving the health of children in South Africa
We have partnered with UNICEF in an initiative to increase immunisation coverage throughout South Africa, especially in areas of critical need. The Discovery UNICEF Immunise SA programme supports the Department of Health’s current immunisation programme.
This programme sees Discovery working with UNICEF and various national, provincial and district departments of health to extend immunisation coverage in districts where coverage has been low. Discovery will give R5 million a year over the next three years to the programme. We are currently piloting this programme in districts in the Eastern Cape and Kwazulu Natal with the view to rolling it out to other low-coverage districts throughout the country.
The role of immunisation in protecting children’s health
Immunisation is the most effective measure against serious diseases in childhood and prevents an estimated 2.5 million child deaths globally each year. In South Africa, as many as 105 000 infants are not fully immunised, leaving them vulnerable to diseases such as measles, diarrhoea, pneumonia, meningitis and other life-threatening conditions.
Helping more South Africans with better quality healthcare
The Alexandra Health Centre is a primary healthcare organisation that has served Sandton’s Alexandra township for 70 years. The centre provides diagnosis and treatment of acute ailments, antenatal delivery and post-natal care, growth monitoring and vaccination, family planning and outreach services in occupational health. The Discovery Fund has supported the centre since 1999, including grants towards the upgrade of the antenatal ward and the salary for a full-time doctor at the centre’s 24-hour primary healthcare unit.
The Discovery Fund also has a long-standing relationship with the Witkoppen Health and Welfare Centre, established in 1946 in response to the lack of healthcare facilities in the area. The centre aims to ensure that the indigent communities of Diepsloot, Kyasands, Lion Park and Cosmo City have access to high-quality, comprehensive medical care facilities. It is visited by around 400 people every day. The Fund has provided grants to the centre since 2004, the most recent contribution going towards the completion of a much-needed wing to the facility.
At the Lesedi Hospice near Hertzogville in the Free State, the Discovery Fund has boosted the facility’s primary healthcare programme. The hospice was established in 2005 in Malebogo, a poverty-stricken area with a population of 30 000. The closest hospital is 50km away. The hospice houses 325 orphans and vulnerable children who need medical care, as well as 247 patients receiving palliative care primarily as a result of HIV and AIDS. The community is also educated on methods of preventing and controlling health problems.
The Africa School of Missions provides much-needed healthcare services to the Mpumalanga communities of Bushbuckridge, Hazyview and White River that do not have access to primary healthcare. Its main activities include a one-year nursing programme and the provision of rural healthcare services by means of a mobile and a fixed clinic. The Discovery Fund is providing grants to this facility over three years towards the operational costs of the clinics, helping to ensure the communities continue to receive quality care.
MES Impilo is an initiative that provides a holistic service to the poor and destitute community of the inner city of Johannesburg. The core purpose of MES Impilo is to enable people to live independent, self-sustainable lives. The programme has four strategies: home-based care and primary healthcare, health education and awareness, HIV wellness, and a hospice and care centre. In 2010, the Fund allocated MES Impilo a two-year grant, which has been channelled towards the operational costs of four beds in the hospice, food parcels for home-based care patients and the purchase of additional educational material for awareness campaigns.
New projects supported during 2011 include:
- Doctors Without Borders (MSF): MSF provides medical and humanitarian assistance, including primary healthcare services, to Zimbabwean refugees and migrants in Musina and along the border in remote rural and farm areas.
- Catholic Institute of Education, based in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape: Runs a health screening project at seven schools for children in Grade 0 and Grade 1.
- Cotlands in Johannesburg: Offers a variety of residential and community–based programmes to meet the needs of vulnerable children.
- Ndlovu Care Group: This project aims to promote sustainable community health and community care. There are two healthcare centres in Limpopo and Mpumalanga. Services include integrated primary healthcare, tuberculosis and HIV and AIDS care.
- Hoedspruit Training Trust (HTT): The focus is community development in rural areas, with an emphasis on primary healthcare, and HIV and AIDS.
- Mothers 2 Mothers (m2m) runs a programme offering sustainable intervention to prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies. The organisation works from antenatal clinics, maternity wards, post-delivery clinics and hospitals that offer medical treatment to women living with HIV.
- Ethembeni HIV Clinic in KwaZulu-Natal: The organisation aims to provide spiritual, emotional and practical assistance to families affected by HIV and AIDS. It has three programmes – a residential care centre, a family support programme and a family centre for vulnerable children.
Infrastructure projects to make a difference
As part of the Carte Blanche ‘Making a Difference’ campaign, the Discovery Fund has contributed R3.5 million towards the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital’s paediatric unit. This 1 088-bed hospital serves patients from across Gauteng and neighbouring provinces. It offers inpatient and specialist outpatient services, and has over 4 000 staff members. The Discovery Fund grant is supporting refurbishing the paediatric ICU and high-care wards as well as buying medical equipment to the value of R1 million.
Boosting human resources for rural health
The Wits Centre for Rural Health aims to facilitate the education and training of primary healthcare workers in rural areas, and has developed district educational campus programmes towards this end. A pilot project has been launched in the Ngaka Modiri Molema district of the North West, using the Lehurutshe-Zeerust District Hospital complex. The campus will serve as a model for further training development in the province. A grant from Discovery is being used towards the priority needs of the pilot campus.
Another project in which the Discovery Fund is investing in the human resources needed to boost South Africa’s healthcare system, is the Umthombo Youth Development Foundation (formerly Friends of Mosvold). This organisation provides scholarships to rural students to address the shortage of qualified healthcare staff in rural areas, especially in the Umkhanyakude, Zululand and Uthungulu districts of KwaZulu-Natal. Discovery’s 2011 grant is being used for bursaries for students studying medicine and its allied disciplines.
Africa Health Placements (AHP) was awarded a grant during 2011 towards its foreign recruitment and orientation programme. This focuses on recruiting foreign qualified doctors for underserved rural hospitals in South Africa. The recruits are provided with clinical, cultural and logistical orientation to ensure they make the maximum impact during their placement and to affect their long-term retention. AHP has achieved remarkable success with the implementation of this programme – more than 365 placements were done in 2011 alone.
