Community Engagement CREATING SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
L I K E OT H E R UN IV E RS IT IE S , UWC sees community engagement as part of its exercise of social responsibility, which includes making its infrastructure, expertise and resources available to communities, both on and off campus.
However, UWC seeks community engagement that goes even beyond this and promotes equitable partnerships with communities and community-based organisations. The Community Engagement Unit (CEU) of UWC recorded 106 separate community engagement activities in 2022 involving 351 partnerships between local organisations and UWC staff and students.
The School of Nursing received a donated ambulance furnished with medical equipment and a gurney in 2020 that allows the School to engage in community outreach activities such as health promotion. The UWC Mediclinic Health Promotion bus is staffed by supervisors and third-year students. After a delayed start due to COVID-19, the programme began offering health promotion services in communities around Cape Town in 2021.
MOBILE DENTAL AND NURSING SERVICES
FIRST INTERPROFESSIONAL EDUCATION (IPE) CLINIC The Faculty of Community and Health Sciences organised the first IPE clinic in May 2023 to improve access to health and wellness services and information. The three-day programme involved patients in Mitchell’s Plain receiving health and wellness interventions from students studying nursing, physiotherapy, natural medicine, social work, psychology and occupational therapy.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
A new mobile clinic was initiated in 2019 for community outreach services consisting of three surgeries mounted on a six-ton truck. The surgeries are equipped with the latest technology, including dental chairs and intra-oral digital cameras. The mobile clinic enables fourth and fifth-year dental students to receive supervised clinical training while helping to provide much-needed dental and oral health services to needy communities on the Cape Flats. The dental clinic operates on the premises of an existing clinic or a school. Additionally, outreach weekend clinics are conducted five times a year in rural towns in the Western Cape such as Ceres, Prince Alfred Hamlet, Tulbagh and Vredenberg. Final-year dentistry students also spend a two-week rotation on the Phelophepa HealthCare train managed by the Transnet Foundation. Along with other programmes, the Dentistry Faculty treats almost 3 000 patients in its outreach services annually. The Department of Oral Hygiene also conducts separate health advocacy and screening at Tygerberg Hospital and community sites.
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