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New Wellness Centre, a Flagship of DUT

New Wellness Centre, a Flagship of DUT

Kenneth Garden residents, DUT staff and students as well as business and community stakeholders were all excited to be at the opening of the new Wellness Centre in Kenneth Gardens last week.

Kenneth Gardens Wellness Centre is a flagship example of DUT’s commitment to community engagement. The Homeopathy and Food and Nutrition departments at DUT run a weekly clinic in the area, combining allopathic and alternative health care services in the facility. At present, this is the only homeopathy clinic existing within a low income housing estate in the country.

Ecstatic resident and regular patient of the clinic, Charles van Heerden, has been coming to the weekly clinic since 2011. “This is definitely a peoples’ clinic and we are so delighted to have the centre catering to needs of the community. We are very grateful to Prof Ahmed Bawa (DUT Vice-Chancellor) and his team as well as other stakeholders for such a much needed outreach facility in Kenneth Gardens,” he said.

The Wellness Centre is run by Kenneth Gardens resident, Khanyi Sibiya, who is also the Founder of Senzokhule Home Based Care as well as DUT’s Dr Ingrid Couchman from the DUT Homeopathy Department. Sibiya has worked tirelessly to help the community and is very excited that all her hard work has paid off. “My dream has come finally come true. God bless Glenridge Church for all the money (R100 000), they had raised to upgrade and fix the new centre. We also want to thank Professor Monique Marks from the Urban Futures Centre (UFC) at DUT and Kira Erwin from the UFC for all their hard work and assistance in getting this project off the ground,” said Sibiya.

DUT students and staff are also excited to work in the new centre and make a difference in the community. Dr Couchman, who has been running the Homeopathic Clinic since 2011, said the Kenneth Gardens Wellness Centre is also place for people to engage and consult with a nutritionist.

Andile Mtolo, Community Development Officer within DUT’s Department of Food and Nutrition Department, said the new centre was a pleasure to work in. “We come every Wednesday from 9am to 12h00 and give patients advice on healthy eating, take their height and weight and keep a record of such details as most are regular patients. We monitor their weight, eating habits and advise them accordingly. We can now have our own private space to work in at the centre, although we still need proper furniture and hopefully people will donate such items soon. Our patients also now enjoy having privacy when we are consulting so it is a much better premise to work from and we can see more patients,” he said excitedly.

– Waheeda Peters

Pictured: DUT’s Dr Ingrid Couchman, UFC’s Kira Erwin and Khanyi Sibiya, at the opening of the new, Kenneth Gardens Wellness Centre.

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