The Department of Community Health Studies, in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), launched the National Research Foundation (NRF)-Funded Science Shop Development Project at the Tholimpilo Organisation in Ndwedwe on Thursday, 19 October 2023. DUT was privileged to be among the selected few universities awarded the Science Shop Grant, all thanks to the successful application made to the NRF by the project leader, Professor Raisuyah Bhagwan, a Full Professor in the Department of Community Health Studies.
The programme director of the event was Inamandla Gumede, a Masters in Community Health Studies student at DUT, who is one of the three DUT students leading this sterling project, alongside Ms Shannal Rowkith, the research assistant on the project. Gumede indicated that she, together with the two other Masters students, Noorain Khan and Nokwanda Mthethwa, have been working on this project in collaboration with the Tholimpilo Organisation for a few months, engaging with the community.
Dr Moeti Kgware, Head of Department: Community Health Studies at DUT delivered the welcome remarks. He gave a warm welcome to the guests on behalf of DUT. He applauded Prof Bhagwan for managing to pull off this project, with assistance from the NRF. He thanked the Ndwedwe community for allowing the DUT students to conduct their research in the area and for making them feel welcome.
Giving the background of the project, the programme director, Gumede said it all began recently when they were given an opportunity to be part of the project and undertake the Masters degree research project.
“Our purpose for being here is research, and all three of us have our own respective topics that we are focusing on. Collectively, our topics make up this entire project. I am doing research that is focusing on grandmother headed households. Grandmothers in rural areas face many challenges, among them financial, emotional and spiritual. In focusing on that, we want to see how we can help these grandmothers in raising their grandchildren. They have been through a lot. It could be they have lost their children which has led them to end up raising their grandchildren, while they don’t have money. Our aim is to see how we can help them,” said Gumede.
She said they developed programmes to help the “gogos” to find ways to uplift themselves as well, such as beadwork. Gumede indicated that Khan was working on training the unemployed members of the community on how to take care of children and other community members. The third student, Mthethwa’s research focuses on African spirituality, looking at how it can be used as a source of healing and wisdom. Furthermore, Gumede explained that in their projects, they are trying to find solutions as to how they can help the respective people they are working with.
Representing NRF was Ms Zamahlubi Radebe from the South Africa Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA), which is a business unit of the NRF.
“In 2021, the Department of Science and Innovation, gave out a call that it wanted to establish a new project called the Science Shop Project. Through this project we are able to fund universities to conduct community based research. Through this programme, we are able to finance the universities who go to the communities and see the challenges that are faced within those communities. They work with the communities to try and find solutions on how to assist them to overcome those challenges and how to better those communities,” explained Ms Radebe.
Prof Bhagwan began by acknowledging the Ndwedwe community for their support in making this project a huge success. She also mentioned that a doctoral student from DUT, Mrs Charlene Singh, had just joined the project to look at how the fourth year students who were present at event could strengthen the efforts taken by the three students who started this project. Prof Bhagwan conveyed that the Tholimpilo Organisation was created as a safe space for the students to conduct their research and also assisting in identifying the community members to partner with during their research journey.
Speaking on behalf of the Tholimpilo Organisation, Mr Themba Clement Majola praised the three students for their dedication to the project. He indicated that they have learnt a lot from the students and they have also imparted some knowledge to the students such as how they should conduct themselves. He highlighted that the community strongly believes in the value of respect, and he was happy to work with such respectful students who conducted themselves with dignity at all times.
The local gogos and school children who are part of the project sang and danced for the guests to express their gratitude to DUT for choosing to work in their community.
In closing, the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at DUT, Dr Pravita Pillay, thanked the NRF for funding this project and the students for putting in all the work to ensure that it becomes a success. She indicated that this project is aligned with DUT’s ENVISION2030 of DUT being an engaged university that improves lives and livelihoods of the people in the society.
The event ended with a planting of a tree in the park outside the Tholimpilo Organisation to seal a fruitful, long lasting relationship between DUT and the organisation.
Pictured: DUT staff and students with the gogos who are under the Tholimpilo Organisation at Ndwedwe.
Simangele Zuma
