For some children at a Nyakallong school in the Free State, the school term means at least one guaranteed meal a day. When caregivers at the We Care Daycare Centre, based at S.A Mokhothu Primary School, realised that children’s need…
18-year-old Maphuti Hlako who qualified to represent South Africa’s under 18 team at an international softball tournament in Botswana, says behind the excitement lies anxiety about injuries, limited access to ongoing medical and mental health support and funding. Hlako is…
Every month Mapiti Seleka puts aside her R370 unemployment grant, knowing that when food prices rise again, she will not have to face them alone. Together with 44 other households in Tsetse Village outside Mafikeng, she belongs to the Reabetswe…
As the Gauteng Education Department faces a R27 billion backlog in school occupational health and infrastructure, parents at a Soshanguve primary school in Tshwane threaten to keep their children home, saying conditions of temporary mobile toilets at the school pose…
When Health-e News first shared the story of 110-year-old Koko Violet Ramadimetsa, her birthday wish was not cake or presents. It was a simple wish to walk safely and live with dignity. Koko Violet, who lives in Hammanskraal, Tshwane, had…
Five-year-old hands grip a small yellow hammer, crushing aluminium cans outside a small house in Embo, west of Durban. By the end of the day, Nokulunga Nkabinde hopes the bulging clear bag filled with cans will earn enough money to…
The grandparents of an 8-year-old Lenasia South girl in Gauteng claim they’ve had to navigate the medical, psychosocial and criminal justice systems alone in the days following the girl’s alleged rape by a security guard at her school. The family…
Geraldine Norton’s grandchildren do not always bathe before going to school. Instead, they wipe themselves with a cloth and wait for water to return. “The children cannot always bathe before going to school,” says the Limpopo grandmother, who has been…
On a chilly weekday morning, gogo Thozama Toti sits next to a stove, watching her granddaughter prepare a meal of noodles. Another grandchild waits patiently on a bed inside the dilapidated three-roomed mud house in Emaxelegwini informal settlement near Ngcobo…
Decades of progress in the fight against HIV are at risk as funding cuts trigger global disruptions to health systems, leaving vulnerable communities with fewer services and placing the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030…
Patients at Itsoseng Community Health Centre in the Ditsobotla Local Municipality in North West waited months for dental care because of anaesthetic shortages. Now stock has arrived, but intermittent water supply means some dental procedures still cannot be performed. When…
Every weekend up to a 100 children, teenagers and women gather at Refentse Primary School in Stinkwater, north of Pretoria, for free aerobics classes. The weekly events were started by local resident, Khaohelo Tshabalala, known as ‘Miss Tee’ in her…
In the second part of our Hungry For Change series, Health-e News shares the story of a Limpopo widower who has to feed himself, his three adult children and his two young grandchildren with R50 a day. When food runs out, he advices…
For five weeks this winter, Health-e News freelance contributor Tembile Sgqolana regularly visited an initiation school in Komani, Eastern Cape, where his son was undergoing initiation. He saw first-hand how much responsibility falls on the amakhankatha, or traditional nurses, who…
In the first part of our Hungry For Change series, Health-e News shares the story of a Johannesburg mother who turned to sex work to feed her three young children. Her youngest was hospitalised with malnutrition earlier this year. A…
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