Did you know that in South Africa, there are approximately three million people living with a rare disease? This means that one in every 16 people are directly affected by a rare disease.

Dr Elmien Truter and Prof Ansie Fouché are two registered social workers and researchers at the North-West University (NWU) who, through their own experience in practice and their research, identified the grim reality in which designated child-protection social workers are expected to do their work.

The North West provincial government has reaffirmed its confidence in the North-West University (NWU), as one of its experts in the Faculty of Health Sciences now serves on the province’s Emergency Medical Service Advisory Committee (EMSAC).

Although the BHSc degree in occupational hygiene is relatively new to South Africa and Africa, the North-West University (NWU) recently raised its hand and received excellent praise and accolades in the global arena in this discipline.

Childhood is normally associated with health, playfulness and a phase in life without worries or fear. However, this ideal definition of childhood is becoming cluttered with unwanted risk factors linked to the early development of cardiovascular disease, especially in South Africa.

The North-West University’s (NWU’s) campus in Potchefstroom recently hosted a very successful Child Health Priorities Conference, which attracted some 260 delegates, and even the likes of South Africa’s First Lady, Dr Tshepo Motsepe.

The North-West University (NWU) not only strives to offer quality education in a South African context, but also has a huge drive to spread this expertise further around the world.

Occupational hygiene is the art and science dedicated to the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, communication and control of environmental hazards in or arising from workplaces that can result in injury, illness, impairment, or affect the well-being of workers and community members.

After two successful years of the Starfish project, presented by the North-West University’s (NWU’s) School of Nursing, some 50 professionals and workers in the healthcare sector recently attended a function in Potchefstroom to reflect on the year that has been, and to share the successes of the project.

In the professional medical and healthcare industry it goes without saying that local experts are often caught up in their own way of doing things.