Sudanese student enriched by CPUT visit

A medical student who was displaced from her home country of Sudan was recently welcomed to CPUT, ahead of the Ubuntu 2024 Conference.

Sara Idrees, a fourth-year student at the University of Gezira, was on a two-week Student Network Organisation exchange and was hosted by the four local universities, CPUT, the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town.

The four institutions co-hosted the Ubuntu 2024 conference with the Western Cape Department of Health, Rural WONCA and The Network: Towards Unity for Health.

This year's conference was hosted at UWC from 10 to 13 September and the theme was People, Place and Policy for Community Wellness.

During her stay at CPUT, Sara was hosted by the Faculty of Health and Wellness Sciences.

She said that after the conflict in Sudan she and her family were displaced and now live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

"We are displaced in Riyadh for about seven months now. The first few months was a bit difficult and everything was new."

Her university opened an external branch in Riyadh and other cities to facilitate the education process for students.

Sara said visiting CPUT "was a beautiful experience" in terms of education and culture.

Dr Lizel Hudson, Work-Integrated Learning and Language Coordinator in the Faculty of Health and Wellness Sciences, who hosted Sara, said they went to the small towns of Gouda, Saron and Porterville in the Boland, and the trip included visits to centres in Saron. They also went to the West Coast towns of Vredenburg, Saldanha Bay and Langebaan. Hudson said it was a "rich personal and professional experience, setting the scene for the conference with a very apt theme of People, Place, Policy and Community".

Hudson said Sara was selected to spend time learning about rural and community health in South African communities, cultural norms and traditions, in addition to their local health systems, beliefs and habits.

She met with community members and patients from three organisations: Community home-based care and a soup kitchen facilitated by the non-profit organisation NorSA and a visit to the elderly at the Badisa, Percy Bilton Centre.

"The West Coast leg of the visit was to Siyabonga Care Village - an emotional trip where tears rolled freely from our eyes. Under the guidance and leadership of Ms Chrisna Du Plessis, this facility gives a whole new meaning to care.

"Documenting these activities in a linear manner seams easy and straightforward, yet the observations and emotions were difficult, uneasy and shook me to the core personally. The people we met, having to operate and deliver services in mostly difficult situations 'underscored' by often difficult to understand policies, are true angels!"

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