Wellness Mobiles for School Health
The Wellness Mobiles, initiated in July 2014, offer an innovative platform designed to support the Integrated School Health programme in South Africa by making primary healthcare services accessible to children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds in urban and rural areas of the Province.
The fleet of five vehicles is customised and equipped to deliver primary healthcare, optometry and dental services. The service targets Grade 1 and Grade 4 learners, as well as those learners that are identified by the school’s educators to have specific health problems, especially visual impairments.
The mobile service, delivered by the Department of Health and its private service provider MST in conjunction with the Department of Education, allows for better access to healthcare services in areas where it is most challenging. The service results in health promotion, early detection, immediate curative care if possible, referrals to further treatment, and reduced barriers to learning.
The Health Foundation is involved with the mobiles in the following ways:
- Facilitating strategy support and resource mobilisation for service optimisation
- Sourcing sponsorship of spectacles – an opportunity to give a Gift of Vision
- Sourcing in-kind donations of dental packs and other wellness products
- Monitoring assistance and reporting to partners
- In future, sourcing sponsorship for additional vehicles for expansion of the fleet.
With 13 vehicles, every primary school child in the Western Cape could be reached once a year.