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Building the next 100 years - The Faculty of Health Sciences' centenary
12 June 2012
The faculty's prestigious Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine 'link' building on the medical campus, was made possible via funding from the Wolfson Foundation. The Foundation funds projects that further the development of medicine and healthcare, science and technology and the arts and humanities.
While the Faculty of Health Sciences' centenary celebration provides a unique opportunity to celebrate its history and achievements, it is also an opportunity to look at the faculty's future role in addressing the health challenges facing South Africa and Africa - and the support that will drive that.
As its mission states, the faculty works to address the country and continent's healthcare challenges by promoting quality and equity in health care services, educating health practitioners for life and undertaking research relevant to Africa's needs. It also advocates for improving health on both national and global levels. In South Africa, it plays a vital role in training and supporting the country's future health practitioners and health scientists.
With South Africa's vast infectious disease problem, its growing burden of chronic disease, and the critical need to strengthen health systems for equity, this role could not be more important. The faculty is rising to this challenge, updating its research strategy and revitalising its training of clinical scholars. But in a difficult financial climate and with the pressure to increase student enrolment to meet the growing health needs of the population, the faculty must draw on all available resources to continue its crucial role in contributing to better health for the nation.
The goals of the centenary are to raise the faculty's international profile and garner support for education, research and infrastructure, towards a strong and sustainable future.
The faculty is thus calling on its alumni and other donors to support its work by donating to either the faculty at large, or to one or more of the five areas of the faculty's work. A donation to the general faculty will strengthen physical, research and information and communication technology infrastructure to consolidate and expand the faculty's core business in undergraduate and postgraduate education and research. Alternately, alumni can support one of the following five areas: promoting access, increasing student admissions and accelerating support for success; supporting national health and development goals; initiating new academic programmes directed at meeting the needs of a faculty in the next century; revitalising our research strategy; and responding to African and global health challenges.
Should you want to know more, please contact Linda Rhoda, Marketing and Communications Manager for the Faculty of Health Sciences, or download this pledge form to make a donation.
(You can read Dean of Health Sciences Professor Marian Jacobs' message about the faculty's centenary here, and find the centenary diary of events here.)
