Transforming health from the ground up Any pandemic or health challenge cannot be fought without education, says Professor Ramneek Ahluwalia CEO of HIGHER HEALTH in South Africa
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outh Africa’s alert to the world that it had identified the new COVID variant, Omicron, at the end of last year has pulled its scientists and clinicians into sharp focus. The country has a reputation for innovative thinking and it is tackling coronavirus and HIV in positive ways, the most successful of which is its programme to address health issues and learning for the country’s students via its HIGHER HEALTH organisation. Run by Professor Ramneek Ahluwalia, HIGHER HEALTH addresses nine areas of focus for 2m students in 26 universities, 50 Technical and Vocational Education
colleges, and 9 Community Education and Training colleges by improving their health and wellbeing. Its health, wellness and psychosocial services across 420 campus sites and rural, informal and urban settings in all 52 districts across South Africa identifies students that would benefit from help via a series of questionnaires at the start of all higher level courses. The key areas are alcohol and drug abuse, mental health, sexual and reproductive health, HIV, STIs and TB, disability, LGBTQI, gender-based violence and now COVID-19. “The important thing is that an educated young South African
has a power of influence. Perhaps not many people in the family are educated, so the one with the one who’s educated will pay back in the form of looking after the entire family,” says Professor Ahluwalia. “We seek to reduce the effect of healthrelated conditions that often challenge students in tertiary studies and which, if left unaddressed, can lead to students delaying the completion and even abandoning their studies. There is a huge challenge with mental health issues among young people so high risk students are linked to care. To date we have referred about half a million young people.” Deeply ingrained issues Professor Ahluwalia’s vision is to build families for the future. South Africa has social ills, exacerbated by the legacy of apartheid, that will take time and funds to resolve, but he is convinced that improvement can be accelerated through education. With the support of university Vice-Chancellors and major institutions such as the World Bank
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