MEDUNSA UPGRADE - University of Limpopo

The VLIR-UOS programme
WHEN COMMUNITIES MANAGE
THEIR OWN CHANGE
rTHE RATHER CUMBERSOME
PROJECT TITLES – ‘Energising
competent communities and
improving wellness in the context of
global change’ AND ‘Prevention,
control and integrated management
of chronic diseases in a rural South
African community’ – BELIES THEIR
SIGNIFICANCE AND AMBITION,
LET ALONE THE ENTHUSIASM
WITH WHICH THEY’RE BEING
EMBRACED.
These are projects that the
University of Limpopo’s DevFTI (the
Development, Facilitation and
Training Institute) has embarked
on, as DevTI is one of eight
departments within the university
to be allocated a budget from the
generous funding initiative by the
Flemish Inter-University Council
(VLIR).
‘They’re not our titles,’ Dr Chris
Burman, head of DevFTI, is quick
to point out, ‘but they do give us
excellent scope to conduct
intensive research into a
community. Change is often forced
on communities from the top
down, or from external influences.
This doesn’t easily enable
communities to take responsibility
for their own wellness. In fact,
communities tend to need to be
encouraged to identify what and
where their change should be and
to plan and activate responses. In
our experience people in
communities often don’t believe
that they have the capacities to
act in this way.’
Competent communities, adds
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Burman, are those that are aware
of the resources available to them,
can understand the issues they
face and consequently make
reasoned decisions.
‘As far as we can tell, there
are few efforts in Limpopo to
provide communities with the tools
they need to act competently. But
this is where the projects come in.
We believe we will be able to
demonstrate that communities do
have assets that they can use to
better manage their own future
and we will be aiming to do this
in the context of a concept we call
“continuous change”.’
Drilling down to specific
objectives, Burman says that what
they will achieve is to equip
Dikgale – a local community
about 50km from Polokwane –
with the required competencies to
better manage the impacts of the
global change using HIV/AIDs as
an initial focus area. This will help
to build capacity at the university
to apply the approach to other
challenging areas of global
change in southern Africa.
Ambitious? Yes. This is what
DevTI is about: highly structured,
community-based research that
results in real development.
Burman says that the first year of
the VLIR project will largely entail
setting up offices and employing
people – preferably students
aiming for their Masters or PhDs;
identifying what is available in
terms of health resources in the
area; exhaustively documenting
the demographic, socio-economic
and general health profile of the
Dikgale community; and
conducting a knowledge, attitude
and practice (KAP) survey in the
community with specific emphasis
on chronic diseases.
At this stage, Robert Mamabolo,
a post-graduate student in Development
at the Turfloop Graduate
School of Leadership, has been
employed and is immersing
himself ‘enthusiastically and
excellently’, says Burman, in the
projects. Mamabolo has also been
invited to attend a summer course
on qualitative research in healthcare
at the University of Antwerp,
Belgium, at the end of August – all
the more exciting an opportunity
for him because his travels to date
have barely taken him beyond the
Limpopo Province borders.
To Burman, the opportunities
on offer via the VLIR programme
for DevTI and the university are
huge. They fit in with DevFTI’s
ambitions, says Burman, to
become a cross-disciplinary, social
science institute that can work with
more technical communityengagement
departments within
the university and beyond.
So he’s hopeful of real change
– change that is managed by the
very people who are experiencing
it. Change that will see overall
community wellness improve
because people understand that
they’re truly in charge of their own
lives.