Africa-Press – South-Africa. Disrupting patriarchal societal norms to address gender-based violence (GBV), making mental health accessible for children, and spreading hope among diabetic patients.
These are some of the goals of 5 500 graduates who obtained their qualifications from Stellenbosch University (SU) last week.
Dr Slindile Thabede, a PhD graduate in Theology, seeks to disrupt societal norms that favour men at the expense of women. Thabede’s journey started as a skin and body therapist, a profession she took on after completing her studies in somatology.
The stories she heard from women she worked with stirred her passion for gender studies. She then studied the Old Testament in the Bible, through which she understood the historical contexts of gender discrepancies that informed her about current issues women still grapple with.
Dr Anusha Lachman graduated with a PhD in Psychiatry. She is the head of the Clinical Unit of Child Psychiatry at Tygerberg Hospital and wants to use her experience and expertise to advocate for child mental healthcare in an “afro-centric, culturally sensitive manner”.
“There’s no such thing as the universal mother and child. In Africa, children are routinely brought up in communities by aunts, grandmothers, or extended families. When we think about child mental health on our continent, we have to also think of the mental health of the caregiver,” she said.
BSc Dietetics graduate Mikyle Rodrigues was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 10 years old, which terrified him as a young child.
He attributes his coming to terms with his condition to his childhood doctor, who taught him about it and made it easier for him to make the required lifestyle changes and live a full life. He wants to do the same for patients at the Church of Scotland Hospital in Tugela Ferry, KwaZulu-Natal, where he will do his community service next year.
“I am looking forward to being able to help patients, including those with diabetes, and, especially, to help young diabetic patients, as it can be so confusing being diagnosed when you are young.
“It is so important for young diabetics to have someone they relate to, who can tell them that there is light at the end of the tunnel, based on real experience,” Rodrigues said.
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