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27 March 2018 Photo Earl Coetzee
Research focus on HIV and TB stigma among healthcare workers
Posters reading, “Let’s Stop Stigma” urge healthcare workers to ”Be kind to yourself. Be kind to others.” Pictured here are Dr Asta Rau, Director of CHSR&D and Dr Michelle Engelbrecht, deputy director of the centre.
Researchers working on an internationally funded project are tackling a key occupational health issue: HIV and TB stigma among Free State healthcare workers. They developed and rolled out interventions to decrease stigma and will soon measure the effects. 
In this four-year project, UFS researchers from the Centre for Health Systems Research and Development (CHSR&D) are partnering with Antwerp University and the Free State Department of Health.  

Stigma is like an invisible mark 
A project leader at the CHSR&D, Dr Asta Rau, says most research on stigma in public health focuses on HIV stigma towards patients. Little is done on stigma among healthcare workers themselves. 
Dr Rau says that stigma undermines people’s dignity and causes them suffering. It can even stop them from seeking healthcare. Stigma threatens the health of healthcare workers and the stability of the health system, which is already under strain due to personnel shortages. 

Interventions to make a difference
The research identified two types of stigma - external stigma that can be seen around us, e.g. in the way healthcare workers speak about or treat one another and internal stigma that happens when healthcare workers take this ‘outside’ stigma and turn it inward on themselves. 

Dr Rau says the interventions involve training healthcare workers about what stigma is and how to go about reducing it. “We give them the knowledge and tips on how to communicate when they encounter stigma. It is up to them to then use that to fight stigma.” A communication campaign with posters and branded social marketing materials supports the training. The campaign uses a single slogan: ”Let’s Stop Stigma” and urges healthcare workers to ”Be kind to yourself. Be kind to others."

News Archive

The mysterious origins and problematic significance of the Postamble
2014-10-20



Prof André du Toit (UCT) and Prof Pieter Duvenhage (UFS)
Emeritus professor from UCT’s Department of Political Studies, Prof André du Toit, delivered a presentation at the Bloemfontein Campus on 14, 15 and 16 October 2014 respectively. His presentations gave an in-depth exploration of the Postamble as founding text of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

This event was hosted by the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice, in collaboration with the Department of Philosophy.

Prof Du Toit’s papers were entitled:
•    A Need for Truth: Amnesty and the Origins and Consequences of the TRC Process.
•    Tracking down a belated and inconclusive amnesty pact: The obscure origins and problematic significance of the 'Postamble' as founding text of the TRC process (Part 1 and 2).

In his presentations he explored how the text of the Postamble came to be written. He also scrutinised the respective contributions of those who were involved in drafting the text. The significance of the Postamble – as it is understood in its historical context – was also a point of discussion.

Prof Du Toit raised some thought-provoking questions during the three days. What is the relation of the amnesty provision of the Postamble with the subsequent TRC amnesty process? How did a text without any particular reference to a truth commission come to function as founding text and discursive framework for the TRC?

He also investigated some of the main problems with the history and significance of the Postamble, as well as its mysterious origins. In addition, Prof Du Toit conducted a critical analysis of a set of newly-identified drafts of the text.

One of Prof Du Toit’s most substantive inquiries, though, was into the question: Was the amnesty provision of the Postamble the product of an underlying amnesty ‘pact’ between the NP government and the ANC?


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