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UFS hosts the South African Paediatric Association conference

06 October 2023 | Story Reuben Maeko | Photo SUPPLIED

Dr Tabane — Dr Lizzy Tabane, Head of Paediatrics and Child Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State, gives a message of support at the 2023 SAPA Conference.

The Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently hosted the 2023 South African Paediatric Association conference (SAPA) in Sandton, Johannesburg, with more than 200 doctors, specialists and registrars in attendance.

The conference aimed to provide high-quality, evidence-based updates on children’s health issues and research in health care. The three-day conference focused on presentations from various paediatricians in South Africa’s health sectors.

Conference presentations

The conference explored new ways of treating different types of childhood diseases, and covered a range of topics such as learning disabilities and inclusive education, sports for children with asthma, septic shock, dyslipidaemia in children, congenital heart disease among others.

Collaborations with healthcare professionals

Head of Paediatrics and Child Health at the UFS, Dr Lizzy Tabane and her colleagues, Dr Mampoi Jonas and Prof Ute Hallbauer, were pleased with the success and outcome of the conference.

According to Dr Tabane, the professionals gather once a year to learn, exchange ideas and work together to ensure the best possible care for children in hospitals.

“The SAPA conference presents health professionals across South Africa with the latest information on paediatric health. It also ensures that children in our country continue to receive quality care through an integrated approach by allowing health professionals to connect, network, and share their knowledge and expertise,” said Dr Jonas.

“The country and the community at large are in good hands,” said Dr Tabane. “Let us not fall behind but catch up with the latest innovations, for instance, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Medicine. Our partnership with all paediatrics and other health professionals will bring unity and good child health care in our country."

“What is important is the tremendous support from all the specialists, doctors and practice nurses from different health-care departments who have consistently turned out in large numbers. The success of the conference extends beyond GPs, such as drawing in specialists, clinicians, nurses, and professionals dedicated to children’s well-being within hospitals and the community,” emphasised Dr Tabane.

Significance of the conference

Prof Hallbauer emphasised the significance of fostering collaboration to enhance integrated care, spanning both the hospital system and primary care. “This annual conference confirms our commitment to working together as doctors for the well-being of our patients. The motto we have chosen is Carpe Diem ‘Seize the Day’. For the conference this means taking hold of the programme and making the most of each conference day.

“When you meet your colleagues, build and strengthen the collegial networks, so that we can realise Letshwele le beta phoho – a SeSotho idiom meaning ‘The crowd beats the bull’,” added Prof Hallbauer.

This conference “will strengthen our relationship” with other doctors and make the health system a better place, concluded Prof Hallbauer.

News Archive

First UFS/AS Young African Scholar Award winner announced

2016-03-10

Fana Gebresenbet Erda, winner of the first University of the Free State /Africa Spectrum Young African Scholar Award, for his research on political economy.
Photo: Supplied

Scholarship in African Studies still faces the challenge of capacity-building to increase ownership by authors and institutions from and on the African continent. It also requires more coordinated efforts to provide the space deserved by African authors in the international domain. In 2015, the University of the Free State (UFS) Centre for Africa Studies joined forces with Africa Spectrum (AS) in a bid to address this issue by establishing the UFS/AS Young African Scholar Award.

This award seeks to strengthen efforts to promote internationally recognised African scholarship in African Studies. One way to achieve this objective is through publishing articles by researchers based in Africa and in the diaspora in Africa Spectrum, an accredited journal compiled by the German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg.

The inaugural award winner
Fana Gebresenbet Erda, a PhD candidate in a Global and European Studies programme jointly offered by the University of Leipzig (Germany) and Addis Ababa University, wrote the winning article for 2015. He will receive a three-year affiliation to the UFS Centre for Africa Studies as a Research Fellow, along with prize money of R5 000, sponsored by the UFS.

His article, The Ethiopian Developmental State in Its Peripheral Lowlands: Large-Scale Land Acquisitions, the Politics of Dispossession and State Remaking in Gambella, Western Ethiopia, argues that development through large-scale land acquisitions in Gambella, Western Ethiopia, belies a state-remaking project under a dispossessive political economy.

Submission now open
Africa Spectrum invites scholars to submit research articles in the context of the award. In October of each year a review committee selects submissions for review. Those eligible to submit are postgraduate students nearing completion of their PhD theses and postdoctoral scholars who were awarded their PhDs no more than five years earlier at the time of the submission deadline. Those submitting should be from Africa or should be affiliated to African institutions.

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