Ruresa Award winners
RuReSA Award for the Rural Rehab Healthcare Worker of the Year
In 2014 we created an
Award that could be given to anyone working in rehabilitation and being
an inspiration to others. The Award was inaugurated at the Rural Health Conference, September 2014.
We aimed to inspire people to contribute to rural rehabilitation, create awareness of excellence in rural rehabilitation practice provide opportunity for the nominee to share their rural rehabilitation knowledge and skills. In 2023 we decided to offer a new Award specifically for therapists.
This is an open category for any one or any organisation working in rehabilitation or disability
Boikanyo, The Dion Herson Foundation was nominated for this award by the Provincial Head of Rehabilitation Limpopo, Marie Stols. The nomination was for their Chair’ished programme in the Vhembe District, Limpopo Province. Chair’ished repairs and refits Madiba Buggies, used for children with cerebral palsy, which have become worn and outsized; and therapists are trained in repurposing buggies.
Chair’ished has assisted in eradicating the Buggy backlog - Truly remarkable!
Boikanyo, the Dion Herson Foundation (BDHF) was established in 2011 by Marilyn Bassin, a physiotherapist, who championed the cause of human rights and dignity for vulnerable children and their caregivers living in dire circumstances. The organisation is named after 2 inspirational souls: Boikanyo, a dynamic special 8-year-old child and Dion Herson, a philanthropist who loved giving to others. BDHF
was founded in response to the critical need for specialised wheelchairs, buggies, for profoundly disabled cerebral palsy children that Marilyn encountered whilst volunteering at a state hospital in Soweto. Within the first year she was there, she had raised funds which cleared a 2-year – long waiting list of 200 buggies. The buggies were fitted and handed to children who had waited a lifetime for this luxury.
The focus gradually expanded to other wards, where she purchased equipment which enabled children who had lived years in hospital, to return home to love and comfort. In 2014, BDHF’s impact reached beyond the hospital and began working with an organisation of social workers who assisted families living in extreme poverty in the squatter settlement of Protea South, Soweto.
This was the beginning of their hugely successful flagship Chair’ished Children programme which now reaches cerebral palsy children across so many provinces in South Africa. This initiative is expanding all the time and serves South Africa’s rural, underserved, and forgotten communities. This initiative takes them to areas which are remote and inaccessible, where there are so few resources and caring for a
profoundly disabled child is not easy at all. The sight of an elderly caregiver carrying a disabled teenager on her back is disturbing, and they seek to remedy that. Most of the children they fit into buggies have waited years for a mobility device, tragically some die waiting. They have fitted groups of children in deep rural KwaZulu Natal, Limpopo, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga. They also provide buggies to individual
children who live in informal settlements, in Gauteng who don’t qualify for a buggy – children who don’t have a South African birth certificate fall into this category. Today, BDHF has reached hundreds of severely disabled children in deep rural areas, providing them with their own specialised wheelchair. Further endeavours by BDHF include: COVID relief support, sustainable food generation, math augmentation classes, and advocacy on numerous levels.
Mireo was nominated for this award by Gillian Saloojee. What sets Mireo Ralivhesa apart from many rural therapists is that he lives and serves the rural community where he grew up - Matangari, Tshitakani in northern Limpopo. He completed his schooling at Thengwe High School, after which he studied occupational therapy at the University of Limpopo, graduating in 2009.
Mireo returned home to his village and completed his community service year at his local hospital, Donald Fraser, and this is where he is still working today. He is a popular and well-loved member of the Donald Fraser Rehabilitation team. Being part of the community that he serves means he is well known in the area, and more importantly, he knows his clients, especially those with lifelong disabilities. He knows where they live, who their families are, as well as their social connections.
Mireo is quite spoken and humble and is a role model for young rural therapists. In the words of one of Mireo’s co-workers “Mireo is a very hard worker, it is not unusual for him to work late if there are patients who are waiting. He will not leave until he is satisfied that everyone has been seen. He has a heart for his work, he loves the children and the children and the parents love him.” He has started a day care centre for children near his home in the village, and it is an inclusive day care centre for children with disabilities. He and his family and friends find the funds each month to cover all the costs. Mireo also serves on several committees in the hospital. Earlier this year, he was the Project Manager for the Vhembe District Buggy Revamp Project which with the help of the Dion Herson
Boikanyo Foundation aimed to reduce the backlog of buggies in the Vhembe district to zero. Mireo is a humble man, committed to his community and to service.
Click image for his story
Katy was nominated by the staff at Madwaleni Hospital, Eastern Cape, for her deep commitment to serving the hospital and its surrounding community since 2013. While Katy’s husband (Dr Andrew Miller) is both the clinical manager of Madwaleni Hospital and previous recipient of the RuDASA rural doctor of the year award, he often shares that they would not be at Madwaleni Hospital were it not for Katy’s dream of living and working at a rural hospital. At Madwaleni she developed a rehabilitation ward and Block System for cerebral palsy, she also set up an NPO, Layita, which would not only support hospital services including employing three rehabilitation translator assistants but with a vision to bring hope and positive change and to see the rural community around the hospital thrive. Click image for her story
Mpho was nominated by the OT team at
Tintswalo Hospital, Mpumalanga. Initially they were working with him as
an out patient but recognised he was an unusually motivated, reliable,
and skilled young man involved in shoe repairs, gardening and the car
wash project. Mpho never got the opportunity to complete his Matric due
to his illness but this never deterred his ambition to improve his life
circumstances.
Click image for his story
Adri Cronje is an occupational therapist who has remained at Manguzi hospital since 2006. She has single handedly dragged CP services from a 1 star to a 4 star service over the years. Therefore she is a firm favourite with the mothers and children and always goes the extra mile, often fundraising to try and secure safe housing or food parcels where welfare has failed. Adri is passionate about hands, and through her own initiative managed to entice a hand specialist surgeon to provide monthly outreach services (including some surgeries) from the central urban hospital to Manguzi, saving patients a lot of money and improving hand outcomes exponentially. This is the first ever rural hands specialist clinic that we are aware of, and she and the surgeon have presented on national and international platforms. Adri also took it upon herself to travel to the tertiary hospital, 300 km away, and learn the Ponsetti method, to save mothers a weekly 3 day round trip. After applying what she had learned, she was contacted by the Steps foundation and this enabled a further 2 colleagues to be trained in Ponsetti. Today the rehab team, in conjunction with the medical manager, provides the majority of all Ponsetti services- including the tenotomies- at Manguzi hospital. Adri’s clinical excellence, hard work and dedication have made Manguzi's occupational therapy services really exceptional.
From 2010-2019 she worked as Programme Manager for Rehabilitation, Precious
is currently working in the uMgungundlovu Health District as Programme
Manager for Rehabilitation, Disability, Mental Health, Non-communicable
diseases and Oral Health Services. She also works with the uMsunduzi
Mayor on the rehabilitation of street children. Precious is a kind,
bubbly, hard-working therapist.
"Undine is a fluent SeTswana speaker, highly regarded among the disabled and general community in Mafikeng where she lives, and is known to everyone as ‘Mmatumelo’ (mother of faith). I know Undine Rauter both professionally and personally. In my 20 years of experience in rehabilitation in SA, including working in rural areas and government services, I have not met another rehabilitation worker who has committed them self as completely, and has so effectively uplifted, supported and inspired rural disabled people." Read her Story
"Having worked closely with Thandi for the
last four years, and having seen her passion and commitment to the team
and the community, I have no doubt that Thandi Conradie deserves this
award, and I am certain you will find many rehab therapists in our
hospital and our surrounding hospitals who would easily agree. She is a
shining example of someone who has been faithful to her commitments
here, and has served the community with all the passion, energy, wisdom
and skill she has to offer." Read her story
You know you have a special nominee when the nomination form is from a doctor; and you see the words "volunteer therapist" who is named Nosiqhamo by the local community. Elin Hem Stenersen from Norway works in the Canzibe area of Eastern Cape. Read her story - we are happy to say Elin did get her wish for therapists to join Canzibe in 2018!
Click here for full story
RuReSA is proud to recognise the "brave and daring heart" of Dr Pam McLaren for her commitment to social justice for people with disabilities through the development of community based rehabilitation services and policy; and challenging therapists to recognise and share the ethos and ethics of community based rehabilitation.
Click here for full story
The first recipient was The 2014 Award to Jabu Ndlovu , occupational therapist from Manguzi Hospital, KZN. Jabu is one of those rare people who loves working in mental health, and is an amazing rehab mentor.
Click image for her story
Criteria for nomination
Nominations should be accompanied by details of the nominee, including his/her place of work and contact details, as well as a clear motivation as to why the nominee should be considered for the award. Nominators should also provide all their contact details in case more information is required. Please note that current members of the RuReSA EXCO are not eligible for nomination.
- Due date for nominations is: 30 June annually
- Nominations forms should be emailed to the RuReSA secretary at info@ruresa.org.za or click here to submit an online nomination.