The Royal Society for the Promotion of Health is to award the inaugural Queen Elizabeth Medal to Dr Lynette Coetzee, who founded the Transnet Phelophepa Health Care Train in SA in January 1994.
This year the society celebrates 100 years of royal patronage. In order to mark this milestone, its patron, Queen Elizabeth, has graciously given permission for the society to introduce a new award, the Queen Elizabeth Medal. The medal is to be awarded annually to encourage and recognise individuals who make an outstanding contribution to public health within the Commonwealth.
Phelophepa - a hybrid name derived from Sotho and Tswana and meaning "good clean health" - began operating as a mobile primary healthcare clinic in 1994 and has reached more than 1.1 million people since inception of the programme. The initial 13-coach train provided healthcare and education to rural communities across SA. Now 16 coaches long, the Phelophepa Train contains eye, health and dental clinics with X-ray facilities, and provides HIV/AIDS and counselling workshops.
The Phelophepa Train is the flagship project of the Transnet Foundation, the vehicle for logistics giant Transnet`s corporate social investment programme. Lynette Coetzee, project manager for the Transnet Foundation, says the main aim of the project is to address primary healthcare needs in communities where the historical disparity in healthcare provision is the greatest.
"The Phelophepa Train is special in many ways," says Coetzee. "It draws together many diverse stakeholders from the private and public sectors, and the staff provide not just the human touch, but also the psychological healing that the people of our country need. For instance, the train`s psychologists counsel the victims as well as the perpetrators of violence.
She says the train is an "enigma". "What started as a small project has - through sheer desperate demand - grown into a very large undertaking, impacting the lives of millions of people.
"While SA has seen a tremendous improvement in the daily lives of people since the country`s first democratic election in 1994, their needs still outstrip the provision of healthcare services in the remote, poorly resourced and far-flung regions of the country. The Phelophepa Train takes advanced medical and information technology into communities where some children have never ridden in a car, and never seen television. Yet, whole communities welcome the train as though it is an old, familiar and trusted family friend. The train is my passion, and its effects never cease to amaze me."
Coetzee and her teams from Johannesburg and the Phelophepa Train itself, are responsible for marketing and communications, strategic planning, financial and project management and all the operational activities of the Phelophepa Train, liaising regularly with training institutions for manpower, national and international supporters and the Department of Health. She runs the Phelophepa Train project as a strict business concern, and has shown that such projects can be run in a cost-effective and financially accountable manner.
His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT will present the award at The Royal Society for the Promotion of Health Annual Awards Ceremony at Claridge`s, London, on 11 June.
"We are delighted that Dr Lynette Coetzee, who founded Phelophepa, is to attend the RSPH Awards Ceremony in London and we are very much looking forward to her presentation," says Stuart Royston, CE of the RSPH.
The Phelophepa Train is funded primarily by the Transnet Foundation, and is sponsored by South African corporates such as arivia.kom, which supplies the IT systems on the train.
British donors Canon Collins Educational Trust for Southern Africa (UK), One to One Children`s Fund, Chippenham Rotary and Inner Wheel Trust (UK), and the N/O Fund Nicholson /Oeser. Multinational sponsors include 3M South Africa, Colgate-Palmolive Foundation and Roche Products.
The Royal Society for the Promotion of Health is UK`s largest and longest-established public health organisation. The organisation is completely independent of government and of any special interest. Its members are academics, health professionals and practitioners who share an interest in promoting health through their daily work, and come together through society membership to provide crosscutting and multidisciplinary perspectives on current health questions.
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