October 5, 2007
By George Matlala
STUDENTS from the University of the Witwatersrand will team up with Pikitup workers to clean up several inner city streets on Saturday, 6 October.
The clean-up is one of the many services that more than 500 students from the Wits Volunteer Programme will offer at Joubert Park, in partnership with Region F's health services unit. Information on health, law, migration and entrepreneurship will also be available.
The initiative is in support of the City's Inner City Regeneration Charter.
"We hope exercises such as this will lead to more regular occasions on which the City comes together with Wits Volunteers to improve the physical [environment] and quality of life not only in the streets and neighbourhoods near to Wits' campus, but across the city," says Jack Koseff, the policy and strategy specialist in the City's department of community development.
Hillbrow is being targeted for a clean up
"Wits is a natural stakeholder in improving conditions in the inner city."
Providing health services during the campaign is in line with the charter, which states that the City aims to ensure that all residents have improved access to health services and outreach programmes, Koseff notes.
More than 200 students and Pikitup staff will clean Twist, Claim and Hospital streets, among others. "We hope that the community will join us," says Thabo Putu, the programme's co-ordinator of Wits' Community University Partnerships.
At Joubert Park Clinic, fourth-year student nurses will offer immunisations to children under five; the law faculty, in partnership with the City's Migrant Desk, will give information to immigrants on getting legal documentation. "We are trying to encourage migrants to register with the Migrant Desk," he says.
Senior dental students will also be on hand to offer teeth-cleaning services in a truck equipped with a dental station that can accommodate three people at a time. Information on caring for teeth will be disseminated.
Wits' Reproductive Health Research Unit will hand out information about the Wellness Centre in Hillbrow, where services include rape and HIV/Aids counselling. "We want to promote this place," Putu says.
Pikitup is involved in improving the environment of the inner city
Through the exercise, it is hoped students will develop a sense of responsibility for the university's community. It will also expose them to the community in which they will be working with after they have finished their studies, he explains.
The head of Wits' Community University Partnerships, Mohammed Moola, says: "This is one of a number of initiatives initiated by Wits university to show [its] commitment to the mayor's Inner City Regeneration Charter."
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