Pearson High School alumnus and now medical doctor Rufaro Nyamuda edged out more than 1,300 other hopefuls with her idea of introducing “a digital [school] nurse”, and has been announced as the successful applicant for the Volkswagen Touareg Sabbatical.
The initiative asked South Africans to share how they would put the luxury of time to good use with a fully funded three-month sabbatical dedicated to making a difference.
Nyamuda’s idea of the “digital nurse” for schools was deemed by a panel of industry experts to have the potential to be “extraordinarily impactful to communities”.
Her dream is to build a comprehensive and robust healthcare management and educational app – called ‘Cebisa Health’ – which would promote optimal medical support for pupils in grade R to grade 12.
Cebisa is an isiXhosa word for “one who gives advice”.
The app would be a digital health, wellness and safety platform, Nyamuda said.
She was unveiled as the winner of the competition in a surprise announcement by broadcaster Bruce Whitfield in April.
“It’s really cool. I started working on this about 18 months ago and it’s not my first business idea – the other ones didn’t really take off,” Nyamuda said.
“So to finally have a concept that people actually believe in and want to get behind is really encouraging.”
The entrepreneur, who has already started visiting several schools across the country for input, said her entry had been one of the last.
“I think I applied a week before [the competition] ended.
“I didn’t actually think anything of it until I was like ‘oh, this could be really great,” she said.
“They really loved the concept because if we execute it well and we’re able to do it correctly, we’d have access to more health information than most big insurance companies.
“Probably even more than the department of health, because we’d collect that information from the end-user and not necessarily wait for them to go to a hospital or a clinic before that information is captured.”
About the app, which is still in the development phase, Nyamuda said: “Cebisa aims to create safer school communities by assisting schools with their health records and firstaid education for the pupils.
“The platform provides access to a digital student health record whereby schools can track how many children have various conditions, how many are on chronic medication that needs to be taken during school hours and ensures that staff members are well trained to manage these conditions.
“Cebisa also provides a communication platform for schools and parents and also health and safety resources and educational material.”
She said the details that would be provided to the school were basic information that it would ask for anyway.
Volkswagen’s head of communications, Andile Dlamini, said: “The standard of the ideas submitted to our Volkswagen Touareg Sabbatical campaign has been exceptional.
“The variety of ideas that we received made it a very difficult task to select one recipient to receive funding.
“However, Nyamuda’s plan has the potential to make a significant social impact, and that is what we were hoping for when we began this journey.”