EDITORIAL: Project a boost for child health

The health and wellbeing of children in our poorest communities must remain in the spotlight and that is why the KaziBantu project, Healthy Schools for Healthy Communities, has an important role to play in Nelson Mandela Bay.

The project, a collaboration between Nelson Mandela University, Basel University in Switzerland and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, aims to build on the earlier Disease, Activity and Schoolchildren’s Health Project (Dash), which at the time brought worrying findings to light about the state of local schoolchildren’s health.

Intestinal parasites, for instance, were found to be a widespread problem – and it is one which, if left untreated, could have a profoundly negative effect on a child’s future wellbeing.

Ironically, it is also a relatively simple affliction to treat.

It is, therefore, encouraging that the provincial health department, along with the education department, has thrown its weight behind the KaziBantu project.

Children in the city’s most disadvantaged communities are facing a daily health battle greatly affecting their current and long-term quality of life.