Growing up Mustafa Zalgaonker would often hear his mother say: “the giving hand is better than the receiving hand.”

The message resonated with the Emergency Medical Sciences lecturer who has dedicated much of his time assisting those in need, not only at home but in disaster-struck areas in different parts of the world.

Earlier this year when a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Indonesia, Zalgaonker was part of a team from the Gift of the Givers organisation who assisted with humanitarian aid and care.
He has worked with Gift of the Givers on several occasions since 2015 when Nepal was hit by an earthquake.

“It has been an eye-opener to see how people survive around the world and how we take things for granted. We have challenges in our health care system but it was humbling to see how elsewhere in the world people get by with a lot less, no running water and poor infrastructure.”

The EMS Department has a close relationship with the organisation and also assisted them during the Knysna fires.

“As academics, we teach rescue, disaster management and rescue incident management. So having the opportunity to go to a real-life disaster setting is an invaluable learning experience. We can convey the risk and the experience to our students.”

Despite his busy schedule, Zalgaonker will be among the hundreds of graduates at today’s graduation ceremony for the Faculty of Health and Wellness Sciences.

He has earned his Master’s degree and this thesis is titled Intravenous fluid resuscitation: surveillance of penetrating injury in the pre-hospital environment.

“You learn so much about yourself while completing such a degree, about your own resilience, how to manage your time and how to juggle what life throws in your path. So, if you’re wondering how to juggle it all, you will find a way.”

Giving back defines Zalgaonker’s life and he is involved in a range of charities from animal welfare to work with the disabled.

“There is a sense of happiness you get from helping people. If you help people without them knowing you get a sense of enlightenment.”

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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Two academics in the Emergency Medical Sciences Department have departed for Indonesia to assist with humanitarian aid and care following the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The death toll following last week’s disaster has climbed to more than 1 400 and hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless.

The EMS Department’s Mustafa Zalgaonker and Xavier Millar left for Indonesia on Wednesday as part of a team from The Gift of the Givers Organisation.

The organisation, which has a longstanding relationship with the EMS Department, has mobilised a team of search and rescue specialists to in search, rescue and recovery operations as well as the delivery of much needed humanitarian aid and healthcare.

The department has previously assisted in a number of Gift of the Giver disaster response operations, including the Nepal earthquake in 2015 and the recent Knysna Fires in 2017.

Zalgaonker, a CPUT alumnus, has been a lecturer with the Department since 2015. He is a seasoned Emergency Care Practitioner (Advanced Life Support) and a highly skilled Advanced Rescue Technician with both national and international disaster response experience, having previously responded to the earthquake disaster in Nepal in 2015 and the Kynsna Fires in 2017.

He will be graduating with his Masters: Emergency Medical Care from the department at the end of 2018. 

Millar is the department’s rescue lecturer and has been with the department since the end of 2017. He has a highly experienced Advanced Life Support paramedic and a skilled Advanced Rescue Technician with expertise in Urban Search and Rescue. 

The team are scheduled to arrive in the disaster zone over the weekend.

“The department also has additional staff members on standby as the Gift of the Givers has indicated the possibility of a second rescue team being dispatched in the coming days as the needs on the ground become more apparent,” said Benjamin de Waal, Senior Lecturer / Head of Program: Bachelor of Emergency Medical Care.

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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The Department of Emergency Medical Sciences has received a donation of food items and toiletries from the Gift of the Givers Foundation to assist students who may be in need of support.

The Department has a long-standing relationship with the organisation. Staff from the department have assisted with disaster relief responses, both locally and abroad, while Gift of the Givers has supported some of the Department’s Service-Learning Projects.

Students pursuing a career in emergency care are required to undertake 12-hour clinical shifts in hospital wards and on ambulances. They are also required to engage in off-campus rescue-related training exercises that can sometimes last for several days.

“The department approached Gift of the Givers for support to ensure that students do not go hungry and have access to nutritional supplements during these clinical shifts and physical rescue exercises,” said Lloyd Christopher, Head of the EMS Department

The donation from Gift of the Givers is being distributed to the neediest students in the department.

Written by CPUT News
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Five CPUT staff members from the university’s Emergency Medical Sciences Department flew to Turkey this week to assist with search and rescue operations in that country.

Turkey and Syria were struck by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and the death toll is reported to have surpassed 5000. CPUT and Gift of the Givers have a long-standing working relationship with staff members previously joining the disaster response NGO to the 2015 Nepal earthquake and the 2018 tsunami in Indonesia.

Acting Head of Department for Emergency Medical Sciences at CPUT Dr Simpiwe Sobuwa will be joining the mission along with colleagues Louis Jordaan, Rozaan Norval, Xavier Millar and Raina Gihwala.

Sobuwa says that they were eager to use their unique skills to assist in a natural disaster of this scale and will be taking specialised rescue equipment with them on the mission.

The are able to perform specialised urban search and rescue along with high angle and confined rescues. Each of the five members will have their own rescue equipment.

“We would also gain valuable experience in assisting in an international disaster,” says Sobuwa.

The team of five is expected to be part of the rescue operation for one week and their absence will not affect lectures or students.

CPUT Emergency Medical Science students are trained in a range of search and rescue efforts including mountain rescue, vehicle collisions and complicated natural disasters like earthquakes.

Written by Lauren Kansley
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Liaises with the media and writes press releases about interesting developments at CPUT.

CPUT recently hosted a German and Namibian delegation for a series of strategic workshops. These workshops were aligned with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Community Engagement in the Southern Africa Region (CESAR) project, which contextualises the following fields of action: Teaching, Research and Management. Social Entrepreneurship initiatives are explored through project partnerships with industry and communities as linked to the following three United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

• SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation
• SDG 7 Affordable and clean energy
• SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities

International partnerships are becoming increasingly critical as a means to address global issues posed by the SDGs. Therefore, the CESAR project seeks to address challenges experienced by communities in Namibia, South Africa and Germany through collaborative partnerships as aligned to SDG 17 which focuses on partnerships for the achievement of all the goals.  Support for local communities takes priority within the Southern African context through the exchange of ideas, knowledge sharing, skills development, and practical and experiential community engagement projects in communities.

A trans-disciplinary team, comprised of staff from the Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST) and Flensburg University of Applied Science (FUAS), were selected to engage in capacity-building workshops and knowledge exchange activities through teaching, research and management. Prof Dr Kay Pfaffenberger, Director at the Centre for Business and Technology in Africa, (FUAS), is the overall DAAD CESAR project leader. Pfaffenberger alluded to the critical need for partnerships to address global environmental issues and was extremely impressed by the effective and efficient efforts of the project team during the workshop and expressed his sincere appreciation to the CPUT hosts. At NUST, the project is led by, Dr Laudika Kandjinga and at CPUT the project resides within the Service-Learning and Civic Engagement (SLCE) Units, led by Jacqui Scheepers.

“CESAR contributes to strengthening community partnerships and collective problem-solving. The partnership provides opportunities to engage community and industry partners and the various spheres of government to find innovative impactful solutions towards improvement in communities. CESAR seeks to lay a firm foundation for the development of a Centre for Community Engagement at the NUST which can monitor envisaged projects. A SDG Engaged Research Forum will provide further support for collaborative research projects even after the runtime of the project. The responsibility for project continuation will lie with the respective universities and their respective partners post project,“ said Scheepers, Manager: SLCE.

At the workshops, the team members took turns in facilitating and presenting on the various aspects and topics which strengthened the participation and inclusion of all institutions in the programme.

“This was surely a beautiful experience ... beautiful because of the trans-disciplinary project team working towards one goal and that being to contribute and impact our communities at large. It afforded me opportunities to engage with individuals from Germany as well as Namibia, to share ideas and contextualise aspects related to the project. Further to this, it also aligned and added to my international project management portfolio which links to my current postgraduate studies in project management. Working in silos is something of the past and the need for national and international partnerships must be encouraged for the growth of our University“,  said David Haarhoff, CESAR project support and researcher, CPUT.  Haarhoff works closely with Martin Kuhn, Scientific Assistant, FUAS and Theresa Burns, SL Administrator, CPUT.

During the strategic planning workshops, the delegation critically addressed challenges and opportunities in line with the project deliverables. The delegates also visited a community site, the Ulwazi ‘Knowledge“ Educare Centre, in Delft. The centre provides preschool education for children up to six (6) years of age. The educare was built with 1 700 old car tyres, 6 000 eco-bricks and 2 000 glass bottles. Both delegations were extremely impressed by the architecture and creativity of the building with sustainability and alternative construction methods being high on the agenda. The SLCE Units arranged for Gift of the Givers to bring grocery items for the children’s meals, snacks and care items for the young children. The principal and staff expressed their appreciation to Gift of the Givers, CPUT, and the international delegation.

The project spans over three years, ending in a comprehensive report in 2027. From 22 – 24 July 2024 the three DAAD CESAR project leaders from FUAS, NUST and CPUT will represent the project at the DAAD Project Leader Conference “Educating tomorrow's leaders to pioneer sustainable development – the role of academia” in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

At present, DAAD is funding 103 partnership projects that connect German universities with relevant partner institutions in developing countries in Africa. 

Further project planning session are scheduled to take place in September 2024 at NUST and in November 2024 the delegation will be back at CPUT. These project planning workshops will ensure that the desired project deliverables are achieved.

Written by CPUT News
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