Health goes mobile

The SA Taxi Foundation has partnered with Open Eye Foundation for the Taxi Rank Health Clinic awareness campaign.

The campaign is aimed at reducing the incidence of chronic diseases among operators, drivers and commuters.

Open-Eye Foundation was established by Mosa Mphore.

Due to organ donation, Mphore is a survivor of end-stage renal failure, caused by a hereditary susceptibility to hypertension (high blood pressure).

Mphore’s objective in founding his NGO, Open-Eye Foundation, is to educate South Africans about the lifestyle causes of chronic, usually preventable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, HIV and prostate cancer.

His education programme covers the ways in which positive lifestyle choices, such as exercise and healthy eating can prevent such diseases or, if they are already present, can help people to manage them effectively.

During the Taxi Rank Health Clinic initiative, this information and more will be made available at a range of taxi ranks, via mobile clinics staffed by Mphore and a team of volunteer health care professionals.

The team will also conduct free rank-based health screenings and tests for operators, drivers, rank marshals and commuters.

“We are focusing on taxi ranks because, by the nature of their jobs, minibus taxi drivers are extremely vulnerable to lifestyle diseases,” said Mphore.

“They work extremely long hours, seven days a week.

“They have no opportunity to go for regular medical check-ups.

“They work under a lot of pressure, grab junk food meals when time permits, and sit for hours in one position.

“All of these conditions, individually and collectively, can trigger lifestyle diseases, including forms of cancer. And they can impair a driver’s ability to operate a vehicle safely.”

Mphore also said that the above mentioned conditions don’t affect only the drivers.

“Clearly, apart from threatening the drivers’ own livelihood, this negatively impacts their passengers and other road-users,” explained Mphore.

“Ironically, however, most people don’t know that these chronic and life-threatening conditions are preventable and we see it as our job to give them that information.”

The SA Taxi Foundation is the corporate social investment arm of SA Taxi.

SA Taxi Foundation director Kalnisha Singh said the foundation has chosen to support the initiative because SA Taxi feels a responsibility to the taxi operators and the entire community served by the minibus taxi industry.

“The industry impacts millions of commuters on a daily basis,” he added.

“That is an unacceptably large number of people who have no idea that they might be suffering from an illness that could be life-threatening if left untreated.

“Some are unaware that they can ensure that they don’t get such an illness or let it become chronic.”

“We want to encourage people with end-stage diseases to consider accepting organs and for the broader community to understand that donating organs themselves, or allowing the organs of their deceased loved ones to be donated, can save multiple lives,” said Mphore.

“The campaign will be run in Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Tshwane and the West Rand.”

The mobile clinics in Ekurhuleni will be set up at the Germiston Taxi Rank on July 4 and 5, and at the Tembisa Taxi Rank on July 6 and 7, from 9am to 2pm on each of these days.

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