Rapid growth and expanding patient base accelerate need for new location

Pietermaritzburg, 24 August 2019 – Unjani is a sustainable initiative that aims to strengthen health systems in low-income communities throughout South Africa by empowering community nurses to own and operate their very own clinic within their community.  There are several Unjani clinics across South Africa providing thousands of mothers and babies in poverty, access to treatment.Knowing that healthy skin is critical to the development of healthier babies and with a common goal, JOHNSON’S® Baby launched The JOHNSON’S® Baby Healthy Skin Project, in partnership with Unjani Clinics. Since 2017, a number of Unjani Clinics sponsored by JOHNSON’S® Baby have been opened across low income communities in Johannesburg, Gauteng.

This month we focus on the milestones of two Unjani Clinics that opened up in 2018. Namely; New Hanover and KwaMashu Unjani clinic. Both these clinics are run and owned by black female medical professionals who have successfully run their clinics to provide accessible, affordable and quality healthcare to communities within the surrounding communities in Pietermaritzburg. New Hanover run and owned by Sister Nolwazi Dlamini celebrates their first year by reminiscing on the first day they opened their doors in 2018, where they successfully serviced 295 patients of which 40% of these patients were children. Sistser Lungile Zwane who runs Unjani Clinic KwaMashu, shares her excitement and extends her invitation to all sponsors and stakeholders as she prepares for their official launch in celebration of their 1st year as a fully functional healthcare facility in KwaMashu Pietermaritzburg. The launch and celebration will be hosted on the 24th of August 2019.

New Hanover Unjani Clinic is situated in Pietermaritzburg at Umshwathi Sub-District under Ugungundlovu District in KwaZulu Natal. The clinic services New Hanover, Dalton, Cramond, Wartburg, Trustfeed, Mpolweni, Coolair and surrounding farms. Unjani Clinic KwaMashu is situated 75mins from New Hanover clinic in Ethekwini servicing Esibubulungu, Emgidweni and Ntuzuma and other surrounding areas. Community leaders say they are enthusiastic about having a fixed health care service that serves the community. Sister Nolwazi and Sister Lungile continue to maintain a high standard of professionalism and handle each patients case with dignity and respect. 

The Partnership between the Unjani Clinics and JOHNSON’S® Baby aims to:

• Give thousands of mothers and babies in need access to treatment through Unjani clinics.
• Educate mothers about skin health for babies - through a mass awareness campaign that aims to improve overall health through better skin health for babies.
• Strengthen health systems in vulnerable districts by investing in Unjani clinics, contributing to the establishment of new Unjani clinics and providing training and resources for Unjani nurses.
• Work with dermatologists and healthcare influencers to educate parents on how to attain healthy skin for healthier babies.
• Sponsor JOHNSON’S® Baby products and educational material to improve skin health for babies in need.

About Unjani Clinic 

Unjani Clinic is a network of black women owned and operated primary healthcare clinics that provide accessible, affordable and quality healthcare to communities in low income areas. It compliments the re-engineering of our healthcare system by creating community based healthcare structures at the point of need. It is an innovative model to address the inequality which exists between private and public healthcare services in our country. Whilst private and public hospitals and clinics exist there are too few to deal with the increasing healthcare burden and private healthcare is too expensive for the bulk of the population.

Unjani Clinic empowers women within their communities to own and lead the effort in transforming the healthcare system. At the front-end of the clinic delivery mechanism, the financial model has been tried and tested to ensure that sustainability pre-supposes commercial viability. All clinics in the network are given the business support and on-going coaching and mentoring to succeed and make a profit.