Browsing by Subject "Practice"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    The Streetscapes Project : reflective paper
    (2017) Ebrahim, Zakiyah; Evans, Martha
    The Streetscapes Project is a photographic and journalistic documentation of ten street-based people's stories from Cape Town, South Africa. The subjects of the project are employed by Khulisa Social Solutions, a non-profit organisation (NPO) that adopts a systemic approach to breaking the cycle of crime and poverty. Streetscapes falls under two of the NPO's eleven programmes, i.e. the offender rehabilitation & reintegration programme and the diversion programme, and includes five social enterprises with the urban garden project in Roeland Street, Cape Town, being one of it. Through narratives and research this project shows how street-based people are highly motivated to work and rebuild their lives, and that having a job means more than simply earning an income to them – it provides them with self-worth, dignity and a source of hope. Beyond the documentation of their personal stories the project also explores the larger structural and systemic barriers surrounding the broader issue of homelessness in the city, including access to shelter services, among others. Ultimately, this project aims to debunk stereotypes about street-based people and enlighten the public about the challenges they face when living on the streets.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    The impact of exclusion of the urban ultra-poor from public housing on the lives of those excluded
    (2018) Ndjembela, Toivo Djeiko; Govender, Rajen; Platzky, Laurine
    Namibia has experienced an upward growth of informal settlements since independence. Such settlements have become an integral part of urban areas in the country, a situation that begs for, first, acceptance of this reality and, second, action to mitigate challenges that are generally associated with living in such areas. Due to such challenges, which include high rates of poverty as a result unemployment among slum dwellers, informal settlements have become the glaring face of social exclusion in Namibia. In order to arrest this exclusion, planners and policymakers need to find ways of upgrading these settlements so that the residents’ quality of life is incrementally enhanced. This paper is an outcome of a study conducted in five informal settlements in Windhoek, with a deliberate focus on access - or lack thereof - to basic services and infrastructure. Having highlighted the level of exclusion in those informal areas, this paper recommends that instead of re-inventing the wheel, government must embark of a sustained deliberate exercise to upgrade the existing informal settlements instead of demolishing or eradicating them. Policymakers are urged in this study to accept that people, out of desperation fed by social factors, would continue to occupy land illegally. Policymakers must thus find ways to amicably regulate these invasions. This would help attain a degree of inclusivity and compliance with the Constitutional requirement of ensuring dignity for everyone in the country.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    The need to accelerate access to new drugs for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis
    (2015) Cox, Helen S; Furin, Jennifer J; Mitnick, Carole D; Daniels, Colleen; Cox, Vivian; Goemaere, Eric
    AbstractApproximately half a million people are thought to develop multidrug-resistant tuberculosis annually. Barely 20% of these people currently receive recommended treatment and only about 10% are successfully treated. Poor access to treatment is probably driving the current epidemic, via ongoing transmission. Treatment scale-up is hampered by current treatment regimens, which are lengthy, expensive, poorly tolerated and difficult to administer in the settings where most patients reside. Although new drugs provide an opportunity to improve treatment regimens, current and planned clinical trials hold little promise for developing regimens that will facilitate prompt treatment scale-up. In this article we argue that clinical trials, while necessary, should be complemented by timely, large-scale, operational research that will provide programmatic data on the use of new drugs and regimens while simultaneously improving access to life-saving treatment. Perceived risks – such as the rapid development of resistance to new drugs – need to be balanced against the high levels of mortality and transmission that will otherwise persist. Doubling access to treatment and increasing treatment success could save approximately a million lives over the next decade.