Tutu attends UWC School of Health opening
Resource type: News
Cape Times (South Africa) |
University of the Western Cape is an Atlantic grantee.
By Sonya Bell
Nobel peace laureate and retired archbishop Desmond Tutu opened the curtain – three times – for a crowd gathered at the launch of the University of the Western Cape‘s new School of Public Health building and Masters programme.
Tutu, chancellor of the university, said these two achievements were part of an “incredible turnaround” UWC had experienced since its founding as a second-rate institution for coloureds under the apartheid regime.
“We don’t have as much money as the older universities, but we’re getting there,” he smiled. “Look at this.”
Tutu, a Nobel peace laureate, then toyi-toyied outside the state-of-the-art building that is to be the epicentre of the UWC School of Health.
Le Nhan Phuong, of Atlantic Philanthropies, which funded the new building, said the university had shown itself to be a leader in health training, striving to improve the health of all South Africans.
“We’re happy and proud to partner with the university (in) something that we see as essential to teaching and research in public health,” he said.
The building will also be used for a master’s programme funded with a R10-million grant from the World Health Organisation.
The programme focuses on developing the capacity of health policy-makers and managers to plan for, develop and manage the health work force.
It is a correspondence programme and designed to train small groups of students at institutions across Africa.
Its inaugural students are senior managers in the health services of Rwanda and Mozambique.
Photos:
Top: (L to R) Brian O’Connell, the Rector and Vice Chancellor of UWC; Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Le Nhan Phuong, Programme Director for the Population Health Programme at The Atlantic Philanthropies; and architect Ivan Jonker.
Bottom: The University of the Western Cape School of Public Health building