Soph_Spotkolours, Author at University of the Western Cape - School of Public Health

25 August 2025

Reflections 2025 International AIDS Society Conference: Finding belonging, building resilience, and reimagining a future in research.

Final Year PhD candidate Charné Petinger reflects on her experience presenting at IAS 2025 in Kigali, Rwanda, where she showcased her participatory research with adolescents living with HIV. In this piece, she shares key lessons learned from the global HIV conference, which emphasizes the importance of community-led approaches, innovation and resilience- and offers a powerful reminder that person-centred, equity-driven research belongs at the heart of all public health work.

7 August 2025

The promises and pitfalls of working with a co-design approach for advancing health and gender equality: Perspectives from programme implementers, public health researchers and funders

Globally and in South Africa, young people face significant sexual and reproductive health (SRH) challenges. In South Africa, young people (15-24) represent a significant proportion of people living with HIV and women were disproportionately affected.

30 July 2025

Khayelitsha and Eastern Substructure (KESS) Research day

The Western Cape Government Department of Health and Wellness (WCGHW), Khayelitsha Eastern Sub-structure (KESS) is hosting its 2025 Research Day under the theme “Health and Harmony: Ecosystems, Equity, and Evidence for Sustainable Well-being” which will take place on 31 October 2025.

22 July 2025

Vacancy: Manager – Pharmacovigilance in Southern Africa Initiative

The School of Public Health and School of Pharmacy at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), in partnership with the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium are establishing a cutting-edge Pharmacovigilance in Southern Africa Initiative.

15 July 2025

Faculty Of Community & Health | Sciences School of Public Health – Senior Lecturer

What began as an academic visit quickly turned into a deeply personal and transformative journey, one that reconnected me with inspiring mentors, reminded me of shared struggles, and offered fresh perspectives on health systems, justice, and inequality.

4 July 2025

UWC Celebrates Tarryn’s Global Achievement in Pharmaceutical Public Health

Tarryn Jeftha, a Master of Public Health candidate at UWC, was awarded a full scholarship to attend the prestigious Pharmaceutical Policy Systems course at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Belgium, as the only South African participant in the 2025 cohort.

4 July 2025

Spotlight on UWC Public Health Research

We’re proud to celebrate Tinashe Zigomo, a PhD student at the UWC School of Public Health, whose proposal on “Barriers and solutions to accessing essential breast cancer medicines in low-resource settings” received a positive review from the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp, Belgium as part of their PhD Light Review process.

27 June 2025

From Nepal to Cape Town: Reflections on a Journey of Legacy, Learning, and Inequality

What began as an academic visit quickly turned into a deeply personal and transformative journey, one that reconnected me with inspiring mentors, reminded me of shared struggles, and offered fresh perspectives on health systems, justice, and inequality.

26 June 2025

New IDRC-GT4Africa Supplement sheds light on what it takes to operationalise gender transformative approaches to improve sexual reproductive and maternal health rights and services in Africa

A new supplement in the African Journal of Reproductive Health showcases what it takes to operationalise gender transformative approaches (GTA) across different African contexts to improve sexual reproductive and maternal health (SRMH) rights and services.