Jakes Gerwel Award in Public Health 2013 – Dr Kirstie Rendall-Mkosi

Dr Kirstie Rendall-Mkosi receives the first Jakes Gerwel Award in recognition of her demonstrated leadership in areas of teaching, research and community engagement in health promotion, health systems research and primary health care.

She was also acknowledged for carrying out research projects related to the prevention of foetal alcohol syndrome, the development of innovative training on heat stress for miners and health promotion in schools.

Opening words, Prof Helen Schneider, Director of SOPH

We are here for two important reasons. First, to honour a great intellect and a great leader, Professor Jakes Gerwel who as Rector of UWC championed and in fact established the School of Public Health. Jakes Gerwel passed away exactly a year today. The Mauerberger Foundation has decided to honour his memory by bequeathing an award in his name, a very generous award I might add, to an alumnus or an alumna of the School of Public Health, who has gone on to make an important contribution in our field.

Our second purpose is to make that award to Dr Kirstie Rendall-Mkosi who has been nominated and unanimously selected for this award. Kirstie will address us on her work over a number of years on a significant and contemporary public health problem of our society, namely alcohol.

Alcohol steals lives, and more so during pregnancy. Kirstie will be talking to us about the public health response to feotal alcohol syndrome. The context for Kirstie‟s work particularly in this province is the quasi-feudal and economic systems that in the still fairly recent past used alcohol as a form of social control and really legitimated widespread and excessive consumption of alcohol.

Read more: the Message sent by the Gerwel Family, the opening words from SOPH Director Prof. Helen Schneider, the talks of Prof O’Connell and Mrs Yach and the text of the Citation read by Prof. Sanders.