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Short Form

Short Form Journalism by the Bhekisisa Team

Amelie Chauke was able to keep up with her healthcare on the go and ensure her baby was born HIV negative with the help of farm-based clinics.

Plant, pick, pack: Finding Mpumalanga’s missing fruit pickers

In this province, the agricultural and mining sectors draw thousands of workers each year – and then they disappear. Here’s why we need to find them.

#COP27: These KZN flood victims’ fates were sealed years ago

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Nokwazi Mbambo watched her life wash away in April, and little has changed 6 months later. Read more on how the climate change induced floods that destroyed her home.

Pandemic politics: Community health workers gear up to fight COVID-19 with little protection,...

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Around the world, SARS-CoV-2 has stopped everyday life dead in its tracks. The virus has also scratched open old wounds between the health department and community health workers, a cadre essential to the fight against the pandemic.
Why this country is thinking outside the box whene it comes to cervical cancer screening and the HPV vaccine.

Shots, myths & cash: The perilous road to curbing cancer

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Before 2011, this country couldn’t screen for cervical cancer let alone prevent it. Since then everything’s changed.
Reach out: Mobilisers select busy areas of the township

Man to man, sexual health needs are better met at male-only clinics

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A centre employing only men has opened in Khayelitsha to address the needs of males uneasy about being seen at mixed-gender facilities.
Less than 3 % of South African infants are exclusively breastfed for the recommended six months

Four reasons why breast is best: Babies are smarter, healthier and better behaved

Infants are less likely to be obese and mothers' have a lower risk of cancer

When there was no list of free abortion clinics, we made our own. Here’s...

How we found the country's 'missing' abortion providers – and mapped contraception services too. Bhekisisa has created #SizaMap, South Africa's first searchable map of free abortion providers....
Impressed: Researcher Ché  Makanjee is counselled before his HIV test at Charlotte Maxeke hospital.

Private sector lags in HIV testing

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Government facilities are trumping their larnier colleagues in providing HIV services.
Zanele sits alongside her 13-year-old son

How to tell your child you have HIV

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More than three decades into the HIV epidemic, some conversations haven't become any easier. This is one of them.
Young refugees at Kenya’s sprawling Dadaab refugee complex are seen during a visit from Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.

How this 19-year-old fell prey to human traffickers

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Unsafe in Somalia and unwanted in Kenya, refugees increasingly risk abduction in search of a better life.

Farmers vs. pharmacists: How South Africa’s ivermectin use slips through the cracks

There’s less demand for human ivermectin in South Africa when the country is in between COVID waves. But nobody is tracking how many people may be using the animal formulation.
The ANC maintains that Malakoane did an excellent job at the helm of the province's health system even after the Medicine Control Council shut down an unlawful stem cell "trial" at one of the province's hospital this week.

How a dying woman’s bed was taken by an ANC official

In the Free State, access to health services can depend on who you know, as the tragic case of one woman illustrates.
A doctor bends down to check young cancer patient's heartbeat.

From the mouths of babes: This is what it’s like to be diagnosed with...

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Death comes for us all and when it does, we hope it’s a good one. We hope it has meaning, we hope it’s painless and that those we leave behind are cared for. Turns out, it doesn’t matter if you’re 80 or eight.

What it’s like to be hospitalised and diabetic: ‘Vaccination saved my life’

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Karyn Maughan lives with diabetes and was partially vaccinated when she contracted the virus that causes COVID-19. But because of vaccination she survived the illness — unlike two of her unvaccinated colleagues, who also had diabetes, and died.
Young people seeking sexual healthcare often shy away from clinics because of nurses' attitudes towards them. Virtual reality could help to change that.

Virtual reality and SA’s quest for happier nurses

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South Africa's public health nurses are infamous for having bad attitudes. Could a pair of goggles help them change their ways?
The paramedics don’t care about us. If we mention that the person has overdosed they won’t come, they won’t help us, especially if you are black.

#SliceofLife: ‘She made a joke out of my friend’s death’

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When Mark died, emergency services left his body on the pavement in central Pretoria for hours.