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The Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Bhekisisa is one of only a few media outlets in the Global South specialising in solutions-based narrative features and analysis. We not only uncover problems but also critically evaluate the solutions meant to fix them. It’s an approach we also take with our opinion pieces.

What makes a good op-ed? What can I expect from the editing process? Who do I pitch a possible opinion piece to? Get the answers to all these questions along with some handy writing tips here before you make a submission.

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Mia Malan: Eight lessons COVID taught me about journalism

During a crisis such as the COVID pandemic, people have simple demands of the media: how to protect themselves, which government rules they have to follow, and what the future holds. Mia Malan gives eight lessons COVID holds for newsrooms.

Rape increases your long-term risk of contracting HIV. Here’s what could fix that

Trauma care for rape survivors in South Africa has been crucially underfunded — and now there’s evidence of the HIV-related consequences.
Applications for 2017 community service and internship positions for medical graduates have just closed but were delayed as provinces scrambled to find money to open posts

We’re launching new medical schools but will we have jobs for their graduates?

The future of South Africa's doctors rests on provincial purses.
Where will newly qualified doctors go if provinces are being told to scale back staff under budget pressures?

Exhausted doctors endanger health

Medical interns are leading the battle to reduce the dangerously overlong working hours that compromise the safety of patients.

3 ways COVID sped up SA’s medicine approvals process — and how it can...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) was forced to speed up its review of new medicines such as vaccines, while still ensuring that they were safe and effective.

Will the National Health Insurance Bill go far enough to prevent corruption?

The National Health Insurance Bill was released on 8 August but a look at how well our mothers – and our finances – do in the public health sector does not bode well. Uncover the figures and the power structures that will shape the future of healthcare in South Africa. 
Hotting up: Research suggests increasingly frequent heatwaves are cutting workers down in the prime of their lives.

Climate change turns dehydration into a deadly epidemic

A new kidney disease is striking down labourers in what could be one of the first epidemics caused by global warming.
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Who should get the COVID-19 vaccine first in South Africa?

Now that the world has its first effective COVID jabs, the next challenge we have to tackle is who gets them? Here’s why the public could be key to answering this complex question in South Africa.

More food rations could devastate these refugees. Here’s why

Prevented by Bangladeshi authorities from working, refugees in the Cox’s Bazar camp are dependent on food aid, which is being cut again and again. “We cannot carry on like this,” writes Yasmin Ara.

When violence begets violence: Men, trauma & HIV in South Africa

Young men living in urban informal settlements have experienced a huge amount of violence and trauma in their own lives. This may not come as a surprise to some, but within the HIV research world, it is rarely discussed.

What developing countries can teach the Global North about how to respond to a...

When it comes to leadership and innovation, there's much that industrialised nations can learn.
Young men from a rural area of KwaZulu-Natal wait to be picked up by health workers working with Doctors Without Borders to undergo medical circumcision.

#AIDS2016: Medical male circumcision saves millions in lives and costs

Statistics show that voluntary male circumcision is a crucial weapon in the fight to control HIV.

Reality check: Women are victims twice over. Here’s why, says Tlaleng Mofokeng

High rates of sexual and gender-based violence and low access to safe abortions prove deadly for South Africa's women, writes activist Tlaleng Mofokeng.
By discounting the role that poverty and inequality play in HIV

Helen, listen to Charlize. Inequality and poverty don’t cause HIV but they do fuel...

More than 30 years into the epidemic, HIV continues to hold a mirror to society and exposes our prejudices and injustices
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Pills and phone calls: How COVID restrictions forced us to conduct abortions telephonically

COVID-19 forced many people’s jobs online – even for doctors who provide abortions. Read what Marie Stopes learned when they helped nearly 50 patients terminate pregnancies over the phone.
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How wearing a mask can slash COVID-19 deaths

The more people wear masks, the safer everyone will be, shows this modelling study.