In a long-standing partnership with Tapologo Hospice, Impala Rustenburg has funded an upgrade of the Tapologo Training Center, and sponsored bursaries for all 30 students to complete a 12-month NQF Level 3 qualification in home-based care at the new training facility.
Tapologo Hospice is a non-profit organisation in the Phokeng region of Rustenburg which provides home-based care to people in the Bojanala district who are living with chronic or life-threatening illnesses. Tapologo also has outreach centres based in Freedom Park, Chaneng and Boitekong which provide a safe space for orphaned and vulnerable children to receive support.
“Impala Rustenburg has been involved with Tapologo since its inception. We helped to set up the first health clinic in Freedom Park and, over the past two decades, we have worked closely with the team to provide support and funding to many of the Tapologo initiatives, including the home-based care programmes that deliver such a vital service to the people of our mine communities,” says Mark Munroe, Chief Executive at Impala Rustenburg.
Dr Jon Andrews, Health and Safety Executive at Implats, emphasised that globally, home-based care has been identified as a hugely successful intervention. “Due to the small comforts and the familiar environment that home-based care offers to patients, as well as the support that they and their families receive from it, it is often the preferred method of care for patients with life threatening illnesses, as opposed to hospitalisation. The benefits have again been emphasised in our response to the covid pandemic,” says Andrews.
Based on this global, and South African trend, and due to the success of Impala Rustenburg’s covid programme, a need was identified to increase the number of home-based caregivers in the Bojanala area and in the Tapologo team, as well as a need for caregivers to hold formal qualifications in home-based care that are recognised by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Association. Together with Impala Rustenburg, Tapologo upgraded its training centre facilities to qualify as an official training venue to facilitate the courses that would result in these qualifications. The inaugural NQF Level 3 qualification training at the newly refurbished Tapologo Training Centre began in March 2022 with the first group of 30 students.
Stephen Blakeman, CEO of Tapologo Hospice says, “We are immensely grateful for everything that Impala Rustenburg has done for Tapologo over the years and are incredibly proud to have these 30 students enrolled in our official home-based care training programme, all of whom have been given a bursary by Impala Rustenburg. We are thrilled that through our partnership, we have been able to offer these students a chance to fulfill their passion for caring for people in their communities.”
Impala Rustenburg’s partnership with Tapologo extends well beyond the contributions and funding of the home-based care programme. The mining company has been involved in several impactful initiatives with Tapologo including the vaccination against Covid-19 of a number of their patients, as well as their healthcare workers and nurses to ensure they were able to safely work in the communities during the pandemic. Most recently, in the spirit of Mandela Day, senior executives from Impala Rustenburg visited the Tapologo Training Centre to meet the students who received the bursaries, and also visited the Tapologo Outreach Centres in Freedom Park and Chaneng to hand out food parcels and care packs to patients and children who are registered with the centres.
“We consider it a privilege to be able to extend our support of Tapologo even further, and a day like Mandela Day offers one of many opportunities for us to do that. Tapologo is an organisation that is fully aligned with our philosophy of going above and beyond for the people of our mine communities. This is a partnership that we truly value,” concludes Munroe.
