Pandemics and Society - Community Engagements

Nabeelah Bemath is the academic coordinator of the three-year Bachelor of Health Sciences (BHSc) degree programme at the University of Witwatersrand, and is a registered research psychologist. In coordinating academic matters pertaining to the BHSc, she has been involved in academic support and curriculum development of the Health Systems Sciences track of the programme. Along with a burgeoning interest in the teaching and learning of Health Science students, her research interests lie in public mental health, cognitive neuropsychology and cognitive neuropsychological assessment in the South African context.

Vinayak Bhardwaj is the Regional Migration Advisor for Southern Africa, having worked as deputy head of mission for MSF South Africa for the last two years he is currently pursuing his MPH studies at the the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he is focusing on health systems and policy.

He was born and raised in Zimbabwe and completed his university education in South Africa, where he studied biochemistry and chemical engineering. Since then, he has worked in numerous fields, including investigative journalism, textbook-writing and within international donor organizations focused on human rights. More recently he worked as a public health fact-checking journalist at Africa Check, a news organization based in South Africa. He also co-founded a digital health company aimed at improving self-management of diabetes.

Fundamentally, he is motivated by the quest for social justice through the prism of more equitable for all. He aims to tackle this through helping develop more inclusive health financing mechanisms and by deploying technology as a one of many tools in improving health outcomes in low-income, underserved communities.

Imtiaz Sooliman founded the Gift of the Givers Foundation, and has since then delivered more than R160 million in a 13-year period to 22 countries, including South Africa. The organisation is impartial and apolitical, and aims to serve with compassion, kindness and mercy. One of the notable gifts that he organised was the donation of a well-equipped field hospital first used during the Bosnian War.

In 2003, his organisation became the first in South African history to receive R60 million from the South African Government for humanitarian aid in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.

The Gift of the Givers Foundation is the largest disaster response non-governmental organisation of African origin on the African continent. In a 15-year period, the organisation has developed into one of the most respected international humanitarian agencies, being the first such agency to be accredited by Proudly South African.