UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA ONE HEALTH WORKSHOP AT MUNGENA HIGH SCHOOL - Ilana van Wyk (Hans Hoheisen Wildlife Research Station, UP)

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There is a strong relationship between the health of humans, animals – be that domestic or wild – and the environment.  Where is there a better example of this “One Health” concept than in communities that live at the interface of expansive conservation areas, such as the Bushbuckridge community?
One 10th August, a group of lecturers from the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases (DVTD), from the University of Pretoria (UP), hosted a One Health workshop with learners from Mungena High School. The Onderstepoort Veterinary Faculty of UP runs the Hluvukani Animal Clinic, a community clinic that provides veterinary services to the people of Hluvukani and surrounds. The Mungena High School is a close neighbour of the clinic and was therefore approached to host the workshop.  Forty learners from various grades were asked to prepare posters on various topics, such as cattle, dogs, humans, drinking water, and the environmental health beforehand. The learners had to identify aspects of their topics that point to either a healthy or unhealthy state of each topic, as well as factors that result in or remedy an unhealthy status. 
On Saturday morning learners, teachers, lecturers and Environmental Monitors from UP met at the school and the learners had the opportunity to present their posters. They all did an exceptional job and it was clear the learners did their homework in researching their topics. It was interesting that the learner’s identified similar issues that affect the topics of their presentations, such as littering, poor nutrition and disease. It is clear that human health, animal health and environmental health are all related and dependent on each other. 
It is very exciting to see how much knowledge the children gained from preparing their posters and also learned from the other teams’ presentations. One group even reported that they are no longer scared of goats just by learning more about them! We look forward to the next One Health workshop next year.

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