SHAWCO, the everlasting! SHAWCO, the stalwart! SHAWCO, the indefatigable! For as long as medical and allied health students at the University of Cape Town (UCT) can remember, the Students’ Health and Welfare Centres Organisation (SHAWCO) has been a reassuring presence — a reminder that even the lowliest first year with no clinical experience can make a difference now — today! In the timeless words of Anne Frank, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” For decades — eight of them, in fact — SHAWCO Health has embodied this sentiment: that you do not need a fancy degree or decades of experience to do the right thing to assist those in need of it. The only thing you need is the will to do so.

Since its inception in 1943, SHAWCO Health has had a central tenet, an unfaltering mission: to address the unmet healthcare needs of individuals in the Western Cape who are unable to access care through the traditional systems. Although times, policies and people have changed (most notably, the abolishment of apartheid and the establishment of a constitution truly promoting ‘Health for All’), this mission has not changed.

Still, South Africa has an unacceptably high infant mortality rate; still, our burden of communicable — but preventable — diseases is staggering; and still, our current primordial and primary healthcare systems are overflowing, understaffed and under-resourced. In short, they are wholly inadequate to cater to the South African populace. This is why services like SHAWCO Health are still needed, and why we need health professionals — current and future — to step in as volunteers at our SHAWCO Health Clinics.

The beauty of SHAWCO is that we can prove that this work matters. One of the most rewarding things about this institution is that we see the fruits of our labours. Every clinic, every screening and every referral tells a story far bigger than the few hours we spend on site. Each year, SHAWCO Health reaches 1 000+ patients across 10 communities, identifies dozens of undiagnosed chronic conditions, distributes hundreds of free essential medications and refers high-risk cases that would otherwise never have been identified in the formal health system. We identify pre-cancerous cervical lesions with our well-established Pap smear service and see medical emergencies requiring urgent attention.

Our health and rehabilitation services provide compassionate, evidence-based care that restores function, promotes independence and supports patients in reclaiming their quality of life. Moreover, our health promotion services provide the most important prevention measure of all: patient education.

Beyond that, the research we conduct enables us to understand the evolving needs of the communities we serve, guiding smarter, more responsive interventions and ensuring that SHAWCO’s work delivers meaningful, measurable impact where it matters most. These are not abstract achievements; they are measurable, life-altering interventions that ripple outwards into families, schools and entire communities. The impact is real, it is trackable and it is growing.

All of this impact is powered by SHAWCO’s defining strength — its second tenet: the student-led model. In this uniquely intergenerational space, supervisors provide essential clinical oversight, senior medical students consolidate and sharpen their practical skills, and preclinical students gain early exposure to real patient care. Our mobile clinics become living classrooms where service, healing, learning and mentorship intertwine and complement each other, ultimately ensuring that we not only uplift communities but also shape competent, compassionate future health professionals.

And so, as we enter the 84th year of SHAWCO’s existence in 2026, we want to expand and improve our service delivery while staying true to our identity. We aim to strengthen SHAWCO Health by consolidating and improving our operating guidelines; boosting our monitoring systems, reporting structures and institutional memory; and deepening our integration with UCT, community partners and collaborator organisations. We plan to expand holistic care by incorporating social work, psychosocial services and stronger supervisor networks into every clinic while diversifying our fundraising through alumni support, corporate partnerships and community-driven giving. Above all, we want SHAWCO to remain a well-governed, student-led organisation that delivers integrated, community-rooted primary healthcare — fit for the future and firmly aligned with the needs of the people we serve.

You may be asking, “What does this mean for me, and why is this article here in the first place?” It’s simple: SHAWCO’s work is only possible because people like you choose to stand with us. Our clinics run on the passion of student volunteers, the expertise of healthcare workers and the willingness of the medical community to invest their time, skills and heart into something bigger than themselves. If we want to expand our services, strengthen our impact and meet the growing needs of the communities we serve, we need you — your hands, your knowledge, your leadership, your presence. This is an invitation to be part of a model that only works through collective buy-in, and a belief that healthcare can be more accessible and more just when we build it together.

If you’re interested in volunteering or just want to find out more, please contact us at health@shawco.org, visit our Instagram page (@shawco_uct), LinkedIn (@SHAWCO) or website (https://shawco.org/shawco-health), or read more about our operations in 2025 in our recent newsletter: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gw20uNPm5yWk7yU0f4r6l0HwpTr4CPLA/view?usp=drive_link.