The Gauteng Department of Health together with Gauteng Nurse Leaders Forum (GNLF) held Nurses Prayer Day today to celebrate the role played by nurses on health system in Gauteng province, at Grace Bible Church in Pimville Soweto.
Acting Head of Department Lesiba Malotana said the prayer day takes place during the time when cabinet has declared that from 25 to 29 November 2020, are days set apart to mourn victims of both COVID-19 and Gender Based Violence in South Africa.
“In February 2020, World Health Organisation (WHO) launched 2020 as the ‘Year of Nurse and Midwife campaign’ here in South Africa, which was supported by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and World Bank. The launch was under the stewardship of Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA), where social network platforms were used to raise awareness about the value and contributions that nurses and midwives bring to the health system. Health department also consider Employee Value Proposition Programme which has given recognition to health-workers in the province”, he said.
Malotana said the department has been focusing on the critical contribution of 22 million nurses and 2 million midwives, who make up half of the global health workforce throughout 2020. He added that nurses and other health-workers had to be committed, dedicated and selflessness when responding to COVID-19 pandemic.
“National Department of Health has urged government, businesses, stakeholders, community, civil society, faith based organisations such as churches to work with The Exceptional Nurses (T.E.N) Campaign to acknowledge and support nurses as well as midwives. Through T.E.N campaign and other partners, we improve health services by strengthening the nursing and midwifery workforce. However, a lot of work still needs to be done to strengthen the health system in Gauteng, South Africa and the continent. We are still observing the week of ‘23 to 30 November 2020 as Africa Mask Week’ which was declared by the African Union, to show importance of wearing masks in order to prevent spread of Covid-19”, said Malotana.
