Rachel Jewkes
Unit Director
Tel: +27 (0)12 339-8525
E-mail: rjewkes@mrc.ac.za
Rachel is the director of the MRC Gender & Health Unit and is based in Pretoria. She trained as a medical doctor and is a specialist in Public Health Medicine. She has a Masters in Community Medicine and Doctorate of Medicine (MD) from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London. She has spent the last 12 years researching gender-based violence, particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence (including child sexual abuse), in South Africa using methods drawn from anthropology, epidemiology and health systems research. She has authored over one hundred and fifty publications in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and reports. She has worked closely with the South African Government over many years on sexual violence policy in the health sector. She is the Secretary of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative, an initiative of the Global Forum for Health Research, and was a member of the steering committee of the WHO multi-country study on violence against women. Her other research interests include youth sexuality, evaluation of behavioural interventions for HIV prevention, termination of pregnancy, reproductive health and community participation. Most importantly she has been working to ensure that these research findings are translated into interventions within society to improve the lives of women. She was a co-founder and is an active lecturer on the annual four week short course on Reproductive Health Research Methods (for more info check www.rhru.co.za) which is in its 11th year. She has a very active programme of PhD supervision and is also an Honorary Professor in the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand and since 1995 has been an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. |
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Naeemah Abrahams
Deputy Unit Director
Tel: +21 (0) 21 938 0445
E-mail: naeema.abrahams@mrc.ac.za
Naeemah is the Unit’s Deputy Director and a Senior-Specialist Scientist. She has a PhD and MPhil in Public Health and started her career as a nurse. She has worked at the MRC for nearly 20 years, initially in the Trauma Programme and has been working with Rachel Jewkes since 1995. Her special interests are gender-based violence, health responses to gender based violence, femicide, child sexual abuse and the interface between GBV and HIV. Her research interest are in both epidemiological and qualitative methods. Her current research activities include sexual assault services - particular adherence to post exposure prophylaxis after rape to prevent HIV and mental health services for rape survivors and social responses to HIV and rape. She is also involve in the Global Burden of Disease study in collaboration with WHO and the London School of Health and Tropical Medicine. She was the technical advisor providing epidemiological support to the Namibia country site study on Domestic Violence and Health. She is also a foreign faculty member of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. |
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Shanaaz Mathews
Scientist
Tel: +27 (0) 21 938 0448
E-mail: shanaaz.mathews@mrc.ac.za
Shanaaz is a scientist and is currently working on a PhD on intimate femicide. She has a Masters in Public Health and started her career as a Clinical Social Worker, with a focus on child sexual abuse. She also worked in the NGO sector and has been involved in advocacy and lobbying for gender sensitive policy development. She is a founder member of the Western Cape Network on Violence against Women and was Chair of the Network 1999- 2000, Vice-Chair from 2000 - 2002 and is currently still an active member. She has been engaged in research on the epidemiology of female homicide and the socio-cultural context of intimate femicide at the MRC since 2000. |
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Yandisa Sikweyiya
Scientist
Tel: +27 (0) 12 3398553
E-mail: yandisa.sikweyiya@mrc.ac.za
Yandisa is a Scientist and has a Masters In Public Health. He is currently involved in research on male experiences of coercion into sex and rape perpetration. He has a special interest in ethics and was a Fellow on the SARETI Programme in 2006. He worked on the Stepping Stones Study in Mthatha from its inception in 2002 and in 2006 moved to Pretoria to commence work towards a PhD. |
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Liz Dartnall
Project Manager, Sexual Violence Research Initiative
Tel: +27 12 338 8527
E-mail: liz.dartnall@mrc.ac.za or svri@mrc.ac.za
Liz is a health policy specialist with strong research, public policy and project management experience. She is the project Manager of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative of the Global Forum for Health Research, hosted by the South African Medical Research Council. Liz has a Post-graduate Degree in Psychology from Curtin University in Australia and a Masters in Science (Medicine) from the University of the Witwatersrand. She was a researcher at the Center for Health Policy, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; has worked for the Health Department's of both Western Australia and South Africa; and was Senior Programme Manager for AMREF South Africa. |
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Monalisa Hela
Senior Administrator
Senior administrative assistant
Tel: +27 (0) 12 339-8526
E-mail: monalisa.hela@mrc.ac.za
Monalisa Hela is the interim assistant to the Gender & Health Research Unit’s Director, Mthatha office, Cape Town Office and also the administrator responsible for the daily operations of the entire Unit. She is a dedicated committed and hard working person who always go an extra mile to ensure quality and efficiency. |
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Natasha Hendricks
Research technologist
Tel: +27 (0) 21 9380414
E-mail: natasha.hendricks@mrc.ac.za
Natasha is a Junior Scientist based in Cape Town. She has a Master’s in Research Psychology and has worked on numerous studies within the unit including ‘Adherence to PEP after a Sexual Assault’ and the ‘Psychosocial needs of Child Sexual Abuse survivors’. She is also part of the research team for the 2nd National Female and Child Homicide Study conducted this year. She is currently completing her Master’s in Public Health at UCT, where she is working on her dissertation focusing on ‘Disclosure of Child Sexual Abuse by a group of girls in the Western Cape’. |
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Lizle Loots
Scientist
Tel: +27 (0) 21 938 0422
E-mail: lizle.loots@mrc.ac.za
Lizle is a researcher based in Cape Town and has been with the MRC since 2006. She is a Sociologist and works on the Sexual Violence Research Initiative of the Global Forum for Health Research, hosted by the South African Medical Research Council. |
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Bongwekazi Rapiya
Research Technologist
El: +27 (0) 21 9380329
E-mail: Bongwekazi.Rapiya@mrc.ac.za
Bongwekazi works in the Cape Town office where she works with Naeemah on the study to improve adherence to PEP after a sexual assault. Bongwekazi worked for nearly 3 years on the Stepping Stones study in Mthatha. |
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Mohau Makhosane
Chief Research Technologist
Tel +27 (0) 12 88908554
E-mail: mohau.makhosane@mrc.ac.za
Mohau Makhosane is a registered professional nurse who worked for the Department of Health since 1997 post registration. He was one of the first nurses in Africa to be trained as a Forensic Nurse in 1998 and he was subsequently appointed in 1999 as the first practising Clinical Forensic Nurse in South Africa. In 2001 he was appointed as a tutor at Henrietta Stockdale Nursing College in Kimberley where he was responsible for the incorporation of forensic nursing into the mainstream training of nurses. In 2002 he was appointed Deputy Director Clinical Medico-Legal Services by the Gauteng Department of Health. His main responsibility was the management and development of clinical medico-legal services including services for victims of gender based violence. Some of the milestones of his work with the department are the successful implementation of the PEP programme for survivors of sexual violence, the establishment of the first training in caring for survivors of sexual assault for both nurses and doctors and the establishment of clinical forensic medical services as an independently funded programme. He was appointed to the MRC Gender & Health Research Unit in January 2009 as Chief Research Technologist responsible for assisting African Regional countries with the development of health responses to sexual violence. He is currently pursuing a Masters in Public Health in Social & Behavioural Change Communication through the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand. |
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