As a young South African woman I have only one aspiration, and that is to bring healthcare to the poorest and most vulnerable people. In this country, every sphere of our society is divided along lines of class, particularly our social spaces including public transport, restaurants and shopping. In the spaces which are meant to fulfill basic human rights - healthcare and education, there are stark and unjust differences between the public and private sectors.

My passion and lifelong dream for improving the health system stems from my personal experiences - at a very young age, witnessing first-hand the dire state of public health services, intertwined within a midst of discrimination, stigma and vulnerability.

An early morning rise at 5am, packing a lunchbox, dreading the long day ahead. After finding transport to the hospital, I remember standing, cold, at the end of a long queue, waiting for the hospital to open. Nothing is ever clear cut when seeking healthcare at a public facility; there are frustrations around how to pay, in accessing your medical file, as well as collecting routine medications that seem to change at least every other month. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I once took my patient file home just to avoid the filing line and to avoid it being misplaced.

On another occasion, I’ve had to deal with the emotions of extreme sadness and concern when leaving a family member in a prison ward the night before an operation because there were no other beds available in the hospital. But what can one do? The answer then was nothing, not when you do not have the choice (or money) but to rely on public health services. The sense of powerlessness and injustice has never left me. In fact it shapes my every action and is the reason why I am committed to never having any patient or their families experience such conditions.

The reality is that there are many worse experiences with disastrous health outcomes, especially for vulnerable people, such as the 94+ mental health patients in South Africa who were treated like animals and massacred due to poor leadership, inefficiency and no value for patient rights.

I began to grapple and understand these challenges while pursuing a career in public health and joining the Resilient and Responsive Health Systems research project in April 2013. The past four years has given me many opportunities to learn first-hand the challenges facing the health system, but also to be part of a brilliant multi-country consortia led by remarkable health system gurus of our generation, especially Lucy Gilson. Through the research, I have interacted and collaborated with many public sector health providers, working with them to strengthen the health system. Involvement in the project has undoubtedly set me on the path to combining research with practice and trying multiple mechanisms to engage policy makers and bring about wide-reaching, positive change.