The Phelophepa Health Care Train 2015
The Phelophepa Health Care Train will be coming to the Western Cape this year. The train will be on the railroads from Monday 17 August to Friday 2 October 2015.
Phelophepa is a combination of Sotho and Tswana, meaning “Good Clean Health” in English.
The Phelophepa Health Care Train was a significant step forward in the Transnet Foundation’s vision of providing quality health care where health services and infrastructure were not fully in place. The Phelophepa Health Care Train has shown incredible growth since its humble beginnings as a 3 carriage eye clinic.
Now, 18 years later, the Phelophepa has expanded to an impressive 18 carriage train delivering primary health care, education and outreach programmes including: HIV/AIDS education. Additional services include training community volunteers in basic health care and screening/educating local schoolchildren.
There are 2 Phelophepa trains operating: 
Phelophepa 1 brings hope and good health to thousands and is fondly referred to as “the miracle train” by many. It travels for 35 weeks each year visiting a different rural community every week.
Phelophepa 2 aims to reach more communities, and began operating in March 2012 in the Eastern Cape following the success of the first Phelophepa Health Train.
Over the years, as the Phelophepa Health Train continued operating, the need for health care services in different communities grew. This need put plans for a second health train in place. On 12 March 2012, South Africa was introduced to Phelophepa 2 for the first time.
Since its inception in 1994, the Phelophepa Health Care Train has helped 23.5 million people in South Africa. Provisions for the train’s health care services are mostly free of charge or charged at a low cost for people living in rural areas. Services offered are:
- a health clinic,
- a dental
- an eye clinic,
- a psychology clinic, and
- cancer screening services
Train routes
The route for the Phelophepa 2015 is as follows:
- De Doorns: Monday 17 August to Friday 21 August,
- Oudtshoorn: Monday 24 August to Friday 28 August,
- George: Monday 31 August to Friday 4 September,
- Swellendam: Monday 7 September to Friday 11 September,
- Ashton: Monday 14 September to Friday 18 September,
- Saldanha: Monday 21 September to Friday 25 September, and
- Saldanha: Monday 28 September to Friday 2 October.
Background of the train
The Phelophepa Health Train started operating in 1994 with only 3 eye clinic carriages. A year later, in 1995, after seeing the need for a wider primary health care, the train grew its services to include a lot more comprehensive optometry, dental and psychological care.
Read more about the Phelophepa Health Train:
Sources:
Transnet Foundation
Train of Hope
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