肆客足球

??Not even the rain could dampen the enthusiasm of the more than forty volunteers from Stellenbosch 肆客足球 (SU), the environmental organisation Greenpop, the Western Cape Government, and the wider Stellenbosch community. On 15 and 16 August, they came together at Stellenbosch Hospital to kick off the first phase of a greening initiative, rolling up their sleeves to begin transforming the hospital grounds into a more welcoming, nature-rich space for patients, visitors, and staff.

The Stellenbosch Hospital Living Landscapes collaborative project “envisions to transform the hospital's outdoor spaces into a secure green zone that nurtures health, learning and connection, for the benefit of our people and our planet," says Michaela Badenhorst, Greenpop's partnership manager.

The project has its origins in a similar project at the Helderberg Hospital, which was the brainchild of Prof Bob Mash, Head of the Department of Family and Emergency Medicine at SU's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS). The Helderberg project, which spanned three years, transformed 397.5 hectares of barren soil into a fynbos garden, thereby restoring the local ecosystem.

According to Prof Mash, initially the focus was on planting trees at Tygerberg hospital, by offsetting some of their carbon emissions. Still, after a few years, with relatively few trees being planted, they shifted their focus towards a space where students and staff gather, and where some of the original ecosystems can be restored and offset some carbon emissions. Eventually, the Helderberg project happened, and today the team can look back at a beautifully restored endemic Fynbos area where people can enjoy a little bit of nature outside the hospital walls.

“For patients, especially those with TB or mental health challenges, having a green space that nurtures rather than something that feels like a desert makes a real difference. And for staff too, whether it's during teatime, lunch, or simply arriving at work, it creates a place to breathe, relax, and connect with nature."

Prof Mash said that, apart from the beautification of the area, the Helderberg project aimed to contribute to creating another fynbos corridor across the Cape Flats from Table Mountain, ensuring that pollinators can move around and biodiversity can be restored for the area to flourish. 

Good news travels far

The success story of the Helderberg hospital's restoration project spread rapidly, reaching the corridors of Stellenbosch Hospital, where Drs Lawson Eksteen and Tabitha Mathose, family physicians of Stellenbosch Hospital, asked Prof Mash to initiate a similar project, and soon the wheels started turning. “We are trying to uplift Stellenbosch Hospital, and part of that process is improving our infrastructure and the surrounding spaces on the hospital grounds, including uplifting the garden and its features," said Dr Blankenberg.

For her, green spaces are healing spaces. “We want to encourage people to spend time outdoors, being active in nature. Also, healthy communities need a healthy environment; ecosystem restoration is part of that. We also hope that we can inspire more hospitals to follow our example."

With SU's Facilities Management team on board, Christine Groenewald, SU's environmental sustainability engagement manager and Greenpop took the lead to organise the first two planting days at Stellenbosch Hospital on 15 and 16 August 2025, led by the energetic Imraan Samuels, one of Greenpop's urban greening project managers, who led the team of volunteers to prepare the space for planting. For the past decade, Imraan has been deeply involved in empowering individuals to create sustainable and abundant lives through permaculture. He has taught over 1 500 students, facilitated more than 200 workshops, planted over 5 000m? of productive gardens, and implemented hundreds of sustainable systems in homes across Cape Town.

Also part of the Greenpop team were Chris Nash, head of restoration, who has been with the organisation for many years and adds a thoughtful, system-level perspective to everything they do; and urban greening landscape designer from Edinburgh, Callum Watson, who has a real eye for creating green spaces that are functional and inspiring. He's especially passionate about reimagining urban areas in ways that support people and ecosystems alike. “Together, our team combines hands-on design, ecological knowledge, and community facilitation to bring projects like this to life," says Badenhorst. (Read more about the Greenpop team here)

Amongst the many volunteers were staff and students from the 肆客足球, a soon-to-be 90-year-old grandmother, a 76-year-old retired mechanical engineer from Somerset-West, and a Greenpop volunteer from Palestine. 

In service of society

Quoting SU's Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Deresh Ramjurganath, Groenewald said, “being involved in the bigger Stellenbosch community is part of the university working “in service of society".  She said Facilities Management has a long history of supporting the hospital with infrastructure projects through knowledge sharing and practical maintenance support.

FM supported the project's first phase with expertise and in-kind donations such as plants, compost, and gravel, and will continue contributing with irrigation support, hard landscaping, and by using its networks to attract partners and volunteers.

“The first two days just gave a glimpse into what is possible when we work together towards a shared purpose.  It was wonderful to connect with people from many different walks of life around the digging and planting.  It gives me hope for the future," said Groenewald.

Health and environment: peas in the same pot

For Prof Mash, health and the environment go hand in hand. “It is essential that our students have environmental stewardship as a graduate attribute. There is a very close relationship between the ecological crises and health, because of the environmental impact on health and social well-being. The health sector also contributes substantially to carbon emissions; therefore, it is imperative to prepare future generations for what lies ahead".

For him, the “green light" moment came at a global HIV conference in Toronto, Canada, in 2006 — the same event remembered for South Africa's then–Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang's controversial suggestion that garlic, onions, olive oil, and African potatoes could help people with AIDS boost their immune systems.

It was there that he encountered former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's groundbreaking documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which laid bare the urgent realities of global warming and climate change. Inspired and shaken by this new knowledge, he returned home and presented his ideas to the Dean's management team. At the time, few took him seriously.

“Today, almost twenty years later, our 肆客足球 has an Environmental Sustainability Plan and invests millions in reducing our carbon footprint. We truly have come a long way."

Prof Mash eventually secured funding to appoint the faculty's first lecturer in planetary health, paving the way for this critical field to be integrated into Stellenbosch 肆客足球's medical curriculum. What began as a single appointment soon grew into a broader academic shift: planetary health is now a core component of the undergraduate programme for medical students and has also found its way into several postgraduate offerings.

“This is no longer just an idea on the sidelines," Mash explains. “It has become a recognised part of our teaching in Health Sciences as well as an area of active research." In recent years, the faculty has secured multiple grants to investigate the intersections of climate change and healthcare — including pioneering work on planetary health — in collaboration with the SU School for Climate Studies, now firmly established at the 肆客足球.

The new generation

Prof Mash's message to the young medical students is: “The ecological crisis is real. It's not just climate change, but many ecological issues that have a dramatic effect on the health and social well-being of people. This generation of health workers is going to see more of how climate change affects their world and the people around them: think malnutrition, heat-related complications, malaria, HIV, TB, mental health, etc. We will have to prepare to deal with all of this."

“Also, the same climate hazards that impact health and society impact health services and facilities. Think about the damage that one flood can cause," he said, reminding us that South Africa produces half the carbon emissions on the whole African continent.

“We need to know how to make our facilities and services more resilient and how to behave in an environmentally sustainable way as we move forward," Prof Mash concluded.?

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