Northern Cape, South Africa 2025 – this trip is full. Monetary donations gratefully accepted!

About the Trip: Global First Responder is proud to partner once more with Dr Errol Visser,
FCFP, FRCEM, to bring a multidisciplinary team of South African physicians, clinical
nurse practitioners, mental health specialists, dentists, optometrists, social workers, OB nurses,
physiotherapists, and non-medical volunteers.  The team will deploy to the Northern Cape,
bordering on Namibia within the Kalahari, the second oldest desert on earth.

The Northern Cape is a large geographic area with isolated towns, harsh climatic conditions, and
a healthcare system with poor geographic reach.  The border area is extremely rural, with limited
healthcare opportunities for farm workers and other rural communities.  The poverty is extreme
and poorly supplied, with the primary population displaced or previously persecuted people.  For
most, the healthcare system is inaccessible with long waiting times and limited transportation
options.  We are fortunate to have a counseling social worker to provide a more comprehensive
service to our patients.

Sustainability: Building on work started in 2021, the emphasis of the mission is to augment
mainly nurse-led health care in the farming and rural communities of the Northern Cape.  These
communities are far flung from most referral centers. Our emphasis is to bring a multi-
disciplinary team to the community, to bring a different expertise to bear and to effect
appropriate referrals while also assisting to strengthen existing healthcare networks towards
sustainability of our efforts.

We will be conducting clinic visits on local farms, where the workers and their families are
mostly migrants from neighboring provinces, for 4 half days.  For 6 half days we will provide
care in the border post settlements (4th visits), informal settlements (3rd visits), and Kakamas
hospital in conjunction with the small district hospital.  The emphasis continues to be on building
and strengthening referral networks, and increasing community involvement, allowing more
people to access services and to catalyze a patient-driven improvement in health care through
education and government partnerships.

GFR’s partnership with Dr. Visser and his team has helped bring much needed education on
gender-based violence, domestic violence, and substance abuse to the farming communities of
the Northern Cape.  The population are descendants of the San, one of the oldest civilizations
known to us.   The San peoples, or Bushmen, are members of various Khoe, Tuu, or Kxʼa-
speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures that are the first cultures of Southern Africa, and
whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa. Due to economic and cultural persecution, they have now been relegated to the poorest of
the communities. Their culture goes back 30,000 years in this area.

What’s Included:  We are currently accepting donations which will be used locally in the villages where we
are working.   In addition to your donation, GFR also provides a separate donation to our partner
organization for medications, transportation, prescription glasses, and general supplies.

Please join us in this effort by donating here and specifying SouthAfrica in the donor form

www.globalfirstresponder.org/donors

How is your cost calculated? At Global First Responder we strive to keep your costs low and
our quality high.   We value your participation and willingness to volunteer your time and
expertise. Everyone at Global First Responder is also a volunteer, donating their time to
administrative tasks and paying their own way to participate in medical and construction
missions around the world and here at home.  The fee you pay covers the actual cost of your
expenses in country including lodging, transportation, meals, and translator fees and
expenses.  At GFR, no one is paid a salary and everyone is a passionate volunteer, doing our
part to help drive our mission of “One World, One Family”.

Cost:  Because GFR is not supplying personnel for this team, there is no cost to you.  However, your donation to the Northern Cape team is deductible to the fullest extent of the law.  Our hard-working partners truly appreciate your help in raising funds to benefit the marginalized and impoverished families in the communities they serve.