Profile Category: Breakout Speakers

Gift Makwala

Gift has been a member of Champions for Life (CFL) - (a faith-based psycho-social support program for adolescents living with HIV) for over 20 years. Currently serving as Director of CFL, Gift has contributed and advocated for a bigger role for PSS care in the holistic treatment of adolescents living with HIV. Gift’s passion to see young people with HIV prosper, has driven him to push the CFL program to 11 countries and 24 cities in southern and east Africa – impacting thousands of lives. Gift has facilitated and fostered relationships with some of top HIV clinics and hospitals in the region.

Gift’s dream is to see a collective strong response from all stakeholders to the issues affecting young people living with HIV.

Dr Tinashe Manyanga, MBChB, MMed (Internal Medicine), FCP (SA), Executive MBA, MPH (ongoing)
Husband to Charlene, Father to Mikayla and Mileyna
Internal Medicine Specialist and Consultant at Sally Mugabe Central Hospital. Practicing partner at Pioneering Health Group. A public health enthusiast who

A teacher of the word by calling, a student of theology and a Christian Apologist. Been in ministry among young people for over 20 years.

I studied through UNISA and University of KwaZulu-Natal completed an internship as a Counselling Psychologist in McCord Hospital, Durban. Through the years, with the assistance and passion of many other interns, I developed a Psychology Department in McCord Hospital. My career was fruitfully and gratefully spent, through the glory of God, in McCord Hospital and connecting clinics and government hospitals. At McCord,  I was involved in supporting intern medical doctors with their personal, family, and work challenges at this stage of their careers. My interns and I provided support groups for medical officers, in particular, during the hard early stages of the HIV epidemic. In recent years, I moved around government hospitals supporting staff with their Covid challenges. Through the years, my staff and I worked in McCord wards providing crisis and health issue counselling. In latter years before retirement, as part of my McCord Hospital work, I assisted in counselling patients in the wards of a government urology hospital.
I am now retired but still work in various private and HPCSA (Health Professions Council) capacities.
I am a wife and mother of three grown-up children and three grandchildren. I love travelling, gardening, singing, playing musical instruments, and reading. I feel privileged to attend church and various Christian groups.

Dr Patrick Masokwane is a registered medical and public health practitioner. He is currently the Director of Health Inspectorate in Botswana and is one of the founding members of the Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Botswana. He has also been the International Christian Medical and Dental Association (ICMDA) representative for Botswana in the past. He is married to Neo Masokwane and they are blessed with two boys, Dwayne-Ditso and Balogun.

Dr Masokwane has worked in clinical settings for over eleven years and has been at the helm of health regulation in Botswana for over a decade. One of Dr Masokwane’s beliefs is that when health regulation is carried out taking all factors in context, it has potential to improve most health outcomes. Dr Masokwane is also an advocate for Christian Medical fellowships and he sees them as a key contributor in realizing comprehensive primary health by advocating for spiritual aspects of health.

I am born in the Netherlands in a rural village and studied medicine at the University of Rotterdam from 1969 to 1975. As preparation to work in a developing country I did one year surgery and six month obstetrics. In 1976 my wife Mies and I decided to go and work in Gelukspan hospital. This was at that time still a mission hospital but by the time we arrived at the hospital it was handed over to the homeland government.
Thereafter I worked at Medunsa in the nutrition unit and department of Family Medicine for 3 years. In 1990 we went back to the Netherlands and we had a family medicine practice in Leerdam until 2010. From 2010 I got a job at the department of Family Medicine at UP and my main task is the training of Clinical Associates and supervision of the district health rotation of the medical students. From 2017 I am involved in palliative care and developing CPD training and teaching material for district hospitals. I have retired from the university in 2022.
I am happily married for 48 years with Mies and all these years we have lived and worked together. We have 4 boys, 3 daughters in law, 4 granddaughters and 1 grandson.