University of Cape Town (UCT) student Saadiq Moolla has developed a mobile solution to help the diagnosis and treatment of Xhosa patients through translations.
Meeting a need for the majority of the South African population who are challenged by language differences, the cell phone-based website Xhosa Mobile provides bilingual translations of common used medical phrases and terms.
Moolla, also the president of Students’ Health and Welfare Centres Organisation (SHAWCO), said: “Language proficiency is part of our medical training. We learn Afrikaans and isiXhosa through the Department of African Languages in the School of Languages and Literatures, which teach us the basic skills needed to communicate with patients.”
Users can access the translations, as well as a dictionary through a mobisite via a URL.
Word or phrase searches are grouped according to common use.
Moolla started developing this idea into a reality approximately two years ago when he spotted the need for a language-based solution during his volunteer work period at SHAWCO clinics.
He also had a keen interest in web design and communications since his school days at Rondebosch Boys’ High School, in Cape Town.
Future developments include sound bite additions as well as other language vernacular expansions.
South Africa has eleven official languages with an estimated Xhosa population of 5.3 million speakers.
HumanIPO reported earlier this year on the development of technical Zulu words for
Phiwayinkosi Mbuyazi’s book on the discovery of modern technology for an African audience.
SHAWCO is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) initiated by the UCT, aiming to provide medical aid to surrounding impoverished communities.
