Paarl Rotary Club has appointed a new doctor to run its female health education project for adolescents in local schools, called Girls’Talk. The project leader, gynaecologist Dr Burga Schwoerer, who over the past two years has visited Paarl schools to teach young girls about women’s health, is returning to Germany. Her course covers female anatomy, pregnancy, contraception and sexually transmitted diseases. Dr Schwoerer previously worked for a German NGO (the AGGF) which employs 80 female doctors, covering almost the whole of Germany, to help with sex education at schools. She launched a similar youth guidance project in Paarl, which is supported by the Rotary Club of Paarl, two German Rotary clubs, Bayreuth and Jena (Ernst Abbe), as well as a global grant from the Rotary Foundation. Dr Schwoerer, who recently expanded the project to include a similar course for boys, will now hand over the reins to general practitioner Dr Nelmarie Pitout, who will continue to visit local schools to promote health education among adolescents.
Pictured are Dr Burga Schwoerer, second left, who recently handed over the reins of the Paarl Rotary Girls’ Talk project to Dr Nelmarie Pitout, right, with Marita van der Sluys, Paarl Rotary president, left; and Rotarian Elsabé Koch, Girls’ Talk coordinator.