Biography

Mankuba Jacobeth Ramalepe is the director of Community Responsiveness Programmes (CRP) a non-profit organization she initiated in 1999, located in Limpopo Province of South Africa. CRP coordinates and facilitates the training of health and social development workers - lay counselors and home based care givers. She also mobilizes communities to work together and create dialogue on the prevention of stigma and discrimination of people living with HIV and AIDS (community capacity enhancement). Mankuba has decades of experience in the health care profession, starting as a registered nurse in 1976. In 1979 she co- founded and practiced in in a private medical clinic which later developed and led to the establishment of lthuseng Community Association, the first non- governmental organization in the area, under the leadership of Dr. Mamphela Ramphele. Mankuba is consulted by provincial and National departments of health - as well as other national organizations - and is engaged to participate in research training and learning programmes in South Africa. Her ideas developed into the establishment of the Village Health Workers Programme, currently known as the Community Caregivers Programme. This programme addressed issues in the household, providing care to children, mothers and the elderly. Programme workers educated mothers on relevant issues, addressing specific problems in each family and village. This programme led to the establishment of a number of child care centres, family and community gardens, and food production projects. Mankuba has received many fellowships and awards. She was given a study grant by The Ford Foundation in 1982. In 1990, she was a fellow of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation International Leadership Program, and in 1995 received a study grant that enabled her to complete a Master's degree in nursing sciences. In 2007, Mankuba enrolled in a PHD program with the University of Venda, which she completed in March 2014. Mankuba is the recipient of the 1995 Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights, in recognition of outstanding personal dedication to improving the health of the disadvantaged in South Africa. In 1996, Mankuba was awarded the second Audrey Lorde Legacy Award of the Institute Centre for Women (Washington DC) for outstanding achievement of the health of women and children in Lenyenye and surrounding villages. She is the winner of the Dr. Comlan Quenum Prize for Public Health by the African Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2000, in recognition of her contribution to the health and well-being of all people, especially the women in South Africa. She is a mother of 4 children (2 boys, 2 girls) and has 2 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.