Background

The long years of work in Elandsdoorn have brought extensive practical experience and essential findings of diverse research results. The Ndlovu Care Group began to prepare detailed program evaluations and impact analyses, to provide them with evidence based foundations and to mature NCG scientifically. Since 2006 NCG works together with Utrecht University, the Netherlands, especially the faculty of Social Sciences , Internal Medicine and Virology. In 2014 the Ndlovu Research Consortium was founded, leading to the Ndlovu Research Department in collaboration with world-class and reputable research institutions, academics and funders.

Why is the Ndlovu Research Department so different?

First it connected a University from the developed world to a University of a middle and lower income country, the University of Utrecht and the Witswatersrand University to stimulate academic exchange to perform first class academic work in the rural areas of Limpopo where the NGO Ndlovu Care Group has an academic interest and access to a large study population.

Secondly the participating scientists of both Universities have a shared vision that the solutions of the TB/HIV epidemic is not vested in the medical field alone but in a combined epidemiological, social-scientific, medical holistic approach.

Thirdly it is not only an academic research site but also has trial activities ongoing for product, vaccine and /or drug development. All trials are related to the improvement of Public Health especially in the fields of prevention treatment & care of HIV, TB and Communicable diseases. It is our wish and hope to add cure research onto this in the near future.

In 2017, Ndlovu Care Group set up a research centre in the community of Elandsdoorn, where the long-term effects of HIV infection, its associated chronic diseases and socio-economic problems can be investigated thoroughly and permanently. In the Ndlovu Research Centre different institutions work together: Ndlovu Care Group based in Elandsdoorn, the University Witwatersrand based in Johannesburg, the University of Utrecht and several sponsors of product development trials like International Partnership for Microbicides and the HIV Vaccine Trial Network. The multidisciplinary partnership covers a broad research environment.

The uniqueness of the Ndlovu Research Department is the mix between academic research and trial research which tries to translate research results immediately into policy documents leading to improved treatment guidelines and patient care.