Page 64 - SAMRC Annual Report 2023-24

engagements has confirmed that such engagements In celebration of 30 years of
can help to shift the power asymmetries between democracy in South Africa
researchers, and community-based organisations
and communities. These learnings were captured While South Africa celebrates 30 years of democracy,
in a publication in the Journal of Cognition and we are aware that wide inequities still exist, and that
Development. a range of structural factors continue to compromise
the health and well-being of South Africans across
Our work with colleagues from the University of the life course, most especially in low-income
Leicester and the SAMRC Environment and Health communities. As a unit, we are committed to
Research Unit (LEAP-Epi – Environmental Health in conducting research using a range of methodologies
sub-Saharan African: Leveraging local and global that develops not only our scientific understanding
Air pollution data for Epidemiological research) of the health and well-being of individuals in these
included the co-development of information communities, but also their lived experiences. We
resources with community advisory groups to intend to provide a diversity of scientific evidence
understand the causes of indoor air pollution during that can contribute to the development of solutions
summer and winter. This included the feedback of to the challenges still present in South Africa.
actual data from low-cost indoor air quality sensors
which had been deployed as part of a campaign to
inform effective exposure assessment field work.

62 SAMRC ANNUAL REPOR T 2023-24