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LEVEL B2

Shadowing the newsreader

Listen to the newsreader read out each line and then practise saying it. Record your own voice line by line and submit your voiceover.

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A train has pulled into South Africa's Dube station, not for waiting passengers, but rather patients.

Today, its load of primary healthcare will benefit residents of the famous Soweto township.

The train is equipped with instruments and gear for optometry, dentistry, general medicine and even psychology.

It also carries its own pharmacy.

One of hundreds who have arrived seeking medical help, hard up law student Retshephile Mosena has suffered with eyesight problems for two years.

Despite being Africa's most developed economy, South Africa still has widespread poverty and spiralling unemployment.

These circumstances leave many without access to healthcare, making on board medics, like optometrist Thompho Sadiki, some people's first contact with health services.

The service, named Phelophepa, meaning 'good, clean health' in the Tswana and Sotho languages, is active for 9 months every year.

It's run by state logistics company Transnet and commenced operations in 1994.

In this landmark year when apartheid finally ended, its three carriages only provided optometry care.

However, it now pulls 19 coaches providing access to a range of quality healthcare services.

And yet, according to acting train manager Thelma Sateka, there's more to be done.

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