Masephure Tshidi Shokoane is a clinical associate and former community health worker (CHW), who currently works as a vaccinator for the COPC project in Port Nolloth, Northern Cape. From 2014 to 2017,  she worked as a CHW for the City of Tshwane's WBOT program.
Her role was primarily to prevent illnesses from occurring or to keep them from worsening for those who already had the disease, as well as to manage minor illnesses. During that time, she was offered an NCV course in Primary health care by the University of Pretoria, which enabled her to study BCMP at UP.

During that time, she realized that working together with communities would improve the health of the community, and learned to work as a team member.  "Our patients were extremely welcoming to us, and they were fully engaged", she said.
Questions posed by patients inspired her to continue with her studies, as she wanted to better understand community conditions such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, hypertension, diabetes, and psychosocial factors. Another thing that encouraged her, was the NCV course "because I had always wanted to have a qualification that I believed would change my home situation and empower me.
As a Clinical Associate, she was able to understand patient conditions, apply clinical reasoning, and appropriately manage patients. Her current responsibilities include clinical work, vaccination, and patient management following vaccine administration, as well as assisting our clinics in operating efficiently, as they are located in rural areas with limited staff and resources.

Because there was a shortage of health professionals, she believed that our country required more clinical associates and the empowerment of CHW to help district and rural facilities function properly. She believed that in order to become a clinical associate in our country, one must be passionate about improving people's health. However, if one was looking for money, he or she should consider studying for another cause, especially for young students fresh out of high school, because clinical associate salaries are currently among the lowest in the health profession.

"What I enjoy most about my job is the opportunity to interact with patients and educate them on vaccines, as well as assisting them in overcoming vaccine apprehension".She got a lot of satisfaction from knowing that her patients were well-informed and satisfied with their treatment because it motivated them to take care of themselves. Also, in order to continue being a team member and motivating community health workers to see that it is possible, they must do good for their patients and put forth effort in whatever they wish to achieve.