Sperm donation more than a wank

DO NOT let the name fool you. Cryobank is not your typical bank.

You do have to pass a few checks and balances before you are allowed to make a deposit but these are not tests of a financial variety.

Cryobank is a sperm bank and it has to make sure that your swimmers are good enough before they are allowed to join the bank’s reserve team.

Cryobank has been operating for more than 20 years and it claims to have helped hundreds of women concieve. Providing donor sperm is large part of its business. It also preserves sperm for men who are facing chemotherapy or who will soon undergo a vasectomy.

It is not easy to join the Cryobank ranks. The tests donors must pass are rigorous and exhaustive.

These range from blood tests to sperm counts and only top scores are acceptable.

A W Loubser, the owner and head medical technician of Cryobank, said the bank battles to get even 10 new donors a year.

“We have to screen about 50 guys to get five guys that pass the test and can come onto the programme,” said Loubser.

To be a donor you must be between 18 and 30 and have no heredity abnormalities like heart disease or diabetes. A sperm count of at least 100 million per ejaculation, which is well above average, is also required. A count of less than that is not cost effective enough for Loubser.

A sense of humour also helps.

Sperm not approved for deposit does not mean there should be concerns about infertility.

“It doesn’t mean you can go out and service the country; it only means that it is not good enough for banking purposes,” said Loubser.

Once a donor has been approved, he will need to commit to 30 donations in six months.

This requires no ejaculation for three days before a donation. But the donor must have ejaculated at least a week before an appointment to prevent making a stale deposit.

University students are encouraged to be donors for their “good” DNA. “If you get into varsity it means you at least have some brains,” said Loubser

Each donation earns R250, which adds up to R7 500 for the course.
South African law ensures confidentiality for donors or any offspring.

A sperm bank can produce five children from a single donor. After the fifth, the bank is obliged to destroy the rest of the donated sperm.

Considering that the South African population is currently around 47 million people, donor children have about a one-in-eight-million chance have meeting each other.

There is a much greater danger of this in Denmark where the population stands at six million and 20 children can be produced from a single donor.

Cryobank has not had as many student donors as it would have liked. An informal poll conducted by Vuvuzela earlier this week revealed that only 32 out of a 100 students would donate sperm. Fifty-five people said they would definitely not and 13 said maybe, if circumstances changed. Most of the students who did not wish to donate said that they would like know their children.

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Wits gives author a big break

ENVIRONMENTAL journalist Leonie Joubert has been jointly awarded the 2007 Ruth First Fellowship by the Wits Journalism and Media Studies Programme with photographer Santu Mofokeng.

The fellowship honours the memory of Ruth First; renowned in her time as a journalist, activist and intellectual. First was murdered by the apartheid government while in exile in Mozambique.

The fellowship is intended to give a writer, or researcher, space to perform in-depth research on a topic in keeping with First’s tradition of critical, independent, socially engaged writing.

In the next few months Joubert will be conducting research on how several communities across South Africa are affected by the changing climate. In her proposal, Joubert states stresses affecting South Africa, such as illiteracy and HIV/Aids, that make it vulnerable to problems caused by climate change.

Joubert, an environmental journalist, has spent the last few years researching South Africa’s changing climate. She has travelled the country to view many delicately balanced ecosystems which are in danger of disappearing forever.

Over two years Joubert drew up one essay after another.

When she had sufficient material she sorted the essays into a manuscript and looked for a publisher.

“Wits University Press was beginning to think about moving into popular science projects. I sent them a proposal and one or two chapters and they immediately said they wanted it,” she said.

Her book, Scorched, provides a fascinating – and frightening – glimpse of the troubles that will need to be faced by South Africa’s flora and fauna over the next century. Scorched received an honorary mention in the non-fiction category in the Sunday Times Alan Paton awards.

What separates Scorched from other climate-change literature is its exploration of how specific ecosystems around South Africa will be affected. There are many climate-change models which accurately predict the broader effects of climate change. However, there is little focus on individual animal and plant species. Scorched gives these species a face for the first time; climate change will only increase the rate at which vulnerable species face extinction.

Earlier this week Joubert was at Wits to present a promotional speech for Scorched. She said the facts and figures which stem from climate-change research were “dry and bland” and did not communicate the reality of the situation. She chose to use a travelogue style to convey the essence of climate change in South Africa.

In an interview with; Vuvuzela, Joubert provided some background to her career as an environmental journalist and the path that led to her interest in climate change.Joubert grew up in the shadows of Hogsback, deep in the Eastern Cape. She describes her parents as “in tune” with natural environment but admits that it held little interest for her as a teenager. A course in science journalism during the final year of her journalism degree at Rhodes University ignited Joubert’s interest in the environment.“When I started to find my feet as a writer I found myself more interested in the environment,” says Joubert. After graduating she found it difficult to find employment as an environmental journalist and ended up working for Wine Magazine.

Three and a half years later Joubert realised that the only way she was going “to write about the stuff that interested (her) was to go freelance”.

Two weeks after she had handed in her resignation, a friend sent her a newsletter advertising a journalism masters bursary through Stellenbosch University. The masters programme required the journalist to collaborate with climate-change scientists doing research on Marion Island in the sub-Antarctic region.

Marion’s isolated location, midway between South Africa and the Antarctic, presented an ideal place to monitor the changing climate and its impact on animal and plant species.

The explicit examples of climate change on the island led Joubert to believe “there had to be similar stories on the (South African) mainland”.

When she returned to South Africa, in March 2003, Joubert began researching South Africa’s changing climate.

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Comedy at the Bassline

South African comedians showed their mettle on Friday 14 at the Bassline. Taking the audience on an irreverent journey using material ranging from sex to the quality of weed found in Durban. It may have not been clean but it was certainly entertaining.

Whacked Management which happens to be owned by Vlismas.

Vlismas is also the driving force behind the Comedy Underground, held at Cool Runnings in Melville for the past five years in which new and established comedians test their mettle.

If you missed out at the Bassline then make a date with the Underground because South African comedy is looking as hot as our summers.

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Work In Progress Exhibition

While other people were relaxing or returning from the long weekend three enterprising Fine Arts students put on an event to showcase works by themselves and their classmates. Titled Work In Progress, the exhibition was held on Heritage day in the semi-constructed house of one of the organizers.

Fourth year fine art students Anthea Pokroy, Candice Hirson and Louise Ross organised and curated the exhibition. Work on display included installations, paintings and performance art.

The house lacked doors and windows and the walls were unfinished but it made an excellent setting for the 23 artists to display their work. All the artists were current or ex-students of the Wits Fine Arts department.

Pokroy explained, “We are emerging from our institution. We are very grateful to that institution but it is time to spread our wings.

The event follows from an earlier successful exhibition, Collaborations, held in May. “The show was a success and everyone asked when the next show was going to be,” said Pokroy.

The house belongs to Hirson’s parents and she decided they had to have an exhibition there before it was completed. “It’s been a month of solid planning,” said Hirson. She said they will continue to put on events like Work In Progress.

The rational for the event was posted at the entrance to the house and explained, “(t)his exhibition intends on showcasing the works of emerging young artists from all around the city. Work In Progress functions as a platform for exposure outside of the institution”

Ross said they called for entries and approached some people to get work for the exhibition. “We’re really happy with the way things turned out,” said Ross.

The exhibition was an initiative from Art Up, an organisation started by Ross and Hirson at the end of last year. Ross and Hirson were frustrated with the small and incestuous nature of the art community and wanted to come up with a way to get alternative exposure for their works. “We are promoting ourselves and other young artists,” said Ross.

Many of the artists at the event were all smiles but one commented that the turnout was a little disappointing. “There too many friends and family,” they noted.

Music by the Sporadic Nomads lent atmosphere to the evening. The three young musicians from Hyde Park High School gave an enjoyable performance for their first live set. They describe their music as structureless, experimental stuff.

The exhibition was supposed to be opened by performance artist Johan Thom but he was unable to arrive at the beginning of the evening as he had trouble finding the house down in the Sandton suburbs.

Thom is one of the only practicing full time performance artists in the country. His work draws from his experience of everyday life in South Africa and from different cultural traditions.

When he did arrive Thom spoke about the need for events like Work In Progress, “These kinds of events and initiatives are more important than ever. It is an occasion for celebration. Young artists holding an exhibition outside the confines of the establishment.”

Working outside the confines of the artistic establishment continued to be a major theme of Thom’s speech.
“There are many great commercial art galleries. It is very hard for young artists to break into these hallowed halls. This is a real cause for concern,” said Thom.

Thom concluded, “I applaud this initiative and hope there will be many more in Johannesburg as it is desperately needed.”

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*All of the above articles were published in the Vuvuzela newspaper in 2008.