Katherine on her time at Black Sash

Katherine with other Black Sash Interns

Interning at Black Sash has been an informative and enjoyable way to spend my Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.  Black Sash is a human rights NGO that works to help South Africans recognize their social and economic rights.  I work at the Provincial Advice Office in downtown Cape Town on the corner of Long Street and Strand Street.  There are five interns including myself.  However, Persis, a student originally from Egypt who now lives in Australia has just left to go home.  She had been working at Black Sash since November.  The other three interns all began interning in January.  Elly is a twenty-four year old college graduate from Peoples, Scotland.  She is here through September.  Johanna is a twenty-nine year old originally from Finland but now lives in Germany.  Vera is a twenty-seven year old originally from Nicaragua and now lives in Los Angeles.  I have never worked with people from all over like this before.  I was surprised to find out that they are all older than me as well.  When I think of interning, I picture college students or those who have just graduated.

While at Black Sash I will be focusing on working on Phase Two of the SASSA Monitoring Project.  SASSA stands for South African Social Security Agency.  Phase One of the project dealt with researching in three areas in the Western Cape Province (where we are located) and surveying the SASSA site points.  The monitors found that most of the people waiting for social security services could not find places to sit, had to show up extremely early to ensure they would be seen the day they went, and if they got to a sight point late would have to wait over an hour to be seen. Phase Two will continue research on the quality of service that beneficiaries receive and will include a new and improved survey for those beneficiaries who are willing to take it.  Elly will also be working on this project with me.

I have been luckily enough to venture to Parliament twice in my three weeks of interning.  I went my first week to sit in on a newly formed committee that will deal with educational inequalities in South African public schools.  The meeting that the interns and I sat in on was the first time the members had met each other.  It was amusing to see that even grown adults play the same ice-breaker games I have grown up being forced to play in new situations.  The first exercise they did was to get up and say their name and what it means or why they were given it.  The second time I went to Parliament, which was this week, was to sit in on the Select Committee on Social Services.  The meeting was a briefing by SASSA on their Annual Report to members of Parliament. 

But of course, one of the more entertaining parts of my day is when I take the minibus home.  The minibus ride in the morning is much quieter because no one seems to be enthused to be going to work.  Yet in the afternoon people are much more vibrant.  On the journey back from Cape Town to Rondebosch I am always nervous that we are going to hit someone in the road.  People walk in the middle of the road and wherever else they please.  Luckily I haven’t witnessed anyone being nicked!

Vera, Katherine,  and Elly at Cafe Mojito