Brittany on being radically changed by Cape Town

I am infuriated by the harsh contrast between severely impoverished areas to extreme wealth in South Africa. The racial inequalities have caused the poverty. No inequality is more apparent then gaps in the education system. Only 8% of schools in South Africa have libraries. I have seen the difference in school resource distribution. I believe that education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty. For this reason, I wanted to volunteer my time at a local high school.

The students at Thandokhulu High School face serious barriers and obstacles that prevent them from graduating.  They have told me stories about violence, drug abuse, gangs, and sometimes the fear of walking around in their own communities.  Thandokhulu needs a counseling, mental health, or therapy program but it is too expensive.  Students have a difficult time focusing on school work when they are trying to manage psychological and emotional trauma.  I am not qualified to run a counseling center but I am qualified to teach an after school art program, so that’s what I did.  Art is a powerful tool for expressing emotions, crossing cultural boundaries, having fun, and building confidence.  It provides a creative outlet, a safe space, and potential source of income if students chose to sell their work. 

The Art Program provided a new experience for some students who had never worked with materials like oil pastels or clay.  The classroom rules were simple; everyone respects the supplies and each other.  Putting down your artwork or someone else’s wasn’t allowed either.  I am not an art expert.  My role was to bring supplies, answer questions or make suggestions.  In the classroom it is the students that proved to be the experts each time they produced more amazing work. 

I want to take a moment and thank everyone who donated money and time to the art program.  You rock!  My family and friends in Connecticut organized an amazing fundraiser called “Feel the Rhythm” where participants celebrated international solidarity and social justice through music.  A special thanks to Rick Liegl of DrumEventsUnlimited.com for teaching everyone how to play the djembe.  Also, I want to say thanks to my mom, Joanne Britton and the other Zumba dance instructors who passionately teach others to love themselves and be healthy. 

                 Connecticut "Feel the Rhythm" funder for art supplies at Thandokhulu Secondary School

I have truly appreciated every moment at Thandokhulu.  Organizing classes forced me to acknowledge how my academic career has been full of more unearned privileges.  I had endless resources in music and art classes growing up.  My native language matched the same language taught in class.  I was never discriminated against because of my identity.  I have learned more from the students then they have learned from me.  I have cherished each conversation with the students at Thandokhulu.  I will remember every shared smile and connection.  When I return home I will think about each memory as I work towards a world free from inequalities and discrimination.  I came to South Africa to make a difference but it was Cape Town that radically changed me.

Sarah on experiencing the country in various ways

Of all the assignments I had in South Africa, I learned most from the “activist project” obligation, or, in other ways, simply experiencing the country in various ways.  While I found it impossible to pick out one social issue and work on it, I do not regret it.  I was all over the place, but I learned so much from such a wide range of experiences.

I had the privilege of spending some time at the Rape Crisis Center.  This was an excellent opportunity to work in a way I had not throughout most of this trip: I was given a set concrete task to complete independently.  The organization had a thick notebook filled with closed rape cases, all occurring in only a year’s time.  My job was to read through a write up on each case and fill out reports on them so as to create accurate data for research.  The stories were often times straight out of a lifetime movie and, sadly, I don’t think I read a single case where the rapist was actually convicted (the cases were from 2007, so I guess there is a chance they have been convicted since).  I specifically remember one unusually thick case report of a man gang raped by the gang known as the Americans.  As I flipped through the pages, the therapist recorded improvements up until the anti-climatic last page.  Only a few sentences long, the report read something along the lines of, “*** has not showed up for any sessions.  He has been kicked out of his shelter for using tic and no one knows his whereabouts.  I hope he is still alive.”  As the report was obviously written from the therapist’s perspective, it was devastating to see his hopes shattered, as his client clearly lost his battle to the right path.  I would say I spent around 14 hours at this organization (throughout my 2 week break from Thandokhulu).

The next organization I worked at was Themba Care.  I actually spent my first day there today and had an absolutely amazing experience.  I remember thinking last night before I went to bed that I shouldn’t get my hopes up, since I had such high expectations for the experience I would have there.  I was, however, please to find that it exceeded my expectations in every way.  Themba Care is an organization that cares for children born HIV positive.  Since I worked there in the morning hours when all the older children were at school, there were about eight babies and toddlers there for me to care for.  They all were sitting on a gymnastics-like mat when I arrived, and I just had to take off my shoes and sit down and play with them.  They were so unbelievably loving, and I became immediately attached as they played with my hair and giggled, crying only when I redirected my attention to another child.  I fell in love with a 2 year old boy named Luyolo, who played peek-a-boo with me for a good hour, constantly speaking in a language of his own.  I gave him his bottle, fed him some sort of oatmeal-like lunch, and held him as the doctors inspected him.  He was so cooperative and sweet for the doctors, smiling and holding my hand throughout, but remaining perfectly still and obedient.  He even lifted up his shirt for one of the doctors so he could check his pulse with a stethoscope.  After, I put him in his crib for naptime, promising myself I would return again.  I was only there for about 3 hours today, but I plan on going back two more times before I leave.

I spent the most time participating in Book Club.  This occurred every Tuesday at Thandokhulu and every Wednesday in a township school.  I was able to work with students more one-on-one, which I found even more gratifying than teaching.  The students were so receptive to what I would have thought was a lame idea if it was introduced to me during my high school years.  Their interest was actually overwhelming at times, as often times we would have over 100 students showing up with simply not enough books for them all.  We organized a book drive at home, and will set up a library at Thandokhulu once they arrive.  One of the most rewarding aspects was when Jackie (a lady from UCT who helped run the book club) said she got a call from the Mowbray library asking her what was going on, since they had a flood of students from Thandokhulu coming in and checking out books.  It truly made me feel like I was inspiring people and actually making a difference.  I was so happy to see my enthusiasm was actually rubbing off.  Every time I go, I am equally as amazed at how eager the students are to learn, in both Philipi and Thandokhulu.  The conditions of poverty are certainly terrible, but the attitudes of the children succumbed to such are able to not just provide ray of hope, but light up an entire room.  I am pretty sure I have gone to four book clubs at Thandokhulu and four in Khayelitsha (each about 2 hours), and I plan on going to two more each at both schools.  

Rachel on learning valuable lessons

For my activist project, I decided to assist Brittany in starting and running an art club at Thandokhulu Secondary School.  This included buying art supplies, making announcements, teaching kids, helping kids express themselves, cleaning up classrooms, and making a video of what we are doing for fund raising. I wanted to do this as a project because I really wanted to work with kids coming from the townships.  I wanted to give them an opportunity to express themselves, I wanted to give them time out of their homes (many of the children seem to lead stressful lives outside of school), allow them to have fun and relax, and just making them smile makes their lives a little bit better.  In the States, I have had art classes since I was in elementary school.  Here in South Africa, they do not offer art classes.  This isn’t an issue in the United States, this is why I thought it would be perfect to help this cause.  I am not an art expert, I wouldn’t even call myself an artist, but I took something that I took for granted as a child and gave it to someone who actually wants it.

I learned several things.  One thing I learned is that just because I come from a more privileged area and schooling, I cannot just come into another country and be able to change it.  I can’t come close to changing people lives, or fixing things that need to be fixed. I cannot single handedly change social issues anywhere in the world no matter how much money, schooling, or power I have.  I know this may sound ridiculous but this came as a big shock to me.  In the states I hear about these kids and these problems that they are having and think that with my magical American powers change their lives forever.  That is not how it works.  This is a completely different culture, a culture I still after three and a half months know little about.  I am upset with myself for thinking that.  I felt selfish and ashamed.  Matters of fact, most of these children have more life experience than I will ever have.  I guess this directly relates to what we are learning about in class, specifically the article “What White People Fear.”  How white people just think that they are better than everyone else, I am a racist, I am white therefore assumed I know more I am better and therefore fix other people’s issues and problems that I know absolutely nothing about.  Now that I know this about myself, I can fix it.  I am happy for that, I do not want to ever think that way again. 

The second thing I learned is how passionate these kids actually are. Kids are kids no matter where you live in the world. They just live differently than kids in other places in the world.  They have different songs that they sing, different games that they play, different issues that they must deal with.  I am pretty sure though, they are more passionate about the things that they talk about and the things they do than I still am today.  They are excited to learn new things. 

I loved talking to the kids.  Everyday, they came in excited asking new questions about me as well as the USA.  They wanted to know if I personally knew Jay-Z.  One of the children (a goof-off) asked me if I knew anyone who designs cars.  “I know someone who owns a muscle car shop,” I told him.  He was so excited.  He handed me his notebook full of car drawings.  Better drawings than I have ever seen.  He asked me if I could show him these and tell me what he thinks.  I think I was more excited than he was for him to ask me that.  Of course I did!  It was amazing.  My friend showed me his website and told me to show the kid.  It was so rewarding.  I made this child so happy, the one kid I thought that didn’t care about anything.  The one that I thought, I could never connect with or make a change.

I would love for this art programme to continue after I leave Cape Town, but it would be difficult since Brittany and I are the ones running it and we will no longer be here.  There is a person that we met who is an artist here in Cape Town, he ran a class for us when we were in Johannesburg.  If somehow we can set something up for him to do this, than I would love to continue raising money in the States and sending it to him to continue this amazing programme. I will do the best I can to keep this running.  If I do not succeed, another way to help is just by spreading my stories back in the States to people who are unaware of the issues of South Africa.  

Michelle on learning about the maternal health plights of South African women

For my activist project, I chose to shadow two independent practice midwives, Susan and Ciska.  They work every day to help women have healthy, normal births and work against a system that has overmedicalized birth to the point of endangering women’s lives. I knew that I wanted to complete an activist project in the field of women’s health, as it has always been a special interest to me. I found Ciska and Susan through the Well Mother and Baby Clinic in Rondebosch. The sister (nurse) there gave me Ciska’s number, and soon after I began shadowing Susan and Ciska during their weekly consultations. I shadow them on Tuesdays, from 8:30 a.m. until early afternoon. I met with them for roughly 11 weeks, giving me a total of about 77 hours, plus a hospital birth and an additional home visit. In total my hours add up to about 80+.

My main duties were small, like filling out paperwork, organising blood work, taking blood pressure, and doing urine dips. In actuality, I probably gained more out of the experience than I gave back to Susan and Ciska. Not only did I learn invaluable information about the challenges of women’s health and maternity care in South Africa, but I also found my personal calling and have decided to follow the demanding life-path of midwife.

In talking with Susan and Ciska about their lives, their jobs, and the births they attend,  I was offered a glimpse into the life of a full-time on-call midwife. Susan and Ciska practice together, and see clients every Tuesday and Thursday. On Mondays and Wednesdays they conduct home visits for future home births. They do this so that they know how to find the house when they are called, and also to make sure that the home is equipped with everything they will need.  Sue and Ciska rotate being on call on a weekly basis. This means that for any given week, one person will be on call and the other will conduct appointments in the office. This is done in order to give each client a chance to meet with both Susan and Ciska a few times before their birth.

I felt that it was important for me to learn about how Sue and Ciska’s practice functions, and what purpose it serves in the greater scope of women’s health care. As a future women’s health care provider, I feel like it is imperative to be able to explain the midwife’s role and how she functions in relation to the rest of the medical community. When I accompanied Ciska at a hospital birth, I was able to see first-hand how midwives are treated within the medical arena. Even though Ciska is an incredibly experienced advanced practice nurse, the other sisters in the ward treated her like she was a witch-doctor of sorts. They refused to help her, show her where things were, or provide support for her in the hospital. Not only was this incredibly mean-spirited, but should she actually have needed medical assistance, it was down-right dangerous.

Ciska also explained to me that the OB/GYNs are very threatened by the midwives. The OBs have horrible statistics as far as c-section and episiotomy rates go (almost 90% c-section rate in private hospitals) and the midwives have lower rates of both, and better outcomes. This means that the OBs themselves see the midwives as a threat, and attempt to work against them instead of with them. This creates a system of competition and back-stabbing instead of cooperation and learning from each others’ strengths. Seeing this dynamic really gave me an insight into the kinds of battles midwives wage every day that they practice.

Even though I feel like I have learned more through this process than I have actually given back, I think that in the long run I will be able to contribute to society and women’s health as a whole because of what I have learned with Susan and Ciska. I have determined that my path lies down the difficult road of women’s health provider. I have also learned valuable information that I have shared, and will continue to disseminate to friends and family about the importance of natural birth and the empowerment natural birth can provide to women.

Meredith on the value of community service

The concept of working on an activist project was a very smart and well-balanced idea.  When I first started the program, I was getting stressed out about the fact that we are already working at an internship and now we have even more community service to do.  I felt like it was a lot of helping we were going to be doing.  As I near the end of the trip though, I realized that our internships were not so much all of us helping out but all of us being helped.  I’ve never learned so much in my life from the values and children of Christel House.  I now understand the fact that the internships weren’t for American’s coming in and changing lives, it was really for our internships to change our lives.  With that said, the Activist project was our way to express thank you to the community and all that they have done for us.  It was our chance to really help by putting extra time outside of class to help a cause.  Instead of just sticking to one activist project for all twenty-four hours, I decided that I would rather do a variety of different things to explore different aspects of South Africa that are involving aspects of my internship and things completely outside of my internship. 

   

The first activist project that I helped out with was at the University of Cape Town where I worked at the Center for Students with Disabilities.  The idea of the Disability Service Computer Lab is so that UCT students who are blind, partially sighted or have another kind of disability can go to feel comfortable and safe.  This safe haven is also a great place for people who are blind or partially sighted to do school work, especially involving typing on a computer.  In this computer lab, they have special computers for people who need them for all varieties of schoolwork.  As a volunteer, I would help by scanning hard copy study materials into the computers.  Then, when books were completely copied into the computer, volunteers need to read the scanned books on the computer and check to make sure the spelling matches the hard copy books.  The point of the scanning into computers and checking is so that when the automated computer reads the story to the student with disabilities, there isn’t any confusion.  I worked there for about eight hours and I really enjoyed it.  It was definitely tedious volunteer work, but in the end it felt very rewarding knowing that you are helping out.  As an American, I felt that I needed to come over here and help “save the world” so to speak.  This activist project was perfect for that reason because I feel like it definitely humbled my way of thinking.  Every little bit helps.  I’m sure that the students with disabilities were definitely appreciative for the effort I put in, as tedious as it truly was, it felt really great to help.  I think activist project went hand in hand to what we have been learning about this semester.  The idea of segregation comes strongly into play for what I’ve learned working at the center.  Segregation still unfortunately is on the surface of this country and most of the time I only think of color and race segregation, but it really is so much more including disabilities.  The center is such a great way for people with or without disabilities to come together and grow together.  This problem of segregation is also a huge issue in America and I’m truly realizing this a lot more than I ever did before.  After working at the center I definitely want to help out as much as I possibly can at Uconn when I go back. 

           

The second activist project that I participated in was working at T.E.A.R.S animal shelter.  T.E.A.R.S is a pro life, non-profit animal rescue organization whose core aim is to rescue, re-habilitate, re-unite and re-home lost, abandoned, abused and neglected dogs and cats.   I worked about seven hours at this animal shelter and I’m really happy I did.  I had a chance to walk the animals, feed them and play with them.  It is such an amazing organization.  The fact that they find animals in the townships and house them, give them food, and most of all give them love is phenomenal.  For me, this activist project was the perfect opportunity to take a break from the 24/7 issues we have been dealing with since arriving here January 15^th.  I can just play with animals, which gives me completely different volunteer work than I’ve been doing working socially with people.  One thing that I really took from working at the animal shelter was the fact that there are so many stray animals in South Africa based on the poor conditions of the townships.  It makes me wonder what the ratio of animal shelter to stray animals is.  When I go back to America I would love to explore that more and help out in anyway I possibly can. 

           

My final activist was getting a chance to work with the social worker at Christel House on Fridays by going into the townships with her.  This has been the most eye opening experience so far during this entire trip.  The social worker told us that we had a chance to pick any of the children in our classes that we would like and she would take us to there houses.  So Pamela and I picked our children and we drove to their houses.  It was the most intense feeling of my life.  It really connected the pieces for me and I have never understood the hardships of poverty more.  Going inside the shacks on the side of the road and talking to the parents really squeezed my heart in a way that I have never felt before.  The fact that those who I love live on the side of the road made me cry.  I am still overcoming the shock I experienced yesterday.  Never in my life have I felt more privileged then at this moment.  The social worker is giving me another chance to go back into the townships to see more of my kids’ houses.  The hours we will spend doing this is about ten.  I’m still processing how I could possibly help this problem.  Giving money unfortunately will never help the problem.  The biggest thing I could do to help the problem is to start at the root, which is raising awareness.  I know after yesterday I will not stop talking about this problem for the rest of my life.  I will make sure I let everyone in America know about these problems here because I know people don’t actually realize the hardships.

Brett's journey to finding an activist project

The journey of settling on an activist project was far more difficult and time consuming than the activist project on which I settled. I would have to say that my current activist project is a bit of a compromise, due to my naivety of the time restraints of the trip and the speed with which emails and communication with people occurred. Any program that is to sustain itself takes a very long time to implement, and while I had high expectations in the beginning of the trip, along with a multitude of ideas, time passed so fast, faster than I kept up with. None the less, there are still three weeks left that I look to take advantage of, and I hope that my project can sustain for a while after I leave. 

My activist project is a series of small changes that I am implementing at my internship. My internship, understaffed, and over occupied with clients, tends to be a depersonalized place for the clients. In fact, many of the long-term employees, having to deal with the stress of seeing so many people every day, and juggling far more than they should , tend to treat the clients a bit like problems, which either can be fixed, avoided, or pushed off for the time being. The center could use a bigger office and a bigger staff, but even without such large changes, there are small changes that can help.

At the end of the day, our center gives out money. In different forms, from food stamps to rent to business supplies, but at the core of it, we are a welfare center. Because of this, there exists a sort of dynamic where people come to us with the interest of getting this money. This leads to further depersonalization. For a population as fragile as refugees, the last thing they need from a center established to assist them is depersonalization.

And so I hope with my activist project to find several small ways to counteract this. The first thing that I am implementing is that I am purchasing a large number of journals, writing journals, and pens. I am going to give new refugees the journals to record their stories, and reflect on their troubles and hardships. I expect that the refugees will surprised at this request. I think that the interest in their personal struggles will seem foreign to them, and will be a bit empowering. I emailed the book lounge to see if we could possibly schedule an evening where some of the refugees could read their stories. I will see if that plays out. Another alternative is that I could have them meet on Monday afternoons at the center to chat and read their stories. The only problem with doing this every week is that transport money will prove to be a drawback.

Another aspect of my activist project is related to refugee health. Refugees are given food stamps, vouchers that they can use at Shoprite to buy food with, but there is no foresight into what kind of food they buy. So, I wrote up a list of healthy affordable foods with little descriptions of the benefits of the food products, information about carbohydrates proteins and fats, healthy and unhealthy. I hope to be able to have this distributed to the refugees with the food stamps for a long time after I am gone. The list includes things like potatoes, rice, eggs, vegetables, milk, sardines, canned beans and others. It then tells refugees to avoid things like sweets and white bread and heavily processed food. It is possible to eat healthy on a meager paycheck, although certainly not as easy to buy things like olive oil and nuts and fish. I think that a list of healthy foods like this shows an interest in their health, that hopefully some of them will take advantage of.

My failed activist projects include a garden in Blikkiesdorp, ‘tin town’, an informal settlement in Delft that houses a large population of Somalian refugees. I set up an appointment with the Cape Town department of social department in Bellville, and met with them about a month ago to discuss my idea to set up a community garden. They seemed receptive to it, and gave me the information of several people to call and contact. The project would have taken several months to complete, at least, as I would have to get approval from higher levels of government to start a program in an informal settlement, which is supposed to be less permanent than a township. The project was contingent on me staying the winter in Cape Town. Because I am no longer staying until august, I had to let that activist project loose. I had also planned a meeting with Soil For Life to work with them, but then called it off when I learned I couldn’t go through with it. My next activist project initiative was to help the Mamela music project to make a new documentary for their initiative. I emailed them on two separate occasions and waited for a response which I never got. I wasted at least two weeks emailing and waiting for them.  In the meantime, I put in extra hours at the refugee center, going in on several Fridays to meet clients and do extra work. So, I hope that my initiatives at the refugee center will sustain for at least a little while. Also, I am working with another of the interns at the refugee center to put together an intern handbook, which we would have liked to get at the beginning of our time to explain what we were doing and how to do it. We are going to put it together so that future interns have a good base of where to start, can continue our improvements, and build on it themselves. 

Pamela working with children beyond the classroom

For my activist project I worked I did two activities one was working with children infected with HIV/AIDS at Themba Care on Fridays and the second one was visiting where the students I work with on a daily basis live.

Working at Themba Care was definitely an enjoyable and emotional experience at the same time. I got to work with children infected by HIV/AIDS whose parents couldn’t take care of them either because of economical or social problems. I have been working with kids for a while now and never I have worked with kids stigmatized by society because of something they cannot help, something that they haven’t chose to be born with. Working with these children at first I was a bit nervous because I didn’t know what to expect, but once I got there I was so happy to hold them , play with them and  feed them. They are just like any other babies, they cry, the laugh, they play and they just want to be loved the only difference is that they have to live with this disease that is stigmatized by society. Volunteering at Themba Care was a great experience for me because now I can say that I’ve been around someone with HIV/AIDS and there is absolutely nothing different between their behavior and a normal children’s behavior.

My other activist project was going into the townships to visit some of the children I worked with homes. This was such an amazing experience because if felt like I could put a background to these children that I love so much. First, I visited an informal settlement where one of my “favorite” children lives in, it was a 2 room with only one bed for four people. It was really heartbreaking because I have grown in the past three months to love that little girl so much so meeting her parents, seeing where she came from and hearing her family’s story was very touching and I felt like this visit was done at a good time of the trip because I have got to know this little girl in the past months. If I had made these visit in the weeks I had been here I feel like it wouldn’t have affected me so much because at this point I didn’t have such a one on one relationship with them, I feel like its more personal at this point, I am not that stranger from the United States that is coming here to visit, I feel like they know me and so do I. The other house that I visited was in Hanover Park which was not an informal settlement, but they had just moved in. The parents were very friendly and told us how she got her house now. She was a very grateful women and one thing she said was “ I am very grateful for what the Lord has given me, I am not going to complain because I know there are people that are way worse off than I am” that sentence really struck me because I feel like she has been through so much, even though she’s living in a small house she is very grateful for what she has.

I feel like I have learned so much from my activist project because it has given such a different view on people who are infected with HIV/AIDS, spending time with these children made it so much more meaningful to me because I really love being around children I love them so much. This experience has given me a totally different perspective on this whole virus and how people are stigmatized in society.

Going into the townships visiting the children I work with house’s I can say was the cherry on top of the cake, because it was a real eye opener on how children can cover up what they go through in a daily basis. They are always happy when they are in school, but I feel like they are very different home because they are in a different environment. I really enjoyed doing both my activists projects.

Leah finding ways to tackle the work to be done

There is work to be done. Everywhere. In every country, every community, every household. So many different issues face South Africa right now that it was extremely difficult to pick one to tackle. With that said, I participated in two activist projects.


Book Club 


My first and foremost activist project was my involvement in the Book Club at Thandokhulu and at Sophumelela high schools. Thandokhulu is an underprivileged school with students primarily from Khayelitsha and surrounding townships. Sophumelela is a township school located in Phillipi. Because both schools are so under-resourced, the students have a much harder time learning and passing matric. The book club at each school seeks to expand learners’ knowledge of English through reading books. Book club gave learners an extra chance to improve their English and develop lifelong skills. I assisted in coordinating and facilitating activities for the book club at both schools.


The book club at Thandokhulu met every Tuesday for four Tuesdays and I worked for two hours each day (8 hours). The book club at Sophumelela met every Wednesday and I worked for two hours each day (another 8 hours; 16 hours total). I assume that I will continue working with both clubs until May.


Simply meeting the students at these book clubs blew me away. We had about 100 learners come to our first meeting at Thandokhulu. I could not believe that this many high school students were interested in something called “Book Club.” Through my interaction with the learners, I was only more and more impressed. They have a drive to learn English and do well in school that is unprecedented in my experience. Thinking back on my own high school years, I could not help but feel guilty for how much I took for granted.


Education is a vital part of development, though not the sole key to success. This was an extremely important realization that I have come to. It is not just education that must be reformed in order to develop a society. This topic was discussed at length in all of our classes this semester. Though I cannot address every issue myself, I have found that education is my niche. I can help to change the world through education, I cannot totally change it myself.


One devastating aspect about the education system in South Africa is that it is divided along racial lines. The black schools do not get the same resources that the white schools do. White children are able to each have a computer at school, they are able to go home to a supportive family and quiet household to study, and they are able to feed themselves everyday and be energized for school. For many black students, such a situation is only a dream, a wish. This divide exists in the United States as well. The formal, overt racial separation has been eliminated in both societies, but is still very alive and well.


Through the book club, I was able to work with the issue of educational development. This is the field that I hope to remain in for my entire life. I want to be a teacher as well as work on education reform within American schools.


Rape Crisis Center 


In my two weeks off from Thandokhulu, I volunteered at the Rape Crisis Center. The Center provides free services to any survivor of rape or sexual assault regardless of gender, economic situation, or any other factor. South Africa has the highest rate of reported rapes in the world. The country is in crisis when it comes to such violations. Parents must worry about their students walking to school for fear that they will be raped or assaulted.


At the Rape Crisis Center, I read the reports that counselors have issued about their clients. I then captured the data from such reports into the computer (three days, five hours each day, 15 hours total). Reading the different cases was shocking and eye opening. I have taken so much of my personal safety for granted. Many of these clients had such awful family lives and so many of them have family members who have also been raped. Many times I found that a daughter would come in for counseling and then her mother would follow because she had been raped as well earlier in life.


I had never worked with any organization that dealt with sexual violence before. Because most of these incidents affect women, I could connect much of my work to our discussions about sexism and violence against women. I have never taken a women’s studies class or formally studied violence against women. Consequently, this semester was very educational and eye opening for me. The Rape Crisis Center only aided in my understanding of the different ways in which women face trauma and the tangible, horrible results of seemingly petty sexist thoughts and feelings.


I have experienced such sexism throughout my entire life without taking a lens to even the smallest of comments. The United States has the same issue of violence against women and sexism that South Africa has. Women constantly face discrimination and violence in their everyday life simply because of their gender.


I do hope to work more with this issue in the future because it is so vital and pressing in society today. Like we learned in class, sexism is only getting worse in America. It is important to reverse that cycle before it is too late. I think that empowering women through education is a form of fighting this social issue. However, I do hope that I will have an opportunity in the future to work specifically with rape survivors. I think that these women (and men sometimes) are in such crucial positions. After a rape, things will only get worse or better. I hope that I will be able to assist in recovery.

Kayley's work at Talfesig Clinic

Living in South Africa while learning about all of the issues it faces can be very frustrating. Our assignment was to pick an area different then our internship, to gain experience in a whole other area. First, I decided that just one activist project wouldn’t be enough and secondly I really wanted to get a different view of the medical field in South Africa. So my activist projects consist of Talfesig Clinic, hopefully Temba Care and Tears Animal Rescue.

I chose to volunteer at Talfesig Clinic because I wanted a different perspective of the medical field in South Africa. A different perspective is exactly what I got.  When I work at the Red Cross Hospital my work consists of mainly; research, and shadowing Prof either in the burn unit or at the Khayelitsha Maternity Clinic.  My time at Talfesig consisted of going out into Mitchell’s Plain and speaking to the community about HIV/ Aids and drug addictions. We set up a tent on an old run down basketball court for free HIV testing. A couple other nurses and I walked around trying to get people to come to the tent as well as speak to them about drug and alcohol addictions. It was really interesting to see how people reacted to Aids. HIV and Aids is so taboo that people are very uncomfortable even talking about it, so getting people to come and get tested is not easy.  Tuberculosis is just as deadly as HIV but it is not as large of a problem, I think because people talk about it openly. It is not as taboo to say that you have tuberculosis; usually people will still accept you. However, if you were to tell people that you are HIV (+), you would be shunned from the community. Both diseases have medication that will help and prevent death; both diseases will stay in your system forever, yet many more people die of Aids.

While volunteering at Talfesig, I realized how interested I was in HIV and Aids. It is such a frustrating virus and an even more upsetting disease. If it wasn’t so taboo and people just talked about it more openly, there would be without a doubt fewer deaths. The problem is talking about and preventing HIV, would question the lifestyle in many of the communities. Many men in the communities sleep with whomever they chose, sometimes consensual and sometimes not. These men feel they do not need to take responsibility for anything, whether it is a pregnancy, spreading HIV, rape or all three. There are so many single unemployed mothers in the communities. Sometimes because the dad didn’t want children, maybe he found a younger girlfriend, or maybe he did infect a family and does not want to be associated with them. Either way it was mostly women coming to the tent to get tested for HIV in Mitchell’s Plain and mostly women in the Khayelitsha Maternity hospital bringing in themselves and their infected children for medicine.

Since HIV/ Aids is of great frustration and interest to me I wanted to also volunteer at Temba Care. I still have yet to go due busy schedules and inclement weather, but I am planning on going either this weekend or next. Temba care is an orphanage for HIV (+) children. These children were usually dropped off at the orphanage because of the issues stated above. Since it is so taboo to have HIV, many families do not want to keep their HIV (+) children because it is proof that they are in fact infected with HIV as well. So many of the children have been dropped off by their families either for fear of what their community will do or say to them, or because they really can not afford to give the child the proper care and nutrition. I hope that I will be able to get to Temba Care in the next few weeks to further my frustration and understanding of HIV/ Aids.

Lastly, I have volunteered at TEARS (The Emma Animal Rescue Society), which is an animal rescue shelter. Their goal is to rescue, reunite and re-home abused, abandoned, or neglected dogs and cats. (www.tears.org.za) After all of the very heavy HIV/Aids activist project volunteering and shadowing the burn unit internship, I really just need to pet a puppy and debrief. TEARs, is the place. They rescue starving/ injured dogs, and cats from the surrounding communities. They offer the animals medical attention and love, and then get them ready for adoption to a loving home. There are so many stray dogs in the communities it is so great that TEARs is there to help as many as they can.

Those are my activist project activities that I have done and hope to continue to do up until the end of our stay here. I think that these activist projects are a great way to learn about other issues that interest us that are different then ones we may be studying. It also a great way for us to go out and talk to other people and make connections.

Katherine's volunteer work at Treatment Action Campaign

The Treatment Action Campaign caught my eye when we visited this organization in Khayelitsha during orientation in January.  While I have constantly heard that HIV/AIDS is a huge problem in Africa, and particularly in South Africa, I wanted to learn more.  I chose to focus my activist project at the Treatment Action Campaign because I wanted to be able to bring back information to my friends at home who jokingly have told me, “Don’t get AIDS while you’re in South Africa!”  Since the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in America is over and a much smaller percentage of the population suffer from it, I have little experience or knowledge of the problems facing the prevention of it in a country that is still struggling with such a powerful infection.

TAC wants to see an equal and integrated health care system that grants HIV prevention and treatment to everyone.  TAC wants all HIV-positive people to be able to live a healthy life by having the opportunity to receive full treatment services and prevention methods.  Through TAC’s many branch offices, the organization seeks to raise awareness about the issues surrounding HIV and other health issues, including tuberculosis.

I spent several Fridays volunteering at TAC.  I did not have a specific project in mind when I stepped into their office.  My main goal was to help TAC in the best way I possibly could.  At first I was disheartened because my first trip to the TAC office in Khayelitsha was rather hectic and unorganized.  People were buzzing by and I was having trouble understanding what the man who was helping me type a report was saying to me.  Fortunately after a few hours of being there I began to relax a little bit and understand the layout of TAC. 

When I got home, I talked to Ben about my concerns for my activist project.  He raised a point that I would not have thought of immediately on my own.  Ben told me that it is not always going out and trying to save people that is going to be my role in South Africa, but instead the little things that seem to be not very helpful to me are tremendously helpful to others.  Most of the people who work at the TAC office are from Khayelitsha and did not grow up with a computer in their house and did not acquire strong computer skills in school.  Fredaline, my supervisor, was happy to have me in order to help type of reports, meeting minutes, create calendars, edit newsletters, and assist other TAC employees with computer skills.  At first I thought that this was not much help, but after a few weeks of volunteering at TAC I was able to see that it did help.  While it may have taken a TAC worker over an hour to type up last month’s report, I was able to do it in fifteen minutes.  I learned through some of the reports about the issues of youth and sex education.  Schools in South Africa, like the United States, are not comfortable giving condoms out because the schools do not want to be seen as promoting sex.  It is imperative that schools begin distributing condoms because young adults are engaging in sexual activities and with such high rates of HIV/AIDS in poorer communities, condoms will help to slow the spread of it.  TAC is also working to mobilize the youth in order to get other young adults to listen.  Adolescents are more likely to listen to their peers than to adults.  TAC recognizes this and is holding youth workshops in order to educate teenagers about sex, HIV/AIDS, TB, and more.

I felt most helpful one day when I was assigned to edit TAC’s quarterly newsletter.  Although it was rewarding to help on such a project, it also worried me.  Since English is not most TAC member’s first language, the grammar in the English newsletter was very poor.  It took me a long time to go through all the articles and reword sentences in order to create grammatically correct sections.  Who would have done this if I was not there?  Who would have had to spend hours editing the newsletter instead of doing their own important task for TAC?  In addition, I learned a lot from the newsletter.  I found out about antiretrovirals and how they are administered to an HIV-positive patient if their CD4 count drops below 350.  I also read in one section of the newsletter that tuberculosis is commonly connected to HIV/AIDS because if a person has HIV then their immune system is much more susceptible to other diseases. 

It boggles my mind that TAC is working to tackle so many issues.  It was unfortunate that the last time I was at TAC all their computers had been stolen.  Luckily they were recovered at the police station though.  Even so, it is tragic to see that an organization that is working so hard to better a poverty and disease-stricken community falls prey to a setback like this. 

I was able to relate my experience at TAC to our class work through the connection between HIV/AIDS and violence against women.  It is not uncommon for a woman to contract HIV after being raped.  At least two women are raped everyday in Khayelitsha.  Every twenty-six seconds a woman is raped in South Africa.  Women face other problems as well.  Many husbands refuse to allow their wives to get tested for STIs and will beat them if the women do.  The shame that is placed on the individual and family members of a woman infected with HIV is very embarrassing.  A husband does not want his wife to get tested in case she is positive because it will bring disgrace to them and most likely mean that the husband is HIV-positive, too.  This relates to our class in several ways.  One major issue is the dependence a woman has on a man in the poorer areas because she is still not allowed to do certain things.  Also, the domestic abuse these women receive has been touched on during our discussions.

Finally, I hope to continue to be affiliated with the fight against HIV/AIDS when I return home.  I have recently applied to three internships that are focused on HIV/AIDS for the summer.  I have not heard back from any of the organizations quite yet: AIDS Action; Metro TeenAIDS; and the Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, TB, and Malaria.  I think it is important to recognize that HIV/AIDS is still a problem in the United States, even if it is on a much smaller scale than in South Africa.  Another way I will continue to link myself to TAC is by wearing my shirt that says “HIV POSITIVE.”  While most of my housemates bought the t-shirt, some of them have reservations about wearing the shirt when they return home.  I think it is a great way to show support for the HIV/AIDS community by wearing the t-shirt at home.  HIV/AIDS is still stigmatized at home and I am interested to see how people react to the t-shirt when I wear it.  I look forward to people questioning why I am wearing the shirt so that I can tell them there are many reasons.  The most important to me being that it does not matter if I am HIV-positive or not because those who have HIV are not any different from those who don’t and should not be shunned.  I support those who are battling the infection and will wear the shirt to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS.

Erica's work at Themba Care

For the past three months, I have volunteered every Friday at ThembaCare in BridgeTown. Themba Care is a home for children who are living with HIV/AIDS. Themba Care provides these children with 24-hour medical attention, ARV drugs, and the love and care they need to remain happy, healthy, and positive. Many of the parents who turn to Themba Care are either too sick with HIV to continue to care for their children or are too afraid of their families finding out about their illness or their child’s illness to give their children the proper medical care. Many of the parents are also living in poverty and cannot provide the medical care the child needs. The goal of Themba Care is to temporarily care for a child while simultaneously helping the parents learn how to care for their child’s needs. Therefore, while the short-term goal is to care for the child, the long-term goal is to have the child return to the biological parents when the parents are ready.

My tasks at Themba Care were generally simple—hold the child, play with the child, laugh with the child, and give the child all the love and support that I could possibly give. I would usually volunteer at Themba Care in the morning, so the majority of my time was spent working with infants and babies. While I tried not to get attached, seeing the same child every week makes it very difficult not to get attached. I will never forget my first day working at Themba Care. A baby named Imange had recently been dropped off at Themba Care and he was severely malnourished, with advanced TB (a common side effect of HIV). I remember he was screaming and crying in pain, and so I held him for 4 hours, keeping him close to my chest with the hopes that my heart beat might soothe him. I could feel all the little bones in his body as I rocked him back and forth and tried to provide him with some sort of comfort. When I asked someone how old he was, they told me he was almost 3 years old, even though Imange was the size of a 3-month-old baby. That same day, Imange began vomiting blood and had to be taken to the hospital. For three weeks I returned to Themba Care and Imange was nowhere in sight. I would ask about him weekly, and they told me he was still recovering. Finally, 4 weeks after the first time I met Imange, he was able to return to Themba Care. I’ll never forget what it felt like to see Imange again—his weight had increased drastically and he looked so much healthier than he had before. He even smiles and laughs now!

Before I began working at Themba Care, I had never met anyone with HIV/AIDS. I remember learning about statistics and hearing numbers—X% of children are living with, are dying from, or have died from HIV/AIDS. While I knew about the technical aspects of the disease—how it worked, how it could be contracted, how to prevent it—I was emotionally removed from the disease. I had the privilege of being sheltered from the realities of HIV, just as I was often sheltered from the realities of racism, sexism, and classism, though it existed all around me. But, now, after working at Themba Care, my eyes have been opened, and I am so glad. Working at Themba Care helped me put a face to HIV/AIDS rather than a statistic—now when I think of HIV, I think of Imange, Likolethu, Owethu, Luyolo, and all of the other beautiful babies at Themba Care. I no longer carry the stigma I once had about the disease. Once you feel a baby’s tears on your skin or their laugh in your ears, you no longer associate the child with the disease. You begin to realize that HIV does not define a person, but rather the other way around. This reality was life changing for me, and I am so thankful for my time at Themba Care.

I would like to continue to affiliate myself with this cause when I return back to the United States. Though the statistics for instances of HIV/AIDS are certainly higher in Africa, HIV/AIDS awareness and education is still a huge issue in the United States as well. I plan on making much more of an effort to help others understand HIV/AIDS so that more people can begin to put a face to HIV rather than a number or statistic. Like so many other experiences I’ve had here in South Africa, this experience has forever changed me and made me more aware of the world I live in and more aware of how I can contribute to making a difference.