As students
in the Cape Town study aboard experience, everyone works at a local NGO focused
on a specific public health issue. I was an intern at the Women of Worth program,
which is part of the Zimele Project in the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, which aims
to empower young women ages 19-24 through 12 different empowerment sessions. These
empowerment sessions focus on skills to build self esteem and confidence among
these women and provide resources on CV writing, different types of
contraceptives, and self-defense classes. This program aims to reach 10,000
women within 2 years. As interns, we’ve had various tasks to help in
implementing the different sessions and ensuring that material is prepared for
the future. In addition, we had the opportunity to work with the facilitators
of these sessions, called igniters, and discuss their feedback for the program
and host discussion sessions on the content and modifications to material. Our tasks
during this internship did vary, as did our workspace.
Our workspace at Phillipi Village.
Our workdays
were largely divided between Phillipi Village and the University of Cape Town
Medical campus. Phillipi Village is an up-and-coming area located in Phillipi. Phillipi
Village is a conglomeration of recycled and repainted storage containers. The atmosphere
is very hip and cool and the companies and space are new and relaxed. Some of
the companies within Phillipi Village, or PV as we call it, are NGOs but there
are also restaurants, schools, and local companies. In addition, part of the
space was an old concrete factory and now serves as the backdrop for films and
movies. While we were interning, they filmed part of Maze Runner 3 and Our Girl.
It was really cool to see how many uses the space had and the spirit of taking
old and used spaces and reworking them into new and creative areas. When we
were at PV, the interns and I mainly worked with the igniters and attended some
sessions during the day. Much of the work was quite creative and we mainly
helped in providing feedback on sessions and evaluating how these programs were
being implemented.
Another one
of our tasks at Philippi Village was engaging in discussion with the igniters
on a variety of topics. We would discuss issues such as mental health and gender
based violence within the community and what their thoughts were on these
issues in South Africa and their local communities. In addition, part of the program
included participants’ access to the Powerhouse. The Powerhouse is an area
complete with computers, printers, and phones for the participants to ask
questions on content and use the space to send out resumes and search for jobs
or just do general research. This was a very empowering space and we helped to
make sure that management was aware of any changes that were wanted to the
space to make it more empowering and uplifting.
The outside of the Powerhouse, which is inside a converted shipping container.
In addition
to our days at PV, we also spent some time at Head Office, which was at the
University of Cape Town Medical Campus. The medical campus is host to various
research projects and different professionals within the field. During these
days, we mainly focused on logistical tasks such as changing content, meeting
with staff, and creating activities for the future. In addition, we helped with
making sure that all participants were registered, even if that meant manually
checking the system to make sure that no one had been missed. Working in these
two different environments was really great. Our tasks seemed to shift
depending on where we were, with more logistics at Head Office and more
creative tasks at PV. It was a great way to have some variety within our work
day and understand the different components of such a large organization.
Jasmine, Payton and I with our supervisors Farhaanah and Carey on our last day!
-Karina Rahaman
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