For those of you who do not know where Cape Town is located:
It is on the very southern western tip of Africa. During my stay it will be their winter meaning the climate includes cold, wet, & rainy with average temperatures of 45-70 degrees F (7-20 degrees C). Oh. And no central heating. But after spending yesterday morning in the hot, humid 90 degrees setting up tables and chairs for Daniel's graduation party, 60 degrees doesn't sound too bad.
South Africa has eleven official languages, but thankfully for me the three most spoken are English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa- English being primary. South Africa's currency is the Rand. Today's US exchange is $1=R6.71. So if lunch is costing R35, that's only about $5. South Africa is also 7 hours ahead of Chicago.
I will be leaving Wednesday, June 8th (3 days from today!!!) and will return Saturday, July 23rd. My flight leaves around 3:45 PM on Wednesday to Montreal, Canada. After a four-hour layover, I will take a 6-hour flight to London, UK in which I will arrive at 9:45 AM and have a 10 hour layover! Day plans TBA. And finally at 7:30 PM, I will take my final twelve-hour flight and arrive in Cape Town. If 34 hours of traveling doesn't sound exhausting and terrifying as it is- throw in the idea of doing it all ALONE! Although there will be a number of other US students traveling, I am the only student from the University of Illinois. Getting to Cape Town safely with all of my luggage will be an adventure in itself, but that's just the beginning of a life-changing experience.
In Cape Town I will be interning with an organization called SHAWCO - Students' Health and Welfare Centres Organisation. Although I cannot give exact details of what I will be doing, I can say I will be learning in formal lectures along with hands-on experiences and learning activities. Special excursions are also planned for some weekends to expand learning experiences to more of the country. I will also be receiving six approved hours of credit under my major.
Here are more specific details of which my internship will include:
The Health Sector:
SHAWCO Health co-ordinates 6 general clinics and 3 paediatric clinics in various Cape Town communities. These clinics often serve as the only port-of-call for community members who work during the day, or who cannot make the trip to the neighbouring Day Hospital. The clinics either operate from permanent Health Facilities or from SHAWCO Health’s three, fully-equipped Mobile Clinics.
During clinics, patients are seen by medical students under the supervision of a qualified volunteer doctor who oversees the proceedings, verifies diagnoses and provides advice. Clinical year students are responsible for clerking, examination and treatment of the patients, while also guiding and teaching pre-clinical students who observe, examine patients under guidance and complete admission forms. SHAWCO is now registered to dispense medication, and we have a fully stocked pharmacy with dispensing sisters who attend each clinic.
Health and Rehabilitation students also volunteer at some of the clinics – and run a special clinic for Cerebral Palsied children - contributing to the much-needed holistic health care model which SHAWCO aims to provide.
Clinics operate weekly from the first week of February until the last week of October each year (approximately 30 sessions for each clinic) and see over 6000 patients in a year.
Students are transported to the clinics sites via SHAWCO buses – leaving UCT campus at 18h00 and returning once all the patients at the clinic have been attended to – approximately 22h30, sometimes as late as 01h00.
Students from the Faculty of Health Sciences also run the WREMS project: Waiting Room Education by Medical Students. Wrems employs a creative approach to empower people to adopt healthier lifestyles through information about their own health. Medical and Health Rehabilitation students, many of whom are also gifted in art, drama, music and computer graphics, employ various media to provide information regarding chronic lifestyle diseases, other common medical problems and general healthy living. This encourages patients to actively seek more information from the doctors during consultation, ask for various tests to be administered if they suspect they might have contracted one of these medical conditions, and in general, adopt healthier lifestyles. WREMS is active in all 6 general SHAWCO clinics.
Some of the areas in which you will or can be involved in are as follows:
- We are currently in the process of establishing a social referral network for all of our mobile clinics. This involves co-ordinating and accessing information regarding the communities in which our clinics are based. This involved site visits and meeting with various organisations in each of the communities. Relevant people will be available to assist and accompany you on such visits. it will be a great opportunity for you to really see what is happening on the ground in terms of health care in our communities.
- We have a rural health trip to the Eastern Cape taking place in June. You are more than welcome to join the students on this trip and experience rural health care in South Africa (a once in a lifetime opportunity). Your job here would probably involve data collections rather than clinical work as you will not be registered. If this does appeal to you, don't worry about the classes for the course, I will make the necessary arrangements in this regard.
- We are currently also conducting a health review for the sector. I am meeting with the relevant people on Wednesday to discuss the possibility of you being involved in this project.
- We have a group of visiting medical students from Norway who will be running clinics on Thursday and Fridays. You will also have the opportunity of attending these an assisting where necessary if you'd like to go out and see the clinics being run during the day.
Sounds like a great organization to be interning with- I'm very excited!
I will be staying in apartments just off the University of Cape Town campus in which I will be sharing with 4 other students- 2 girls, 2 guys. I will be paying and cooking my meals and will pay for internet by my usage.
Mailing Address for Regular Mail:
Jill Knuth
c/o Arcadia University
Postnet Suite #69
Private Bag X18
Rondebosch
7701
South Africa
Mailing address for private courier deliveries (e.g. UPS, Fed-Ex, etc.):
Jill Knuth
c/o Arcadia University
Postnet Rondebosch
Shop 35, Riverside Mall
Main Road
Rondebosch
7700
South Africa
As for now, that is a majority of the information I have on my trip. I take the GRE (basically the Grad School ACT) tomorrow night and now would be the time to stop procrastinating. But in less than 70 hours I will be on a plane!!! Wish me luck :)
No comments:
Post a Comment