African Horizons

First, my apologies to those who’ve been looking for updates recently. It seems the month of September got lost in the shuffle. I won’t go into too much detail, but a few highlights of the forgotten month include a solo weekend venture to the South (which included barfing on a tap-tap and having my sandals stolen while I was in the ocean), saying goodbye to another roommate and welcoming a new one, continuing my work on our CLM pilot loan program evaluation, and finding time to head home to the States to celebrate two weddings in one week.

Now a few weeks into October, I’m sure many of you have heard that my days here in Haiti are numbered. After thoughtful consideration, I’ve decided to accept an internship offer in Cape Town, South Africa that starts in January. It definitely wasn’t an easy decision—especially since I’ve come to enjoy Haiti and its culture so much. I love learning Kreyol, hanging out with friends on the streets of Port-au-Prince, and seeing the amazing work that Fonkoze is doing. It’s also been exciting with the recent high-level publicity Haiti has gotten thanks to the Bill Clinton’s UN Envoy, Matt Damon’s Water.org, as well as Fonkoze’s new $50 million dollar partnership with Paul Farmer’s Partners in Health. Things are looking up for many people here in Haiti and I just hope that these positive visions for the country can come to fruition.

The job offer in Cape Town, however, was just too good to pass up. Those that know me well know my heart has been pulling me back to Africa ever since I left Namibia 3 years ago. Couple this with the richness of South African culture, the freshness of a burgeoning apartheid-free state, the beauty of Cape Town’s mountains and oceans, and a job that will fit perfectly with my graduate school work, and it simply seemed like the right path for me to take.

I’ll be working for a small grassroots organization called Africa Unite which seeks to quell xenophobia (fear of different types of people). South Africa, much like the United States, has a wealth of immigrants seeking prosperity and protection within it’s borders. From Zimbabweans fleeing the oppressive policies of Mugabe to Somalis escaping the ravage of war, people see the country’s relative wealth and political freedom as a brighter future. All this comes, often times, at the disdain of many native South Africans who feel these foreigners are stealing their jobs and their government services (sound familiar?). Africa Unite thinks there is a way for these groups to live harmoniously, and so they employ a wide variety of programs that not only help unite people, but also alleviate poverty, crime, and human rights violations.

I’m going to be the acting manager of a division of Africa Unite called the Sisonke Savings Scheme. This program, still in the very formative stages, seeks to encourage a culture of savings and entrepreneurship amongst South African youth. It teaches life skills and financial skills, amongst much more. One of the things that drew me so much to this position was the ability I’ll have to greatly interact with the population I’m working with. I’ll be holding numerous community meetings with youth, allowing them the ability to shape the program as they desire. I’ll be networking with other non-profits and organizations to grow our program. I’ll get to employ program design and implementation skills that I studied at Rutgers as well as learn hands-on the skill of trying to find funding.

It all sounds very challenging, but I think it will be very rewarding in the end. I can’t wait to see what Africa has in store for me and I thank you for all following my blog during my 5 months in Haiti. I’ll be finishing up here at the end of October and returning to Philadelphia/Camden for 2 months to try to make some very important money to fund my internship. I head off to Cape Town around the first week of January and will be staying through the middle of July. (For those of you that follow soccer, that also means I’ll be there as South Africa hosts its first ever World Cup!!)

Anyways, stay tuned on here, I think I still have one or two more Haiti updates in me before I go.

Peace and Healthcare to all.