Red Cross Internship

For the past five weeks I have been an intern at the South African Red Cross. The first two weeks of my internship was considered an “orientation”. Everyday we arrived to the office at 10am and the maid prepared Nescafe for us and we waited for the car to be ready in the lobby. We would then go and visit Red Cross sites in different locations and meet workers, volunteers, and people served by the Red Cross. After our site visit we would get dropped off at Cape Town Station and be home by 2pm. After orientation, it was decided that I would prepare therapeutic lesson plans for Orphaned and Vulnerable Children support groups run by the Red Cross in two townships (Nyanga and Khayelitsha). I learned a few things quickly. There were no resources available to do the groups and if I wanted to plan any activity I would need to buy supplies myself. The children arrived everyday to an empty room for the group that had chairs and a few tables. When it rained hard, few children attended the group. Before I began working the children would sing, pray and dance during the group.

One of the biggest challenges to doing the groups was getting transportation to the townships. Even though they were only about a 15 min. drive, the Red Cross has only one driver. Three days a week, I was to go to a township. However, I would arrive to the office and tell the person at the desk I needed transportation and then it was out of my hands. Sometimes transportation was arranged and sometimes it wasn’t. If it rained, transportation was less likely.

As for the children. I was amazed at how easy it was to make them happy. I would bring a simple puzzle or game and they were very excited and thrilled to use it. They also listen to instruction very well. Compared to working with children in the United States, these children were obedient and easily entertained. There were some cultural things that did come up. During one assignment the children were asked to write a positive thing about the other children in the class and one boy wrote that a female student was “nice and big and fat”. I asked one of the other volunteers if this was positive and she stated “oh yes that is a very nice thing to say”. Some of the boys in the group were very aggressive and would hit the other children regularly. However, there was no discipline when they hit and no one but me seemed to think it was a problem. When I did an anger worksheet with them, many children wrote that when they are angry they bite.

In the office things were very laid back and no one cares about time. If you need something you will be reassured it will be done but you will never be told when it will be done. One day my driver was two hours late to pick me up in a township and when I asked him about being late he stated “I am here now, I told you I was coming and I am here”. Deadlines also don’t seem to matter much. The office is a very social environment and we were asked to bring out own labtops and for much of the time only one of the four interns could use internet at a time. This became frustrating.

Overall I have learned a lot from the children and doing the groups but I found it very hard to deal with no set plan of what is happening day to day.

Carolyn Kalvinek