Examine community-based health in South Africa, exploring the roles of the state, the media, and nongovernmental organizations in mobilizing community assets.
16
None
isiZulu
English
Feb 6 – May 21
Feb 6 – May 4
May 7 – May 21
South Africa
Durban
Global Health & Well-being
Development & Inequality
Please note that SIT will make every effort to maintain its programs as described. To respond to emergent situations, like COVID-19, however, SIT may have to change or cancel programs.
The legacy of apartheid has left a large section of South Africa poorly educated and struggling with systemic poverty. Despite the country’s progressive policies, racial and gender inequalities still have adverse effects on health outcomes. You’ll examine a range of health services across Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, and other areas to gain a deeper understanding of how traditional healers, the state, the media, nongovernmental organizations, and state-of-the-art hospitals address health challenges. Learn and practice the isiZulu language and travel from city to village to learn about health communication strategies, health education, and prenatal care. As part of a lecture series, you’ll hear from academics, healthcare workers, and researchers. Stay with a variety of homestay families and witness firsthand how different communities face obstacles to healthcare access. During the program, visit Boulders Beach penguin colony; see wildlife in Kruger National Park; and journey to Cape Point, Africa’s most southwesterly tip.
None
Visit hospitals and clinics in Durban in small groups to observe the varied quality of healthcare facilities, as well as the frequently heroic work of dedicated health professionals who aim to provide the best service they can, often under difficult circumstances.
South Africa’s apartheid government established special-needs schools for whites only. Most of these have since been transformed into multiracial schools, but the new schools are still insufficient in the face of increasing demand. The government wants to move toward inclusion, closing specialized schools and having students attend regular schools. Survey resources, challenges, and benefits associated with special-needs schools, and discuss the costs and benefits of special education.
Visit NGOs that deliver health services in areas that are challenging for the government, particularly when offered on a small scale and in holistic ways. In the past, NGOs like The Valley Trust offered healthcare to black communities neglected by the apartheid government. Today, these NGOs offer services in tandem with the government and other funders in operationally challenging areas. Other NGOs, including OneVoice, work in government schools to complement life-skills programs and respond to the HIV epidemic.
Please note that SIT will make every effort to maintain its programs as described. To respond to emergent situations, however, SIT may have to change or cancel programs.
Through the interdisciplinary coursework in this program, students examine contemporary public health issues in South Africa through a multidisciplinary lens while analyzing the historical, political, economic, cultural, and geographic forces that shape the history of public health interventions in South Africa. Through the Social and Community Health Research Methods seminar, students learn to be critical consumers of medical research papers and media reports on health, to gather primary data on health issues through questioning and observation, and to conduct ethical, culturally appropriate research in preparation for the Independent Study Project (ISP). Through language study and homestays, students gain a unique window into the culture and insights into community healthcare.
The following syllabi are representative of this program. Because courses develop and change over time to take advantage of dynamic learning opportunities, actual course content will vary from term to term. The syllabi can be useful for students, faculty, and study abroad offices in assessing credit transfer. Read more about credit transfer.
Approaches to Community Health in South Africa – syllabus
(IPBH3000 / 3 credits)
An interdisciplinary course conducted in English. Students gain exposure to essential social, historical, and political features of South Africa to provide a common frame of reference to engage with the program theme. Through lectures from academics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, readings, and selected site visits, students critically examine topics related to health promotion and provision, including the pharmaceutical industry, traditional healing, rural health and social justice, and the role of the media in promoting, communicating, or influencing health issues in South Africa.
Social Determinants of Health in South Africa – syllabus
(IPBH3005 / 3 credits)
Through a combination of lectures, practicum experience, appropriate readings, and site visits in urban and rural locales, students examine the practice of prevention and promotion of healthcare, come to understand healthcare delivery in rural South Africa, and examine and assess specific health issues in South Africa and how they are being targeted or addressed.
isiZulu – syllabus
(ZULU1003 / 3 credits)
The emphasis is on beginning speaking and comprehension skills through classroom and field instruction. Practice with host family members during the homestays augments formal instruction.
Research Methods and Ethics – syllabus
(ANTH3500 / 3 credits)
A course in the concepts of learning across cultures and from field experience, providing students with core tools in public health research. Introduction to the Independent Study Project. Material includes cross-cultural adaptation and skills building; project selection and refinement; appropriate methodologies; field study ethics and the World Learning/SIT Human Subjects Review Policy; developing contacts and finding resources; developing skills in observation and interviewing; gathering, organizing, and communicating data; and maintaining a field journal.
In addition to taking the above courses, students will also need to enroll in one of the following two courses:
Independent Study Project
Independent Study Project – syllabus
(ISPR3000 / 4 credits)
Conducted in Durban or in another approved location appropriate to the project. Sample topic areas: sociological consequences of HIV/AIDS; a historical review of food security and nutrition programs in a community-based NGO; public health education campaigns; African refugees’ and asylum seekers’ access to health services; analysis of the proposed National Health Insurance scheme; sustainable development and healthcare; local attitudes about access to healthcare facilities; indigenous healing practices.
Sample ISP topic areas:
Browse this program’s Independent Study Projects and undergraduate research.
OR
Internship and Seminar
Internship and Seminar – syllabus
(ITRN3000 / 4 credits)
This seminar consists of a four-week internship with a local community organization, research organization, business, or international NGO. The aim of the internship is to enable the student to gain valuable work experience and to enhance their skills in an international work environment. Students will complete an internship and submit a paper in which they process their learning experience on the job, analyze an issue important to the organization, and/or design a socially responsible solution to a problem identified by the organization. A focus will be on linking internship learning with the program’s critical global issue focus and overall program theme.
Sample internships:
Embark on a five-week homestay with isiZulu-speaking families in and around the township of Cato Manor near Durban and near the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Study the challenges facing Zulu South Africans and develop relationships across national, class, and/or ethnic lines. Families have been hosting SIT students for more than a decade and take pride in ensuring that students feel welcome and safe.
Take three short, overnight homestays to rural Nzinga and Sandanezwe, where you will see how access to healthcare remains difficult for many residents, and the picturesque region of Umthwalume, near Hibberdene on the southern coast, where you’ll see cattle grazing on slopes along the Indian Ocean. Here, you will witness the realities of unemployment in a community where the chiefs (Indunas) still hold sway.
Other accommodations include hostels, private homes, or small hotels.
Recent positions held by alumni of this program include:
Program coordinator at Unite for Sight, New Haven, CT
Graduate student preparing to be a women’s health nurse practitioner at Boston College, Boston, MA
Fulbright scholar in South Africa
SIT Study Abroad is committed to making international education accessible to all students. Scholarship awards generally range from $500 to $5,000 for semester programs and $500 to $3,000 for summer programs. This year, SIT will award more than $1.5 million in scholarships and grants to SIT Study Abroad students.
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Prepare for an accessible educational experience with SIT Study Abroad! In-country conditions and resources vary by site. Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact disabilityservices@sit.edu for more information.
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SIT Study Abroad South Africa: Community Health & Social Policy
@sithealthsouthafrica
The University of Notre Dame’s Human Development Conference is an annual, student-led conference that provides a platform for dialogue in which students from all different backgrounds and disciplines can share their development-focused research.
