Improving Educational Access, Quality, and Environment in Rural Intabazwe, South Africa

Authors

Divya Joshi, University of Central FloridaFollow

Streaming Media

Files

Course Code

LDR

Course Number

3955

Faculty/Instructor

Dr. Michael Callahan and Dr. Mark Poisel

Faculty/Instructor Email

michael.callahan@ucf.edu

About the Author

Zoom Passcode: 8l4nT&pN

My name is Divya Joshi, and I am a junior majoring in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Central Florida. In the future, I hope to become a physician. I was a student in the LEAD in South Africa Service-Learning Study Abroad Program during the Spring 2023 semester, and I traveled to South Africa in May of this year to implement my project centered around education.

I am so thankful for this wonderful opportunity to meet and serve the lovely people of Intabazwe. I would like to acknowledge our partners in South Africa that helped make this service project a reality, in addition to my professors and peers who helped me tremendously every step of the way.

Abstract, Summary, or Creative Statement

Despite the rapid modernization and urban development in South Africa in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, many of the country’s citizens in its rural and underdeveloped areas struggle with meeting their basic needs such as food security, sanitation, and education due to mismanagement of resources and government corruption. Through my Service-Learning Project, I aimed to try to lessen these disparities through targeting educational access, quality, and environment in the rural town of Intabazwe, South Africa. For access to education, I wanted to have a menstrual product drive since millions of South African girls miss a large part of their schooling every year just because they don’t have access to menstrual products. I also demonstrated how to use the pads to the girls and women who had never seen a pad before. For educational quality and environment, I donated various school supplies, including dry-erase math workbooks and a massive whiteboard, and playground equipment, including a trampoline, two seesaws, and two netball hoops. Throughout this process, I constantly had to re-budget and reschedule to account for new issues that arose every day. From this, I grew profoundly in my project management skills, learning adaptability to be able to have contingencies for any unexpected situations. Most meaningfully, however, I was able to connect with the people of Intabazwe on a personal level and really listen to their wants and needs, allowing me to serve them best and to learn from them.

Additional Resources

The recording is through a Zoom Cloud Recording, with the meeting passcode attached behind the link. Please let me know at di187006@ucf.edu if you have any issues accessing the video. Thank you so much for the opportunity!

Keywords

education; service-learning; South Africa; period poverty; menstrual health; school supplies; LEAD in South Africa; study abroad

Recommended Citation

Joshi, Divya, "Improving Educational Access, Quality, and Environment in Rural Intabazwe, South Africa" (2023). High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023. 5.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/hip-2023fall/5