Internships in Cape Town with VACorps

I came to Cape Town to challenge myself, to learn about culture and politics outside of the US, gain new work experience, celebrate life, and adventure! I've been reconnected with my passion for women's right issues and with my risk taking and adventurous spirit. I've really enjoyed connecting with so many different kinds of people from all over the world and trying and seeing so many new things. I've really enjoyed hiking mostly on my own, paragliding, and sea kayaking -- and love taking in the stunning natural landscape of Cape Town, All the delicious food from all over the world, and South African wine tasting has also been delightful. Also a pleasure to meet and spend time with other VACorps interns, navigating their own adventures here.

I loved getting to meet and support the women at the domestic violence shelter where I was interning - and find differences and connections to their stories of women i've worked with in the US. The shelter has been faced with financial difficulties in my time there, and I was able to learn quit a bit about South Africa's social service funding structure. I was also interested in the organization's management and response to this challenge, which gave me additional perspective on social services work in different social and historical contexts.

My stay in Capetown will be 10 weeks, which feels about the perfect amount of time for an experience like this. I was able to see and explore many things inside and outside of Capetown, foster beautiful friendships, and get a taste of social service work in an international context. Honestly, I wish there had been more coordination with my internship site around what skills I had to offer them so we could have initiated a project for me earlier on in the experience. Similarly, my site could use some support identifying their organizational needs from interns, and committing institutional support of the intern projects. All told it took about 3 weeks for me to get a sense of how the organization functioned and discuss with the staff what I had to offer - and even still my work 1:1 counseling and group session work was not able to be offered on a regular basis due to a lack of organization of the women's time on the part of the shelter. Every day I arrived - I had no idea what I would be doing. While this is an experience in and of itself - and I'm able to take initiative and be flexible in many environments - I found this at least emotionally taxing and at most re-traumatizing, for both interns and women, who were operating in an environment that lacked transparent communication, whose daily schedule is unpredictable and reactionary, which created an atmosphere of suspicion and hyper individualism (ie. every woman for herself). While this in many ways can be seen as reflection of the post-colonial context, I had the opportunity to visit another domestic violence shelter, and conversed with other interns about their sites - narratives which did not reflect the above experience - but one of collaboration and appreciation. I offer caution placing interns at this site without a good deal more work prepping both with the site and the particular intern around the needs and capacities of both parties.

I appreciated the VACorps orientation week and Friday excursions the most as some lightly structured activities in which to connect with others and explore what this area has to offer. I'm grateful for VACs support especially in the beginning of the experience - having people to connect with and support getting information on the logistics of living life here - paying for electricity at the grocery store, the difference between data and airtime, different forms of public transport etc. I've also appreciated the accessibility of program staff to answer questions and support connecting with an opportunity to visit another domestic violence shelter while I am here - which offered a meaningful dimension to my internship experience.

If I could go back in time I would tell myself to bring mainly "athleisure" clothes - both for hiking etc, but also exploring all over the city and beyond - you really just need to be comfortable. I did bring my hiking shoes and was really glad i did - hiking trails here are pretty rugged, and sneakers alone do not feel sufficient.

I have no idea why I initially chose Cape Town as a place to live for the past several months but it was the best decision I've ever made. The second best thing to happen was working at a refugee center in Cape Town. Leaving today was sad and really hard because the people at the center have become family to me. I have created an entirely new family here between my coworkers, VACorps staff, and amazing friends-- both local and international-- and it makes leaving Cape Town one of the hardest things I have ever done and I am not ready to go. Trust me, if I didn't have to go back to school for my senior year I would take a semester off and stay even longer.

Enjoy every minute of your program experience. It is an internship unlike anything you could ever have and my coworkers became my family. Saying goodbye today was full of laughter and happy tears. Make relationships with the refugees, they are amazing people! Through this internship, I learned that my next step in life is to continue my studies but abroad rather than staying in the United States. I also learned that I forever want to work in an NGO and/or with refugees.

This experience has been very challenging and amazing all at the same time, I would definitely do this again it was a life-changing experience. I learned a lot about myself and the South African culture, being an African myself, I learned a lot at my internship and I will continue to pursue such opportunities in life.

I have made some lifetime friendships with staff and interns I will forever be grateful all thanks to VAC.

For future interns, enjoy every minute of your time here, as it goes by so quickly. Make sure to do all the activities!

Cape Town is the perfect place for a human rights internship, and working out in the cape flats was very eye-opening. I couldn’t have picked a better location for an internship and I’ll definitely be coming back as I’ve fallen in love with Africa. Working with at my internship site was extremely rewarding seeing the struggles of abuse these women go through and being able to work directly with them and have a real impact was amazing. I’m going to miss not being able to go to the markets every weekend or just take an Uber to a vineyard and do wine tastings all day long with my friends. I stayed for 6 weeks and this was the perfect amount of time, I got everything done I wanted to including shark cage diving, paragliding, all the markets, Stellenbosch wine tours, surfing, hiking, and the garden route. The weekly vac activities were so much fun and the vac staff is great - especially Kholi and Kuselwa! I’m definitely most grateful to vac for pairing me with my internship site as being able to work with Kelly’s domestic violence pilot program out in the cape flats and working directly with SAPS in Bishop Lavis has been groundbreaking and rewarding work.

Originally I chose Cape Town because I wanted to do something different from the rest of my friends who intern in their hometown back in the US. I enjoyed the fact that the VACorps Application process wasn't a lengthy, nerve racking , application. It was easy to do. I enjoyed all the information I was sent and provided with by the VACorps team prior to my arrival. It made me super excited to come to Cape Town! The day I arrived in South Africa I was warmly welcomed by a member of the VACorps staff at the arrival gate in the airport. I was a bit scared honestly because SA is an unfamiliar place and I came with no friends or family, however the Orientation week that VACorps provides helped calm my nerves - I enjoyed the township tour on the Red Bus tour during orientation week. I also really enjoyed the support and love we all got from the VACorps staff members. It really helped me to feel better and less lonely/homesick.

I was terrified to start my internship as I had no idea what to expect! However I made so many friends and built many relationships that I know will last a long time. The people at my internship site were so welcoming. I'm gonna miss their jokes and the atmosphere so much. As time went by I didn't want to leave, so much so that I even extended my stay for a few extra days!

Cape Town is the perfect place to work as a young professional! I deeply enjoyed getting to know the people and culture of the city; it's forever dynamic and exciting. I've learned to step out of my comfort zone and I greatly appreciate the kindness and generosity of the locals. I interned as a reporter at GroundUp News and they wasted no time in giving me a taste of journalism in South Africa. I will miss the support of the GroundUp newsroom as well as the expertise and guidance from my co-workers. I really had to push myself to learn quickly about current affairs in order to write and report. I worked on stories mainly by myself and I had to be very self-reliant. My tips to future interns would be to feel comfortable doing a lot of things independently.

Coming to Cape Town was probably one of the best decisions I have ever made. On top of being placed at the perfect internship site, I was also able to completely immerse myself in an entirely different culture than the one I was used to. Even though I spent a mere two months here, I became a completely different person. I am now more open-minded, more adventurous, more grateful, more educated, more passionate, and frankly I have become a better version of myself. In terms of my internship at the Refugee Legal and Advocacy Center, my supervisor helped me hone my skills as I assisted in his court cases and even partially wrote a submission to the South African Law Reform Commission. During my down time, I packed my schedule with every activity imaginable. I took a weekend trip to Garden Route and got to walk with some elephants. I visited the wine tram in Stellenbosch and found my love for red wine. I went to every market in Cape Town every single weekend, my favorite being the Oranjezicht City Farm market. I tried my hand at hiking (I am not as good as I would like to be). I ate my way through Cape Town and became a regular at Rust, Panchos and Mr. Lin’s. But I think my absolute favorite part about Cape Town were the people and relationships that were created during this internship. Without them, Cape Town would not be my absolute favorite place on this planet.

I had a friend from home that took a gap year in Cape Town and met a couple of students who interned through VAC and thought this would be an amazing opportunity to gain hours for PT school while experiencing a new culture and traveling abroad. I am an intern at the Sport Science Institute of South Africa on the team of biokienticists and I have had an amazing experience. I was not only learning from extremely knowledgeable people, but I learned what field of physical therapy I want to pursue, which is neurological disorders. This internship allowed me to be exposed to patients I have not seen before and be there for their big milestones. My favorite part of the internship was being able to walk in everyday and see the milestones of all the patients written on the wall and physically seeing the progress after working so hard in sessions. SSISA was also an amazing place to learn alongside UCT students and interns and gain even more knowledge.

I stayed in Cape Town for 5 weeks and loved the other interns I've met here and all the experiences VAC provided. Cape Town is truly an amazing place is so beautiful. I've loved the hikes after work, watching the sunset, or spontaneous trips to the beach. All these views could be reached in an Uber ride. I still feel like I didn't see all that I wanted to and I definitely recommend staying longer than 5 weeks to give yourself time to get adjusted and make the most of your experience at your internship and South Africa. I also recommend taking advantage of the Friday Activities! I was able to see a lot of Cape Town through these and made great friends because of it!