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South Africa (SFH) Program Links - 1 3292

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• Excursions
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South Africa: Community Health

Program Highlights

Durban as Program Base

Durban lies at the intersection of sub-tropical and temperate latitudes. This edge zone thus deals with a large variety of human diseases. Durban is also near the epicenter of the HIV pandemic in Southern Africa. Kwazulu Natal has a large rural community, most of whom are effectively illiterate and inumerate, and development is taking time to gather momentum. Many persons use traditional healers, while at the same time cutting edge hospitals and research centers operate in parallel.

Johannesburg and Cape Town

The program begins with orientation in Johannesburg, where activities include a guided tour of the Apartheid Museum in Soweto and a Peninsula Tour. It then moves to Cape Town including a visit to the UNESCO World Heritage site at Robben Island, the notorious prison where former South African President Nelson Mandela and many other leaders were held during Apartheid.

Rural Health Experience and Homestay in Amacambini

The Amacambini visit and homestay, along with excursions to other areas of the East Coast, will help students appreciate rural livelihoods and public health issues. Students stay with rural families in Amacambini, a village on the KwaZulu Natal north coast, and learn about issues facing Zulu South Africans while developing relationships across lines of nation, class and/or ethnicity.

Students explore and experience the staple foods of the Zulu, meet with traditional healers, examine primary health care services, and study community health programs. They also they have the opportunity to investigate health issues in meetings with district health service.

Transkei Excursion: Public Health and Community Action

This excursion to the North Eastern region of the Eastern Cape (formerly known as «Transkei») exposes students to a deeply rural community, quite literally at the end of the gravel road. They get to live with rural families and their livestock, observing living conditions

Community Health Lecture series

Academics, health care workers and researchers are drawn together to teach about a wide range of diseases, prevention programs and health interventions.