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Rebecca Crowie – Advocacy volunteer

Rebecca began her time at Scalabrini with the Women’s Platform and then went on to join the Advocacy team. She reflects on her time here below. 

“I was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa. I did a BsocSci honours degree in justice and transformation at UCT (University of Cape Town). My academic interest lies in the human rights field, more specifically championing the rights of disadvantaged and minority groups. 

“I’ve also learnt to rethink the many privileges that I’ve taken for granted just by being a South African citizen; things I’ve never had to think twice about. Scalabrini has been an enormous journey of self-discovery and has been an extremely enlightening experience.”

I was searching for an internship, preferably at an NGO, for some post studying experience. I am currently a volunteer for the Advocacy Programme. Refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented people are a particularly vulnerable group in this country and they often possess a very limited knowledge of their legal rights. Assisting them, specifically under the Advocacy Programme, was right in line with my interests. 

My experience has been positive from the start. The operations manager was warm and friendly to me from the beginning. My contract with my listed responsibilities was comprehensive. I was impressed by the ‘meeting the teams’ part, where a representative from each department would provide an in-depth explanation on the particular programme’s job scope to the new comers. 

Professionally, I’ve overcome a great deal of anxiety when dealing with clients in a professional setting. Generalised anxiety is an issue I’ve struggled with for many years. So, on a personal scale, my engagement with clients at Scalabrini has benefited me enormously in interpersonal relationships that extend beyond the office too. 

I’ve also learnt to rethink the many privileges that I’ve taken for granted just by being a South African citizen; things I’ve never had to think twice about. Scalabrini has been an enormous journey of self-discovery and has been an extremely enlightening experience.

My greatest high for my time here has definitely been when I organised a two day self-defence workshop for the Women’s Platform clients. I outsourced an instructor on social media, organised dates, times and hall bookings. I was rather apprehensive in the days leading up to it as I had never met the instructor before. However, there was such an easy, effortless chemistry between the instructor and the women in attendance. I could tell the women appreciated the class. They learnt so much that they didn’t know before. I felt extremely proud of myself at the conclusion of the workshop. 

Although this did not happen often, my lows would have to be my exposure to traumatic, unfortunate stories from my clients. At the same time, I feel the exposure to these stories could have the potential to help strengthen our emotional intelligence and resilience, so I am ever thankful to them. 

My dream is to work for a refugee NGO abroad. I would also love to work for an international organisation such as Human Rights Watch, the UN or Freedom House. 

My hope is that all people who walk through our doors feel welcome and that they belong. That if they look different, speak a different language or have a different nationality, this does not mean that there is no place for them in this country. The xenophobic rhetoric we hear from some of our politicians and the violence towards non-South Africans that we witness from some of our private citizens are not reflective of this country. South Africa is big enough for everyone.” 

Judy Park – All Rounder Volunteer

Judy wants to work in human rights, focusing on people being able to come into the United States. This is the reason she is specialising in American politics at university and why she came to Scalabrini for a few weeks where she was an All Rounder. Read more about Judy’s experience below. 

“I’m in a programme with my school right now, which is an internship plus a class. There’s a partnership between my school and Connect123, an organisation that helps you find NGOs that you can volunteer at. I said that I want to work with human rights and Connect123 knew just the place for me. 

“Instead of staying in one programme, I was able to have that diversity, which I think is important for me now.”

As an All Rounder, I never know what to expect. Sometimes I fill in for EAP (Employment Access Programme) or I work a lot with Women’s Platform and Convo Club. I also work with operations and so I did data capturing and administration work, which is pretty time consuming and operations is super busy, so I was able to do that and take care of that, which I think was helpful for them.

I also work reception. It was really hard at first and I didn’t know anything. People would ask “what’s this?” and I was like, “ I don’t know, what is this?”. So I’d call Asha and she would explain it to me. I got to know Scalabrini so much better because of reception and have a new profound respect for receptionists.

I have learnt that going on to my career, I need to find a position where I’m not stuck in one spot, I want to be able to work in different areas. I don’t know what that would look like, but if there’s a full time All Rounder position somewhere, that would be perfect for me. I also learnt that I love making it easier for other people to do their jobs, so operations was a really good fit for me. I know my skills are data capturing, facilitating stuff and making sure all administrative stuff is done, I really figured that out at Scalabrini. Instead of staying in one programme, I was able to have that diversity, which I think is important for me now. 

My only low would be taking over reception for the first time when I had no idea what I was doing. I was lost, I couldn’t work the phones or transfer calls. It was embarrassing. Going off that, my high would be being able to take over from Asha for a full day. That’s a real testament to how I’ve been able to learn here and that I can really do something here, not just for Asha, but for everyone else. My favourite time here has been at reception. It’s been a lot of fun. 

If everything goes well, I would like to work for an NGO and I also want to spend time working with the UN. My experiences here have solidified  what I was planning on doing before. A lot of my friends who have been interning at NGOs and have realised that it’s not what they want to do, but I’m the exact opposite. This is exactly what I want to do. If there’s a Scalabrini back in America, I definitely want to work there, or come back here. The environment here is great, my coworkers are great and I think the work they do here is really important.”