Cape Town Jean-Louise Olivier Volunteer Story

Jean-Louise Olivier: Advocacy Volunteer

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Hear from Jean-Louise, one of our current Advocacy volunteers, about how her experience is going!

“I was born in South Africa, but I grew up and studied in Australia. I studied development studies, with a focus on refugees, asylum seekers, and gender equality. I did a semester exchange at UCT and I wanted to come back to Cape Town after so I did a lot of research and found Scalabrini, and I applied to be an advocacy intern.

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Tuesdays to Fridays I do client intake in the mornings – that’s my favourite part. In the afternoons, I do research, and work on press reviews or small parts of submissions, or I do client follow-ups. I’ve learned so much. My previous internships haven’t been as hands-on or as full-time – at Scalabrini, you’re constantly in it and learning.

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I’ve gained a lot of professionalism and confidence in this field. One of my favourite moments was when one of my clients was fired and his boss was refusing to pay him. There was a court order from the Department of Labour, and so I kept pestering the boss until eventually he paid. My client phoned me and he was so happy – he was able to pay his rent and for a course that he wanted to take. I hope to keep working in the field with refugees, and with clients specifically, I don’t want to be behind a desk.”

When we asked what Jean-Louis hoped for clients at Scalabrini she said, “I hope that the clients of Scalabrini can feel included in South Africa and that they are able to identify as whatever they want to. I hope that people accept them, and they don’t exploit or harm them.

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“Working with refugees is very rewarding. I would recommend it.”

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Cape Town Pamela Client Story

Pamela: Small steps to survival with the help of Welfare

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We follow the story of Pamela, a nurse from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), whose hardships in South Africa became more manageable through Scalabrini’s Welfare Programme.

From Congo to South Africa

Pamela, a trained nurse, fled the DRC because it was too dangerous for her to stay. As Pamela explains, ‘to stay in the DRC is difficult. I’m not talking about other people, I’m talking about for me and my husband. To go back is not easy for us’.

Pamela fled to South Africa with no English skills and no money. As South Africa’s economy is larger than that of DRC, Pamela expected that she would find a way to support herself. “I thought that if you go to a country that has many things, [you expect] that you too can have things.” But even in South Africa, “we only had enough for food and paying rent. We didn’t have much more than that.”

Approaching Scalabrini

Unemployed and desperate to support her two children, Pamela approached Scalabrini in 2015 for assistance. “The first thing I noticed here was the way people communicated with me, asking me how I was and making me feel like I could put my faith here.” Pamela was referred to English School, where she passed through four levels.

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“The first thing I noticed here was the way people communicated with me, asking me how I was and making me feel like I could put my faith here.”

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Following English School, Pamela was referred to AMKA, a series of workshops and sessions in a collaboration between the Employment Access Programme and the Welfare Programme, designed to raise self-esteem and promote self-resilience amongst vulnerable refugee women. “They give people energy,” explains Pamela. “They show you how to stand by yourself and how to have the courage to achieve your dreams.” Following AMKA, Pamela was supported through a six-week hospitality course, following which she started looking for a job with the assistance of the Employment Access Program. After a short-term job at a guesthouse in Brooklyn, Pamela heard of a position in the Scalabrini Guesthouse. Following interviews, Pamela was offered the position and has been working there ever since.

Steps to building a life in South Africa are slow and small, but Pamela remains positive. “Scalabrini and the people here like Fortune, Papa Etienne and Jane gave me courage. Before, I had big challenges, now I have peace in my heart and my child has food.”

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Cape Town UNITE Celebrating Heritage Day

Celebrating our Heritage with UNITE

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Heritage Day is a South African public holiday that encourages citizens to celebrate their diverse cultures, beliefs, nationalities, and traditions alongside one another. Students from participating schools in Scalabrini’s UNITE program came together to celebrate Heritage Day and wrap up UNITE for this year. In accordance with the holiday’s purpose, students performed various art pieces that represented their cultures and identities including skits, dances, poems, songs, and raps.

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Mawande Kaleni, a 10th grade student from Heiderveld, performed a beautiful poem about Africa as the motherland that unites. Kaleni was especially excited for Heritage Day; “We’ve been preparing for this day for a while. We even convinced one of our teachers to set aside time each day for us to brainstorm and practice our performance.” Kaleni articulated his appreciation for the UNITE program and the way it brought schools together and introduced him to new friends. Aside from Kaleni’s poem, the rest of the Heiderveld group performed a humorous skit that kept the audience engaged and laughing.

Heiderveld students Sisipho Ndzabela, Mantisa Gcaza and Aza Ntantiso agree that their favorite thing about UNITE this year was the unique subjects they discussed and debated, and the way their understandings of integration and diversity changed as a result of UNITE. Ntantiso added that she was grateful for the opportunity to celebrate Heritage Day with friends, and that she loves the way Heritage Day gives people the chance to recognize, embrace, and appreciate their cultures. She also noted that culture plays a significant role in shaping personality, and that it should not be overlooked.

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Phelo Tsana, a 9th grade student from Zonnebloem, has been looking forward to this day all year. Tsana’s favorite part of UNITE has been getting to know other students and their personalities outside the traditional classroom setting. His peers reiterated his thoughts, and added that they appreciate the way UNITE program leaders give them the freedom to be themselves.

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“They welcome us with warm hands. We feel treated as one, not as outsiders.”

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Heritage Day served as the culmination to all UNITE program activities for this year, as students will now move into final exam season before breaking for summer. Before the event ended, Mthetheleli Wontyi, one of the UNITE program facilitators, left students with a few words of advice. “You all are the chosen ones,” he said. “You’re very lucky to be here, and being part of UNITE comes with responsibility to be change agents in your homes and in your communities. Now is time to take the lessons we learned throughout the year and apply them to your lives.”

Jade Bell, another one of the UNITE program managers, left students with a reason to work especially hard in studying for finals by announcing that next year, UNITE students will be given the opportunity to participate in the World Scholars Cup (WSC). WSC is a global competition for high school students, and was founded to serve as a celebration of the joy of learning. The tournament is an enrichment opportunity for students, and the top ten highest-scoring or most-improved UNITE students will be able to compete. What a wonderful and exciting year for UNITE!

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What does integration mean to you?

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Here at Scalabrini, one of our main goals is the peaceful integration between migrants, refugees and citizens. Integration is not only about how hosts treat foreigners; it is about how migrants and refugees integrate themselves in different ways.

This womens month, we asked two women from Zimbabwe their thoughts.

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Watch Stembile’s story, who sees her Daycare Creche as a central part of her integration within South Africa:

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Watch Beatrice’s story as she reflects on integration in Cape Town:

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Cape Town the impact of being an undocumented child

The impact of being an undocumented child

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Did you know that, in international law, it is a child’s right to have a name, a nationality and immediate birth registration? South Africa is signatory to several international conventions that spell this out.* Here in South Africa, these rights are further enshrined in our Constitution, which confirms that all children in South Africa – regardless of nationality – have ‘the right to a name and a nationality from birth.’

The reality for some children, however, is very different. Regulations around birth registration in South Africa mean that children born to parents with expired documents and blocked or lost South African IDs cannot be issued a birth certificate. Watch this video and read this multi-organization press release to learn more.

But what does it actually mean for the child who does not hold a birth certificate? Here are just some of the impacts of being born an undocumented child.

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1. Accessing services becomes increasingly difficult
Many schools in South Africa require that a learner produce a birth certificate to enroll at school. This seems to be an ever-stricter policy. Undocumented children without birth certificates cannot enroll in school and are denied their right to basic education. Parents with no recourse to documentation are caught in limbo as they are not able to document their child. Access to healthcare becomes increasingly difficult as the child gets older. Once the child becomes eighteen years of age, the child is liable to detention and/or deportation.

2. The child is at risk of statelessness
A stateless person is defined as ‘someone who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law’. In other words, a stateless person has no recognised nationality. An undocumented child is not able to prove who they were born to, or where they were born. They are therefore at risk of statelessness. You can watch a short film on a young man affected by statelessness here.

3. The child does not exist on any state system.
It is in the interests of a state to record how many children are born within its borders. Those without birth certificates are not entered into national population registers. This also means that the child without a birth certificate is more likely to remain undetected in terms of care and protection services. It was even found that some social workers within a South African context can be reluctant to take on cases of undocumented foreign children – which might be in part due to the complex issues around being an undocumented child.

There are many more effects of being an undocumented child. If you want to learn more about the work Scalabrini does around foreign children, you can read more here. Should you require advice on an undocumented child, please contact Scalabrini or visit our Advocacy Team, from 9am – 12pm, Tuesdays – Fridays.

*The international conventions that include a child’s right to a name, nationality and birth registration are: the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 7), the 1966 Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 24) and the 1999 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (Article 6).

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Cape Town Victoria Assenza Volunteer Story

Victoria Assenza: English School Volunteer

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I’m from France and I’m studying political science at the University of Cape Town. I discovered Scalabrini while doing research for my thesis.
I am currently a volunteer at the English School where I help with administrative tasks in the office and teach English. On top of having gained a lot of experience with teaching, I have learned to work on various projects and to do all types of small and bigger jobs to assist the English school team.

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Volunteering at Scalabrini has helped me grow professionally by allowing me to apply my knowledge and develop multiple new skills. On a personal level, this experience has helped me meet and work with a huge diversity of people, from the staff to the clients.

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I got to learn more about other people as much as I got to learn about myself.

One of my most memorable moments working at the Scalabrini Centre was the end of the English term when we held a graduation ceremony. The closing of the term felt like an achievement for both the English school team and the clients where you can see that personal/friendly links have been built within the professional/strict environment of a school.

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“Working with the Scalabrini team has been a real pleasure. I was given meaningful responsibilities and independence in my tasks. They have been more than welcoming and has trusted me to work on bigger projects with them.”

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The orientation during the first week has also strongly helped me feel included to the larger team of the Scalabrini Centre as a whole.

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Cape Town Willem Wapenaar Volunteer Story

Willem Wapenaar: Advocacy Volunteer

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“I was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands and grew up in a neighbourhood which was mixed. It was both very quiet but also only 15 min from the city centre by bike and was inhabited by people of diverse socioeconomic status. This made my upbringing very pleasant as I feel I can talk to anyone without feeling too estranged. I studied law and came to South Africa to experience living abroad and gain work experience as an advocacy intern. The choice to work for refugees was mainly from an interest point, which works out well at Scalabrini since I get to work closely with clients.

Though my time volunteering in the Advocacy programme I realised that my understanding of South African Refugee law and the procedures was at a minimum. Due to the complexities of the Department of Home Affairs I had to adjust to this and try my best to make some sense of it.

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“Professionally, Scalabrini has taught me that I can work hard and have fun at the same time and that good work comes with a heart for the job. By meeting people from all over Africa on a daily basis, I have grown and found out so much more about the world than I knew before.”

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The most memorable aspect of the job will be the stories that I have heard from clients which, simultaneously keep me going and keep me up at night. In reflecting on my experiences here, my major hopes are that there will be more fairness in the procedure and that our clients will integrate and make friends with the locals. While I’m unsure of my future plans, after working at Scalabrini I will return to the Netherlands where I will finish my studies and be together with my girlfriend.”

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Cape Town Ruda Herselman Volunteer Story

Ruda Herselman: Advocacy Volunteer

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“I am from Johannesburg, South Africa, and I have just finished my undergraduate in Law. A friend referred me to Scalabrini. I was looking for a job and they asked me to think about Human Rights Law and Advocacy. I came to a Women’s Platform event and I loved it.

I work in the Advocacy programme, in a typical day… well, first things first . . . coffee! Tuesday to Friday I do client intakes. It’s my favourite part, I love working with them, although I have to ask for help every five minutes I always have support when i need it. In the afternoons, I follow up on client issues and work on other projects such as the Birth Registration project.

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What I’ve learned since joining the Scalabrini Centre is compassion. I was unaware of the depth of compassion that I could feel for other people.

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During our orientation, they told us about self-care, and I just had no idea of the emotional depth of that experience. Personally, working at Scalabrini has helped me work with people on an emotional level, which is something I’ve never done before. Professionally, it’s broadened my horizons to look at new potential career paths. 6 months ago, I would have laughed if you’d told me that I’d be working at an NGO . . . now it’s a path I might go down.

My hope for Scalabrini clients is that they are able to find a little bit of hope. I see a lot of hopelessness. If we can give just a little bit of hope, we can keep the human spirit alive.”

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Cape Town Leensa Ghenetti Volunteer Story

Leensa Ghenetti: Communications and Women’s Platform Volunteer

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“I come from the Netherlands and Ethiopia but have spent the majority of my life living in New York. Coming from a mixed background, I have always been interested in issues relating to integration and multiculturalism. I’m currently pursuing a degree in political science at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

Within my studies I have become quite interested in the institution of democracy and how it functions in different countries as well and the prevalence of vote buying and clientelistic behavior. I was first drawn to South Africa’s unique political climate which lead me to spend a semester studying at UCT, last August. During this period of time I met many inspiring people and was exposed to the diverse problems that are prevalent in a society in transition. One of these problems being that of discrimination against migrants and refugees and barriers to integrating.

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“Having greatly enjoyed my time in Cape Town and inspired by what I had learned through my past experiences here, I couldn’t resist coming back and working for Scalabrini as a communications intern…”

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On a day to day basis I work on finding compelling articles to share, interviewing and writing human interest pieces and documenting different evens. While I simultaneously assist as needed with various tasks in the office. I’ve enjoyed the dynamic work environment and having the ability to access and see the many different moving parts of Scalabrini….My future plans involve getting a masters degree, possibly in political communication or international development ”

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Cape Town Kethlyn Gayatiri Volunteer Story

Kethlyn Gayatiri: Employment Access Volunteer

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“As strange as it may sound, I wound picking Africa as my destination for my Summer break, on a random day in Law School. I simply spun the globe and planted my finger on it, and before I knew it, I was on a plane to South Africa. To psych myself up for the trip, I began searching for NGOs to work with, and I felt like Scalabrini was a perfect fit for me. I was an all-rounder intern, but I wound up sticking with the Employment Access Programme, where I work at the Employment Help Desk, or conduct Job Readiness and Digital Literacy workshops for our clients. A working day at the desk is hectic, where I meet between 4 to 10pm clients to design CVs for them and apply jobs for them. Apart from that, I also interact with the clients, and together with the EAP team, we find ways in which we can assist the clients in terms of his/ her professional development, career and training.

Despite being a first-timer in S.A, it felt almost at home. It could be because South Africa was a country that was often discussed in my Human Rights class, but I am sure the warm hospitality, and amazing food are other reasons why I settled so quickly in S.A. I do have to admit, that S.A is very different from my home country, Singapore. Singapore is very much of a “concrete” jungle where we are surrounded by high-rise buildings all of the time. Fast-paced, efficient, and very expensive! The pace of the work environment, and how everything moved was something I needed to adapt to. It reminded me to take it slow, and smell the roses. Given how South Africa is filled with Mother Nature’s wonders, it then gives me the perfect opportunities to appreciate all that South Africa had to offer. I fell in love with the mountains, the sea, the food, the music, the art scene, the languages, and the culture.

The major highlight was receiving emails and cards from clients as a form of appreciation for the work that we do for them. It can be an exhausting task to meet clients after clients, and put out fire with them as we listen to their problems, struggles and obstacles, and try to find ways to help them. Thus, receiving appreciative notes reassures and motivates us to hang in there.
It is going to be bittersweet to bid farewell to Scalabrini, more specifically, to the EAP and the Womens’ Platform. I would not have been enjoying, in fact, looking forward to work every day. 

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“All of you have a heart of Gold, and the team reminds me every day of how important it is to keep the passion alive, and to not be afraid to pursue my goals and dreams. I hope that the clients too feel the same energy when they meet us, because they are amazing individuals too, and they just need the right opportunity to prosper.”

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