Michael Williams

The first dispatches are by Sahana Prasad and Michael Williams. Sahana is in her second year and will be entering programs in public policy in women’s health and reproductive justice and Michael is a DAAS honors student with a minor in urban studies entering his final year.

Enjoy, Nesha Z. Haniff

I Realize I am Not an Outsider In South Africa

http://youtu.be/bDU6OPBSbW8

Our first week in South Africa has been nothing short of surreal, due in large part to the hospitable, wise, and compassionate spirits that have made us feel at home in what should be an unfamiliar place for most of us in the group. While it has been memorable to witness stories and events we have studied over the past year at U of M come alive before my eyes, the most fulfilling part of the trip thus far has been engaging in the very work we came here to do: HIV capacity-building to equip individuals and organizations with the POA methodolgy to empower communities. We would spend this month teaching a simple and completely oral, 15-minute HIV-awareness module developed by our professor and POA founder, Dr. Nesha Haniff. And our journey as educators would begin at Love Life, a national organization and initiative based in Johannesburg dedicated to the alleviation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic amongst South African youth through peer education, testing, counseling, and numerous other services.

Yet again I was faced with an overwhelming sense of comfort and belonging thanks to the warm and inviting atmosphere at Love Life and individuals in my group of students such as Esther Dikeledi Seaka. Esther, better known as DK, has a spirit that lit up the room with her easy grasp of the module. Her involvement allowed for genuine dialogue and exchange of teaching and learning to take place amongst myself, my co-presenters, and the other Love Life participants around the issues of stigma and risk reduction in contracting the virus for the youth in Gauteng the province in which Johannesburg is located . DK’s love of community and empowering others moved her to make the module more interactive and personable when she taught it back to our group. By engaging her audience and integrating them into the teaching of the material, she took ownership of the information, so that those she eventually teaches will be able to emulate her approach.

Her appreciation of the module and dedication to this work not only gave me useful tools for teaching at future sites throughout the month but also reinstilled in me a strong sense of confidence in the work fellow POA members and I are doing. In other words, DK’s presence helped to validate my own. By both commending and positively challenging my co-presenters and me in our teaching roles throughout this month in South Africa, she reaffirmed that I was doing positive work and I was meant to be here. From such an experience, I left Love Life with renewed motivation to continue this work as we leave Jo’Burg and venture to Durban and Zululand in the rural KwaZulu-Natal region. I realize that I am not an outsider in South Africa, but a guest welcomed to make himself feel at home.

-Michael Williams, POA Team member 2012