Life lessons
Instead of asking to help, Gauri Raval asked to learn. It transformed her visit to rural South Africa.
By Gauri Raval (Human Biology, Foreign Affairs '07)
Posted to A&S Online 4/26/07
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| Raval (Human Biology, Foreign Affairs '07) Photo by Jack Looney. |
Recently at a party I was introduced as someone who "spent her summer helping poor people in South Africa." I began to realize that because I had chosen to study in Africa, many assumed I must have gone to volunteer or "help" in some capacity. But for me, rather than helping, this past summer was about being helped - about learning from and through others - everyone from professors at WITS University in Johannesburg, to the children in my neighborhood in the rural town of Thohoyandou, to women at the trauma center of the non-governmental organization (NGO) with whom I worked.
I spent about two and half months in South Africa, first in a study-abroad program through U.Va. and then conducting an independent research project funded by the Center for Global Health in Thohoyandou, in the Venda region of the Limpopo Province. There I worked with a local NGO, the Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme (TVEP), and the University of Venda to explore the issues surrounding gender-based violence in the area. With devastatingly high rates of rape and domestic violence, South Africa has been called the "rape capital" of the world. Although violence in cities like Johannesburg tends to receive the most attention, the problem extends into rural areas like Venda as well. Rural populations are especially underserved by medical and police services, making victims more vulnerable.
In response to this issue, TVEP was created to support survivors and to empower the community. It provides one-stop trauma centers at two area hospitals that are open 24 hours a day and staffed by survivor support officers who assist the victim. Survivors come to the center to report incidents to the police and receive medical, psychological and legal aid all in one place. TVEP also provides outreach to the community through help desks at rural clinics, designed to educate both men and women about gender-based violence and increase access to TVEP's services.
Although I had received a grant to complete a research project, I found myself instinctively asking several NGOs what I could do to help. However, my requests met with puzzled glances and vague responses. I quickly realized that with little knowledge of the local language, culture or challenges in the area, and with only several weeks to offer, there was little I could do as a volunteer in the way I had imagined.
Instead, I began asking what I could do to learn. I found it was much more appropriate for me to present myself as a student, eager to learn and ask questions without expectation, rather than as a volunteer, seeking to serve. Although a seemingly simple change, this shift in perspective truly transformed my experience. I found that people everywhere - at the market, at TVEP, at clinics, and even at the local dress shop - were open, friendly and happy to talk to me. Through the help of TVEP, I shadowed a number of survivor support officers, learning about the cases that came into the center and going on follow-up home visits with them. I talked with nurses at health clinics in the rural areas surrounding Thohoyandou, as well as women in a rural village, to understand the challenges they face. I was able to share many of the health promotion materials that I use as a peer health educator at U.Va.'s Student Health Center and, in turn, brought back to U.Va. materials used by TVEP.
Understanding the problem of gender violence anywhere is complex, and I just barely scratched the surface with my experience in Thohoyandou. But what I did learn was that the issues facing people in Venda were only as distant and unfamiliar as I allowed them to be. I found myself creating relationships despite differences in class, gender and race. I was constantly having rich conversations about many things unrelated to my research topic - dating, relationships, traditional healing, soccer, American soap operas, South African soap operas, HIV/AIDS, soccer, Christianity and soccer; this was, of course, during the World Cup! Some of these relationships were only meant to last a few days; others I hope will last a lifetime.
While at the trauma center, I met a young woman - I'll call her Martha - who had come in for support and protection from domestic violence. At the age of 21 she had already been raped, had previously filed for a protection order from her husband and had a young baby. As with many of the other survivors, I was amazed by her strength and courage. But something about Martha's case - partly the fact that we were the same age, and partly the fact that we spent the greater part of one weekend together - has truly stayed with me. At face value, our lives seemed a world apart. But we passed the hours together quickly watching television, listening to the radio, laughing, joking and playing with her baby.
Rather than helping Martha, I was able to listen to her and learn from her. I found myself remembering what one of my friends in Thohoyandou had told me. "When we think of Americans we think of those so much higher than us. But then we actually meet and spend time with you all and we realize that this," she said, pointing to my skin, "doesn't really mean anything, that we are all the same inside."
We are all the same inside; the relationships I developed with Martha and others showed me that. Unfortunately, that doesn't lessen the importance of the problems facing Martha and not me: poverty, the threat of violence, and lack of access to employment, education and health care.
What I learned this summer is that Martha's challenges must be mine as well. As women, and indeed as people, we share a responsibility for one another's well being-the responsibility of creating a world in which such inequalities no longer exist.
A&S Online, April 25, 2007
Gauri Raval (Human Biology, Foreign Affairs '07)