University of KwaZulu Natal

On Tuesday morning, we went to the University here in Durban. We learned that the University in its current for is only 3 years old. The former University of Durban was a university for whites only except that it had a medical school that was for blacks only. This arrangement was only allowed during the apartheid time through a special dispensation. The reason was that there was no other place for black to be trained in medicine. The former University of Durban Wastelands, was a University that was for Indians. (As you might recall, from our previous lessons, there are basically four recognized races here in South Africa: white, colored, black and Indian, with the colored being those of mixed heritage.)

Their educational systems is different from ours. The typical undergraduate degree is three years and professional degrees just add a fourth year to the undergraduate programs. This would include social work, engineering, accounting, etc. There are also post graduate degrees, but they are not “necessary” to work in what is considered a professional field.

Much to everybody’s surprise, we were all glad to be in a classroom. We have taken in so much information with little opportunity to discuss it (or process is as we like to say!) This time at the University included a little history of the University, as I have already outlined and well as some time interacting with students.

There is a student here at the University who is coming to Florida State for the fall semester. The two Universities have and exchange program agreement. More often it is students from FSU who benefit because the University here is unable to raise funds to send students over. Mthebisi (I think that is close) is the first one for which they have had funds. I spoke with three other students who, if they had the funds, would love to have the opportunity.

Mthebisi talked to us about what he has been doing as part of his field work. He is an amazing young man. He was assigned a caseload within a local “informal settlement”. These areas used to be known as squatters settlements, but that is no longer politically correct. (I have not been comfortable taking pictures of this, but Mthebisi had a powerpoint that he was going to make available to us, so I’ll be able to show you what we are talking about!) He was explaining to use how a small caseload quickly grows. He had a 14 year old boy who was only in the 5th grade, which is obviously very far behind. When he began to talk to the boy, he learned that his mother had AIDS and he was caring for her. She died of the disease with the boy in the room. There is no bereavement counseling for these children so they are just left with this grief. Since he has been working with this boy, his father has also died and he is living with an auntie who is also sick (with some other disease). His caseload may be officially few but it rapidly grows as he gets to understand the issues for the individual child. Now he is working to get the child into the foster care system so that he will be entitled to a grant - a subsidy - for his aunt to be able to care for him. There is apparently, not unlike Florida, a hesitation to put children into formal foster care due to the cost. The subsidy is almost R1,000 and there are estimated to be over a million children orphaned by AIDS.

While working in this same community, it was decided that they needed to begin working with the Grannies, the old women who are taking care of grandchildren because their children have died from HIV. They meet with the Grannies every Friday and talk about their needs. Out of this, they learned that these women can make jam. When asked what they needed to get started, they simply needed fruit and sugar. Now the women (along with the students, I believe) are making jam and are able to sell it. They are trying to find new avenues to sell it, perhaps through a local school or church. It is fascinating to see the creativity that these students bring to the process.

It was interesting to hear of some of the issues to establish a social welfare system post apartheid. First of all, all governments functions had been divided by race. So there was a state department for social welfare for blacks, one for whites, one for coloreds and one for Indians. This was true on many levels. Of course, under apartheid, the majority of the resources went to the whites, although they account for only 10% of the population. One of the Faculty members here indicated that there were 17 agencies that had to be combined. so now, you have virtually the same resources and need to serve 10 times the number of people. In the whole of South Africa, which as nearly 50 million people, there are only 13,000 social workers. Do the math. It is not a good situation, especially if you look at the extreme issues that they are facing.

It was interesting to hear them talk about their excitement over the expanded Social Security system, but they are already talking about the lack of money to meet the needs. Understanding that I was talking with Social Workers, they seemed excited to see evidence of South Africa’s move towards a welfare state. I almost wish they would slow down and ask us how welfare is working. I am sure that we can all learn something.