Question

For the past five years, you have worked as a public health worker in a poor, urban, minority neighborhood in the United States. You have just accepted an exchange agreement to work for three years in Cape Town, South Africa. What parallels will you expect to see between these two settings in terms of the nature and sources of health problems and the best ways for dealing with health problems?

Answer 1

Working in a poor area of a rich country and a poor area of a developing country is very different. The working condition in a rich country gives different challenges because, in America, we can get the support of social agencies and NGOs while when a person works in a poor country, it is hard to get social and administrative support.

As we know, Cape Town is infamous for robbery, burglary, and rape, people working in poor areas experiences these problems in a general way. Before joining the work in Cape Town, I would like to ensure personal security and administrative support so that I could work effectively. The best way to deal with health problems is to ensure local support and international aids because government officials of these countries show unwillingness and lack of skills. An effective social work combines the local, official and international efforts so that if I would be able to make this combination with my skills and experiences, I would definitely work effectively for health problems.