Issues

While the Global PACT curriculum leads you through the process of organizing for change, you should consider how a country and location will influence your experience. Maybe it is the culture which fascinates you or perhaps it is the issues facing communities in our location.

After meeting your team, you are going to choose an issue to work on together. That issue of your group's choice will become the centerpiece of your Global PACT training. While it is part of the Global PACT process that you will choose your own issue, a look at current topics in South Africa reveals insights into the possible projects you'll work on and helps in deciding which program you'll choose.

Often, the words South Africa bring to mind the beacon of social justice former President Nelson Mandela and the end of the heinous policies of apartheid. While we are just over 15 years past the official end of apartheid, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission serves as a world-renowned model of community atonement, deep social divisions persist. On the one hand, South Africa is a growing and reasonably prosperous emerging market, and yet on the other hand extreme poverty often exists mere meters from wealth.

Yet, this does not even bring up challenges, to name a few, like AIDS, unemployment, racism and many others. Our host Rhodes University in Grahamstown is situated in one of the poorest regions of South Africa. Nearly 100,000 people live across the valley from Rhodes and daily confront disease, unemployment, crime, and environmental degradation.

South Africa is a land of contrasts where the causes and effects of social problems are less obvious than during the omnipresent and repressive apartheid laws. Wealth is growing, but social and economic divisions are no longer solely racial. The income gap between rich and poor among all races grows wider by the day.

Once your issue is chosen, your team will use action research to find out what challenges your community is actually facing. Going out into the field will bring a valuable perspective to your project and your views are bound to change, possibly more than once, as you grapple with issues rarely brought up in a university classroom!