My main interest, both personally and professionally, is to work towards the betterment of women’s lives.  I have spent the past few years, during and after university, working in various positions related to direct-service social work and advocacy for women.  The agencies I have worked at include an anti-violence speakers’ bureau, an abused women’s shelter, a legal aid clinic, a mental health agency, and most recently, a Toronto agency serving teen parents.

The reason that I want to continue my work in an international setting, particularly in a developing country such as Botswana, is an intensely felt need that it is imperative that I experience direct-service social work in another country, especially one of the South.  I have always found that working firsthand with people is the best way to learn about their realities and needs, and I wanted to find out for myself how Canadians might best support and work with a community such as the one I will be working with.  I anticipate that my world view will expand noticeably, that my understanding of global issues will take on new meaning, and that I will draw on this experience in future work throughout my life. 

The official title for my newfound position is “OVC Program Social Worker.”  I will be working with the Holy Cross Hospice in Old Naledi, a low-income community in Gaborone, Botswana, as part of the PACT project for children aged 3 to 18 years.  The program is relatively new and focuses on addressing the problems of children of patients being cared for by the Hospice or children of patients who have died.  My duties include:  visiting homes and registering Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs), meeting their caregivers, storing information about each child in the program, assessing their needs, participating in the activities of the program, and so on.  I chose this position for a few reasons:  the program and agency impressed me immensely, I have experience working with children and youth, and it is work that I love, and I truly love children; they sustain my hope for a better future for us all.  I feel very honoured to have been offered this opportunity to work with OVCs in Gaborone.

As I have never done anything like this before, I am actually trying to keep an open mind without any specific expectations of the experience or of my own accomplishments.  I don’t want to go to Gaborone with preconceived notions about how the project will be or how I will be in this project.  Of course, I do have hopes that the experience will be full of personal growth and meaning on many levels, and that my skills will be helpful in the limited time that I am volunteering for Holy Cross Hospice; in short, that there will be mutual benefit that comes out of this experience.  As is to be expected, my only concerns arise out of the fact that this is my first time living and working in another country.  However, I also know that I typically adapt quickly to new situations, so I hope this one is no different.

I have no idea what my first task will be, but I expect that it may involve receiving an orientation to the agency, the program, and my role, and most importantly, meeting the people with whom I will be working:  the staff and volunteers at Holy Cross Hospice, as well as the community in Old Naledi, and of course, the part that excites me most, the children themselves.