University of California - Davis: Cape Town - Healthcare Challenges in Cape Town

The Global Health Summer Abroad Internship program provides students interested in health the opportunity to gain first hand clinical rotation experience while being immersed in a local community.

Travel to Cape Town, known as the “mother city” and one of South Africa’s most beautiful cities, it is the second most populous city in South Africa. Multicultural, diverse, this will be the stage for a first-hand the daily challenges faced by its recently created healthcare system by working alongside local healthcare personnel in public district hospitals providing care for the underserved. This program offers students an opportunity to rotate through a variety of wards, including emergency, outpatient, and surgical wards.

Since the fall of Apartheid, South Africa has taken great strides to bridge the wide economic and social gap that was left with Apartheid. Infrastructure, education, healthcare services and economic opportunities have grown. The majority black population had limited or non-existent healthcare until the 1990s and today South Africa’s healthcare system provides free or low cost care to most of its population. Yet, besides these great strides, South Africa was one of the hardest hit countries by one of the worst pandemics in recent history, overburdening a fledgling system that was just starting to provide basic services to the majority of the population who had little to no access to them. The legacy of Apartheid, poverty, continuing inequality and the lack of knowledge and misconceptions about HIV/AIDS, and other factors.