WMU: Exploring Health and Healthcare Systems in South Africa (Faculty-led)

The travel study course will focus on current health promotion and healthcare issues in South Africa, especially within the Nelson Mandela Metropol in the Eastern Cape. South Africa is currently under extreme healthcare duress, leading the world in HIV infection and experiencing a host of other public health related factors, including poverty, violence, alcoholism, and HIV-related infections. The country has experienced great strides following a long history of segregation associated with Apartheid. However, public health systems, including healthcare, continue to be a disparity for cultures within South Africa. Much of this is related practices that evolved due to Apartheid, however, rich cultural traditions also play key factors in how native populations approach preventative health and healthcare. One of the major goals of the US Healthy People 2020 objectives for the nation focuses on eliminating health disparities among US populations. The program is designed to not only provide students with a global understanding of the complexities that exist within international health practices, but also serve as a platform for providing a deeper understanding of the consequences of health disparities as it relates to our own cultures.

This course will include a series of formal and informal meetings with different health promotion and healthcare individuals and groups, visits to health and healthcare institutions, cultural activities and immersion, hands-on service learning involvement, and group discussions. In particular, students will be exposed to a number of healthcare practitioners, personnel from public health and non-profit centers and clinics, university-based wellness helpers, the previous director of health promotion activities at the NMMU, and traditional healers. Service learning will incorporate aiding in activities at a mission center soup kitchen and clinic. Experiences will also include events that broaden the cultural understanding of health practices, including experiencing wildlife game drives and safaris, tours of poverty stricken townships, and attending cultural events that include native dancers and a “braai” (a South African barbecue experience). Experiences will include a series of group debriefings that include discussions as to how the process relates to the broader US and global health systems.