Friday, July 29, 2011

"Bloom"

This week, we have been working at the APD-Freestate in Bloemfontein. Our time here has focused heavily on the development of resume databases, which the NCPPDSA and QASA use to facilitate connections between unemployed people with disabilities and employers.

In "Bloom," we have attended workshops, reviewed databases, and interviewed people with disabilities who are seeking employment among other tasks. On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to participate in a job training workshop. Access to resources is a major obstacle in South Africa. Relevant literaure and internet access are not always readily available. The workshop was designed to provide people with disabilities access to employment resources.

To close the workshop, we gave a presentation on interview techniques. We conducted mock interviews as part of our discussion, which many of the attendees seemed to enjoy. As Cornell students, we certainly take for granted how easily we can access interview resources or sign up for an interview at Cornell Career Services.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Last Week in Pictures...

Over the weekend, we visited the Hluhluwe Game Reserve. Thanks to our fabulous guide Prakesh, we rubbed noses with impalas, giraffes, rhinos, elephants, lions, baboons, and many other exciting creatures!




Left to right: Chris, Kit, Pauline, Jacob, Lubabalo

Early in the week, we met with Pauline at the Tokologo Self Help Centre in Soweto (the largest township in South Africa). We created several resources for the Centre's residents to help with finding employment. Furthermore, we worked to assist in the development of a sustainable centre that would support residents through businesses on-site (laundry mat, store, newspaper office, etc).




We took time out of our schedule to visit the Hector Pieterson Memorial in Soweto. Hector Pieterson was killed on June 16, 1976, at the age of 12 as he protested the implementation of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in South African schools. The memorial remembers resistance acts against (specifically the Soweto Uprising) the brutal Apartheid government.



Left to right: Kit, Lubabalo, Kepi, Justice, and Chris

One of the highlights of our week was a trip to the Hauteng North Digital Village. Each week, Kepi and Justice provide basic computer training for people with disabilities. They assist their students with resume development and maintain a resume database to connect their students with jobs. We spent our time at Hauteng North learning more about the center and making several suggestions to improve the efficiency and quality of the database.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

GreenAble: A Model of Socially Responsible Entrepreneurship

We have visited several QASA projects during our stay in South Africa, particularly self-help centres and digital villages. Yesterday, we spent the day at Green Office, a QASA partner and office supply company that focuses on managing office paper use in an environmentally friendly manner.We toured the facility and met the director of GreenAble, a cartridge collection entrepreneurship program that employs people with disabilities.

GreenAble hires people with disabilities as "agents," who collect ink catridges throughout the country. Green Office reuses many of these cartridges, while recycling those that are not reuseable. The company hires additional people with disabilities to disassemble used cartridges to ensure that the remnants are recyclable. Following our tour, we interviewed several employees.

We were both intrigued by the sustainability and potential of the GreenAble project. Not only will it create jobs for people with disabilities(women, in particular), but they (QASA and Green Office) have developed a model that could possibly work effectively in various companies throughout Africa.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

A Look at South African Bureaucracy...

Last week, we traveled to Pretoria, the political capital of South Africa, with Lubabalo and Lungelo from the National Council of People with Physical Disabilities of South Africa (NCPPDSA) to attend a meeting with Estelle Crawford of the South African Department of Labour. The relationship between the NCPPDSA and the Department of Labour focuses on decreasing the unemployment rate of people with disabilities. As stated, 99% of people with disabilities are unemployed, which makes them one of the most under-represented groups in the South African labour market. The Department of Labour has been subsidizing the salaries of several NCPPDSA employees, who work as career counselors by connecting people with disabilities with job opportunities throughout the country.

Officials from the Department of Labour criticized the contract with the NCPPDSA due to:

1) Its cost to the government
2) Its sustainability, or lack thereof.


The meeting was a means to discuss the relationship and to stress the need for the state’s continued support. At the end of the meeting, the Department of Labour agreed to continue subsidizing the salaries of the NCPPDSA workers. It is important to get South Africans employed, particularly those who have a disability. By getting people with disabilities into jobs, South Africa can move closer to living its legislated equality.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Resumania

We have spent the past week at the NCPPDSA. To further our understanding of employment disability issues unique to South Africa, we dedicated our first day to revieweing relevant legislation including:
  • The Employment Equity Act: The employment equity act states the employers must employ a certain percentage of people with disabilities.
  • The South African Bill of Rights: The South African Bill of Rights specifically states that unfair discrimination may not take place "on grounds of disability."
  • The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act : The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act essentially states that discrimination may be unfair when one is treated differently by a person or group; but, that fair discrimination exists if people are treated differently because they have been previously disadvantaged in some way.
In spite of the aforementioned legislation, about 99% of people with disabilties in South Africa are unemployed. A primary objective of the NCPPDSA is to connect people with disabilities to suitable employment opportunities. NCPPDSA facilitates these connections through a resume database. We noticed that the majority of the resumes were very difficult to categorize and arrange becuase they were long and written according to few conventions.
In order to potentially expedite and improve the employment process, we created a comprehensive resume guide. Our guide incorporates conventions from most professional resumes in the United States (one page, clear, and concise), while also considering the South African context (incorporating national ID numbers and information regarding language spoken and ethnic background).

The intention of the guide is to provide people with disabilities a resource for resume creation that will result in resumes that more clearly reflect their career accomplishments. Consequently, the guide will hopefully improve the database and result in increased relationships between employers and people with disabilities.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Greetings from Jo-Burg

Today, we arrived in South Africa after a long journey. Employees of the QuadPara Association of South Africa (QASA) greeted us with great warmth, kindness, and boerewors (South African sausage). We enjoyed our first night in Johannesburg with a braai (Afrikaans for barbeque). Over the next six weeks, we will work with the National Council for Persons with Physical Disabilities in South Africa (NCPPDSA) and QASA to facilitate job preparation workshops and sensitization seminars for employers and private recruitment agencies in an effort to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities in South Africa.


Before we begin our orientation tomorrow morning, we wanted to take the time to introduce ourselves:


Chris Adams: I am a rising senior Psychology & Philosophy double major. My interest in people with disabilities began when I volunteered to cycle across the United States to spread awareness and raise funds for people with disabilities. It is through this experience that I became interested in the topics of community and sexual psychology within the disability community. This experience will open my eyes to the research needed on the lives and needs of people with disabilities around the world.


Kit Dobyns: I am a rising senior Africana studies major. During my previous experiences working in Tanzania and Rwanda, I have had the opportunity to witness the unique challenges people with disabilities face in sub-Saharan Africa. Through my endeavors with NCPPDSA and QASA, I hope to learn from and contribute to their progressive approach to supporting persons with disabilities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog. We will do our best to update the site frequently.



Chris and Kit