Personal reflections of the African RFPO on a Train-the-Trainers course in South Africa

Wednesday, 30 March 2011 20:45

Train-the-Trainers Course 2011 at the University of Cape Town, South Africa

Personal reflections of the IFHHRO Africa Regional Focal Point Officer

I found this one-week intensive training course in health and human rights at the University of Cape Town (UCT) one of the most interesting, inspiring and insightful in terms of content covered as well as the expertise and life experiences of facilitators and participants.

On a bright sunny afternoon of Sunday 23 January 2011, our South African Airways flight landed in Cape Town from Entebbe, Uganda, after a short stop-over in Johannesburg. In the arrivals lounge, I was warmly received and greeted by the waiting UCT driver and Julius, a participant from Pretoria, South Africa. The three of us then patiently waited for Calvin, another participant from Zimbabwe. Soon enough he arrived and we boarded the vehicle for the Africa House residence at the UCT.

On Monday 24 January the training course started in earnest, and for the rest of the week a diverse set of learning experiences was shared. Without trying to enumerate all interesting details this course offers, I can only highlight a few areas. We were introduced to the concept of human rights, their violations and the role that health workers and other professionals may play, either to perpetuate or prevent such violations. Very real, and often emotionally touching case studies concerning human rights violations in the bygone apartheid era in South Africa were presented by the facilitators. Strategies and techniques of claiming and advocating for health rights in the context of South Africa were also presented.

We learnt about methods and approaches of integrating health rights in the curriculum of educational institutions, particularly the techniques of developing objectives-based curricula and core competencies in health and human rights. We heard talks and experiences of civil society practitioners working with epilepsy and other disabilities, especially the blind and deaf. And for those not so tech-savvy, a session on how to search and access human rights information on the internet was presented.

But our week was not just spent in class. We had very exciting outdoor activities as well. The visit to Robben Island, a short distance off the mainland, was poignant and emotional. Robben Island is a true mosaic of man’s inhumanity to man and this truth is forever etched in the dreary architecture of the prison island. At Nelson Mandela’s prison cell, I caught myself quietly shedding some tears. The visit to the picturesque Harbour House at Kalk Bay was punctuated with one of the most blissful and enjoyable dinners in recent memory. And of course there was the high-adrenaline visit to the magnificent Table Mountain. For those allergic to extreme heights, the cable car flight to the top of the mountain may be very scary, to put it mildly!

In the final analysis, if there is one insight I can conclude with, it is this: the training course was enormously beneficial to me, and hopefully to everyone; I enjoyed interacting with a committed group of mostly South African health professionals. Collectively and individually, many of them are making an enormous effort not just to talk the talk, but to walk the talk about human rights as well. And knowing where South Africa has come from a mere 17 years ago, the training course, the facilitators and all the participants were truly inspiring. This is a course I would readily recommend to any busy professional who feels a need to freshen up and touch base with the basics of health and human rights in a supportive and highly conducive learning environment both within the class as well as outside of it.

Gerald Tushabe

More information on this training course