Teddy's update on his internship

Update on my internship at Christel House South Africa

So, having spent several weeks with the fourth graders I talked to the principals of the primary school and the high school, Midge Hilton-Green and Ronald Fortune respectively, and told them I was interested in working with the high-schoolers. Mr. Fortune connected me with Mr. Cedric Esterhuizen, the grade 12 English teacher, with whom I created a lesson plan that focuses on human rights and requires the students to present on human rights abuses in Cape Town. These presentations are actually to take place today and I am very excited to see how the students do.

This was the lesson plan that took place over several days, using the learners’ English periods:

Over the first two periods we held two group discussions. The first was a comparison of American and South African life, mostly to build discussion on how similar the countries’ social issues are and also to ‘break the ice’. Following this the students were asked to consider the social issues that they observe in Cape Town.

Following these two discussion periods I introduced the students to some of the basics of human rights - I went over some major documents such as the International Bill of Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, CEDAW, the South African Constitution’s Bill of Rights, the Freedom Charter, etc. I then described to them some of the NGOs which UCONN students are interning for and how these work towards providing access to human rights.  

Then the students were presented with their task: to choose a specific social issue and research related human rights documents or NGOs doing work related to that issue. Then to present on that issue and a document/NGO and lastly, the most interesting part, to present in detailed step-by-step fashion what exactly they can do in their own capacity to help in reducing the impact of that issue. They were then given time to do research and prep their presentations.

And then they’ll be presenting today!