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Anna Reid (past volunteer) – Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, East London in South Africa

Anna Reid (past volunteer)

“’Development’ is a complicated concept. Even with the best intentions, most projects have unexpected consequences. It seems to me to be really important to understand the motives for projects before you start them, and to fully appreciate the issues of any problem before you attempt to solve it.”


Anna began her one-year UniVol assignment in February 2010.

What Anna did in South Africa

Anna worked as the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for Restless Development (formerly known as Students Partnership Worldwide). Restless Development trains and supports volunteer peer educators to work with young people in rural communities. The volunteers facilitate workshops and recreation activities focusing on life-skills, livelihoods, and sexual and reproductive health. Anna collected and analysed information about the work that Restless Development volunteers do.

Making a positive impact

UniVol Anna Reid worked with Restless Development and Dance for Life, a Dutch organisation using dance and drama to promote AIDs/HIV awareness in schools. Anna’s role was to coordinate the programmes in East London schools and worked with 15-19 year olds to develop their messages and performances about HIV/AIDs.

Anna planned a project to engage young people in the national HIV/AIDS counselling and testing campaign. The project involved holding a series of debates, which were then used to produce a booklet outlining the views of young people in the Eastern Cape towards HIV and AIDS. She felt there was still a long way to go to help change student mindsets about HIV and AIDs but the programme she was part of did give kids something to be excited about and got them involved in drama and dance.

One of Anna’s highlights

“I travelled to the Cata community in Keiskammahoek, to help out with the launch of the dance4life Heart Connection Tour. It was great to see the energy and passion of our facilitators performing – and even better to see how the school students picked up on that energy and got involved.”

What South Africa taught Anna

“It’s great to have a family of geckos living in your house because they eat all the insects and bugs that would otherwise take over.”

“South African taxis are never full – there is no limit to the number of people that can squeeze into the back of a bakkie.”

“Learning even a little bit of the indigenous language will make your stay in a country infinitely easier.”

 

 

Country profile

Flag of South Africa

South Africa’s rich and varied culture is seen in everything from food to music. Its population has diverse origins, cultures, languages and beliefs with nine of the country's 11 official languages being African and reflecting a variety of tribal/cultural groupings. About two-thirds of South Africans are Christian and belong to a variety of churches, including those that combine Christian and traditional African beliefs. View country



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