Macouba F, Winterthur, Switzerland (2022)

Macouba is studying psychology and biomedicine at the University of Zurich.  She joined the VACorps program in January 2022, and participated in a clinical psychology internship. 

“I chose Cape Town because a friend of mine was part of Vacorps and had a great experience. My internship was part of my degree and I would definitely recommend it as I learned a lot and probably more than in Switzerland. In Switzerland, it‘s quite hard to get into a Clinic and really work together with patients. But not only did I benefit from the professional knowledge in the clinic, but I also improved my English and I had to live on my own in a foreign country. I learned about the culture and also more about the African way of living. It was also really nice that my internship was flexible and that I could get a day off when I wanted to explore more of Cape Town. I‘m definitely going to miss the people. They are much more friendly and welcoming than back home! In total, I stayed for 6 months but only half of it I worked in my internship. The rest I will use to travel around South Africa. I would definitely advise people to come for more than 2 months to really get an insight into their daily life. The weekly activities were great and I saw places that would have been more complicated to explore on my own. The staff was absolutely amazing and probably the best part about Vac. They would help in every situation and that‘s really nice to know!”