Keira is studying Politics and International Relations at the University of the West of England, Bristol. She joined the VACorps program in June 2019, and participated in the VACorps Human Rights Internship Program. 

“My internship site was amazing and couldn’t have been a better fit. It was exactly what I was looking for. Cape Town is the perfect place for a human rights internship, and working out in the cape flats was very eye opening. I couldn’t have picked a better location for an internship and I’ll definitely be coming back as I’ve fallen in love with Africa. Working with woman2woman was extremely rewarding seeing the struggles of abuse these women go through and being able to work directly with them and have a real impact was amazing. In coming out here all I wanted was a direction for what I wanted to do after I finish university and I have definitely found that. “

I’m going to miss not being able to go the markets every weekend or just take an Uber to a vineyard and do wine tastings all day long with my friends. I stayed for 6 weeks and this was the perfect amount of time, I got everything done I wanted to including shark cage diving, paragliding, all the markets, stellenbosch wine tours, surfing, hiking and the garden route. The weekly vac activities were so much fun and the vac staff are great – especially Kholi and Kuselwa! I’m definitely most grateful to vac for pairing me with my internship site as being able to work with Kelly’s domestic violence pilot programme out in the cape flats and working directly with SAPS in Bishop Lavis has been groundbreaking and rewarding work.”