Volunteer Testimonials

Christine Lalor


Dec 21, 2020

My name is Christine Lalor. I am 25 years old and come from Cape Town, South Africa. I have an Honours degree in Political Science and am currently studying for a degree in Applied Psychology and Counselling. I began my internship at SIHMA in October 2020. As I live in Cape Town, I have been very lucky to have been able to come into the office twice a week for the last three months. My capacity at SIHMA...

https://sihma.org.za/photos/shares/IMG_20201021_113111.jpg

Jeremiah Masaya


Dec 08, 2020

My name is Jeremiah and I am from Zimbabwe. I was a remote volunteer at SIHMA from August to early November 2020 during the COVID-19 virus pandemic lockdown that commenced on the 26th of March 2020 in South Africa.  At the end of my internship I volunteered partly remotely and party at the office joining colleagues who also returned to the office. I worked from home because of movement restrictions that were put in place to curb the...

https://sihma.org.za/photos/shares/Jeremiah.jpg

Nell Fredericks


Dec 01, 2020

 To start, I’ll introduce myself – my name is Nell, I’m 21 years old, and I am from Boston, Massachusetts. I am currently a third-year student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, studying philosophy, politics, and law. I had the privilege of working with SIHMA as a virtual intern these past four months.  Back in August, I faced a lot of uncertainty. As COVID-19 cases were rising in the United States, many...

https://sihma.org.za/photos/shares/NellPhoto.jpg

Felipa Schmidt


Aug 20, 2020

My name is Felipa, I am from Germany and I was a research intern for SIHMA from May to August 2020. I had originally intended to come to Cape Town from February to August 2020 to complete the internship, yet as the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the international travel bans were put in place, the internship became remote. Despite having a remote internship, the wealth of knowledge that I gained was not impacted.  I came to...

https://sihma.org.za/photos/shares/felipa.jpg

Emma Dionne


Feb 06, 2020

My name is Emma Dionne.  I am from Rhode Island, USA.  I received my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Criminology in 2017 from Stonehill College in Massachusetts. I came to Cape Town to gain an international perspective before furthering my education. I volunteered at the Scalabrini Study Centre in Cape Town from April to June 2019.  Some of my specific activities included creating a country profile that will be used to establish an online atlas of migration...

https://sihma.org.za/photos/shares/Emma Dionne.jpg

Isabel Hacket


Feb 06, 2020

My name is Isabel Hacket. After arriving at SIHMA, I got a chance to get involved with multiple aspects of the organization and engage with the motivated and kind people who work there. My first two weeks were exclusively with SIHMA as I did research with a visiting professor from Northern Arizona University on one of Scalabrini Centre's very own programs, the Women’s Platform. For that work, I took notes during focus group interviews, and I am currently...

https://sihma.org.za/photos/shares/Isabel Hacket.JPG

Lola Verkuil


Feb 06, 2020

My name is Lola, I’m 23 years old and I come from the Netherlands. I have been a research intern at SIHMA for five months, from October 2019 to March 2020. Before I came to SIHMA, I had just graduated with two master’s degrees in International Development and Anthropology. I decided that I wanted to gain some more hands-on experience in research – preferably abroad – before I would find a full-time job in the Netherlands. Since I had...

https://sihma.org.za/photos/shares/910649ff-f327-4c96-8041-a7d2149f6352.jpg

Licia Calcagno


Feb 06, 2020

My name is Licia Calcagno. I studied for an MA in Advanced Migration Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark and applied fo this internship with SIHMA to fulfil my study requirements. I was thrilled to have this opportunity because I believed, and I still do, that European institutions focus a lot on migration towards Europe while they tend to disregard migration flows in the rest of the world, especially South-South migration.  Thanks to my internship with SIHMA, I was...

https://sihma.org.za/photos/shares/Licia Calcagno.JPG

Giacomo Distefano


Feb 06, 2020

My name is Giacomo Distefano.  I am 26 years old and I come from Bologna, Italy. I am a doctor and I am particularly interested in paediatric neuropsychiatry. In the last few years, tired of hearing the same empty anti-migrant rhetoric, I started to be more and more attracted by the world of migration. For this reason, during the summer of 2018 I joined a volunteering program organised by the Scalabrinian Agency for Development and Cooperation (ASCS) in...

https://sihma.org.za/photos/shares/48a.jpg