Author Archives: Akahne Philpot

Working at Sonke

For the past several weeks I have been working at Sonke Gender Justice Network in the Policy Development and Advocacy unit. Sonke’s PDA unit works to influence South African and global policy decisions on gender equality, gender based violence, and … Continue reading

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How Cape Town can fool you

In my last post, I talked a lot about the beauty of Cape Town but failed to mention it has some really ugly parts as well. If you come to Cape Town and spend all of your time in places like … Continue reading

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Venturing out

I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors but often haven’t been able to find the time to be outside nearly as much as I’d like to in the past few years. I’ve been too tired, too strained, or too busy doing other things … Continue reading

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Appreciations

At every reflection session, our group starts off with sharing what we have been grateful for this week. This week I want to reflect on a few appreciations that I have had since being here. I am appreciative of the … Continue reading

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Three Questions

Everyone here has come to Cape Town with different expectations, priorities, and hopes. Everyone here has different goals they want to accomplish, different issues they want to confront, different lifestyles they want to lead. Everyone here has a story to … Continue reading

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Let’s hold the stereotypes

This week, I started work at Sonke Gender Justice Network. One of my co-workers mentioned an article she saw online titled, “To American exchange students: please don’t come to South Africa until you’ve understood these 5 things”. When first reading … Continue reading

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There’s a first for everything

It’s interesting how seeing something a second time can give you a completely different perspective on an experience. This will be my second time in South Africa, and while most things from this week in Johannesburg have felt very familiar, … Continue reading

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