News and Comment

Standing up for science in South Africa

9 September 2011

I’ve just got back from a trip to South Africa. For a while now, we’ve been getting requests to run workshops there, as researchers really want to set up a VoYS network. I spent a few days working with them and sharing my experiences.

In South Africa 24% of 15 year olds are illiterate, life expectancy is just 52 years and 1 in 5 people aged 15 – 49 yrs old is HIV positive. When Thandi Mgwebi, National Research Foundation, outlined these challenges in her talk at the Witwatersrand Post doc symposium in Johannesburg, I was really taken a back. I’d also never realised just how few researchers there are in South Africa – there are just 13 post-docs at the University of Witwatersrand.

Continue reading Julia's blog here.

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