En forskares dagbok från Sydafrika

Doktorand och arbetsterapeut Frida Lygnegård är på World Federation for Occupational Therapists World Congress i Kapstaden, Sydafrika. Här får vi följa henne dag för dag.

Frida Lygnegård, doctoral student in CHILD, is attending as one of the speakers at the World Congress for Occupational Therapists, WFOT-2018, held in Cape Town, South Africa 21-25 May. We will follow Frida during the conference where she will share some of her experiences, starting today.
Also, see congress web page;
http://www.wfotcongress.org/index.php

Tuesday, May 22

Attending the Opening Ceremony at the World Federation for Occupational Therapists world congress in Cape Town today. The theme for the conference is “Connected in Diversity, positioned for impact”- Impressed by the many countries from all over the world represented here discussing the challenges for the OT-profession. What is working? There are many policies but how do we get these in action? How do we work and contribute to an integrated and human society? The importance to also look beyond the Impairment or disability is also stressed. This is in line with the work that I will present on Thursday from one of my studies in the thesis, underscoring the importance of taking the environment into account when Designing interventions for enhanced participation for adolescents with and without impairments and -or long-term health conditions.

More from Cape Town tomorrow!

Wednesday, May 23

Today I joined in on a community site visit to a township called Bishop Lavis hosting the Skills, Learning, Educational Activities for Kids (SLEAK)-project. This project is a non-profit project run by volunteers with the focus on developing work abilities and resilience of vulnerable youths. The SLEAK-project provides children with opportunities to play and develop in a caring environment. This should be recognized for all children but is not the case for children in this community due to gang violence, drug dealing, unsafe living conditions at home etc. We met with dedicated volunteers including an OT-student from Stellenbosch University who together with the children provided us with a glimpse of their work in the project. Today’s visit added much to the research we do in CHILD on children’s right to participate in activities as well as their right to have their voices heard.

More from me tomorrow!

Thursday, May 24

Today all conference delegates got the opportunity to listen to representatives from the Grandmothers Against Poverty and AIDS, GAPA-project. A fantastic project, read more here: http://www.gapa.org.za/about/

In the afternoon I gave my presentation entitled “Patterns of participation within domestic life and peer relations
- Youths own experiences”. This presentation was based on my 2nd study in the thesis, read more about it here: https://doi.org/10.1080/17518423.2018.1424266

That is all from Cape Town for this time. Tomorrow is the final day at the congress that has been an intense and interesting conference with a true international touch. Weather-wise, more rain than expected. This is however really good news since Cape Town is facing a great water shortage. All conference delegates were reminded of this by encouraging to use as little water as possible. In some of the townships, there is at the moment only one place where families have to go and get their water for the day. This sometimes causes conflicts and is not a safe place to be for children, who often are the ones getting the water for their families. Important perspectives to take back home to Sweden next week. Thank you for supporting me this week!

Frida Lygnegård, PhD-student, CHILD