Youth, Health and Life in Masiphumelele, with Asiphe Ntshongontshi
The Global Strategy Lab and Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research are delighted to host a conversation between Alison Humphrey and Asiphe Ntshongontshi (Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation Youth Centre) on Youth, Health, & Life in Masiphumelele, South Africa – Asiphe will share stories about her journey from being a student to firsthand experiences in the field of global health.
Register below and join us on Friday, October 20, at 1 P.M. ET.
Speaker – Asiphe Ntshongontshi
After completing high school, Asiphe Ntshongontshi dedicated her time to making a difference as a peer health intern at the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation Youth Centre in the township of Masiphumelele, located in the southern area of Cape Town, South Africa. Following her internship, Asiphe worked for three years with the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation (DTHF) as a research assistant on clinical trials in Masiphumelele, including COVID vaccine trials.
Since 2011, the DTHF Youth Centre has provided adolescent-friendly sexual and reproductive health services, educational and recreational activities for thousands of young people aged 12-23, though vital funding from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is now in jeopardy.
Before the pandemic, Asiphe collaborated on the arts-based vaccine project Shadowpox with Alison Humphrey, now a research fellow at York University’s Global Strategy Lab.
Moderator – Alison Humphrey
Alison Humphrey plays with story across drama, digital media, and education. Since starting out as an intern at Marvel Comics, she has directed classical and live-mocapped interactive theatre, produced alternate reality games, and written transmedia television.
A PhD candidate (ABD) in York University’s Department of Cinema and Media Arts, her research-creation dissertation, titled “The Shadowpox Storyworld as Citizen Science Fiction: Building Co-Immunity through Participatory Mixed-Reality Storytelling,” involves a mixed-reality storyworld co-created with young people on three continents, imagining immunization through a superhero metaphor.
Her ongoing research interests include applying this “citizen science fiction” methodology to the social challenges of vaccination, antimicrobial resistance, and climate change.
For more information, please visit, globalstrategylab.org/events
