Ubuntu, a word in the language of South Africa, is recognized as a world view of intense humanness and shared concern for each other and togetherness. “I am because you are” captures the recognition that we are interconnected, conscious of one another and sustained in each other.
Nursing students in the School of Health Science, explored concepts of cultural awareness and civic engagement, not in a classroom, but by working with local communities in Tanzania and Jamaica during their international clinical placements.
The exhibited body of work captures the substance of Ubuntu as the nursing students experience togetherness, honour compassion, promote tolerance and propagate harmony.
This interactive, digital collection will reaffirm the power and the nature of an individual responsibility towards social change. This exhibition is an opportunity to connect with our own views and others…and ignite a dialogue about modern human-ness.
This interactive digital collection hopes to ignite the discourse about the need for our thoughts and actions to reflect that of connection, community and understanding.
Featuring Humber faculty:
Janet Jeffery, Professor of Nursing in the School of Health Sciences teaches Nursing Theory, Legal Professional & Ethical Issues, Nursing Leadership and Nursing Practice (Clinical) in the Practical Nursing Program. Her extensive nursing experiences which include Pediatric (Medicine), Gerontology and Palliative Care have spanned over three decades. Janet’s insatiable interest in health disparities, understanding and advocating for the vulnerable and improving cultural competence ignites her passion to foster social change.
Sylwia Wojtalik is a faculty in the School of Health Sciences. She teaches Legal Professional & Ethical Issues as well as Nursing Practice (Clinical) in the Practical Nursing Diploma Program. Her teachings have a deep appreciation for modern human rights issues and promotion of social change in local and global communities. At the personal level, she is a photographer, a mountain climber, a hopeless optimist, a global citizen and a dreamer.
Janet and Sylwia have worked tirelessly to build strong partnership with communities both locally and internationally. In the past four years, they have hosted annual sickle cell awareness workshops, where experts and clients living with Sickle Cell Disease shared their knowledge and experiences with students of the School of Health Sciences. Moreover, practical nursing students have had the unique privilege to experience clinical placement in the Sickle Cell Unit of the Tropical Metabolic Research Institute at The University of West Indies at Mona, Jamaica; another cherished partnership. This ‘Nurses of Ubuntu’ exhibit testifies to Janet and Sylwia’s deep commitment to prepare, support and accompany pregraduate practical nursing students to villages, orphanages, clinics and hospitals in Tanzania and Jamaica for four years.
