WHO better?

Going places: UCT student Inge Wessels at the WHO's offices in Geneva.

Given her academic interests, one can't imagine that UCT master's candidate Inge Wessels could have asked for a better place to do an internship than with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Shortly after submitting her thesis - on the design and evaluation practices of parenting programmes in South Africa - Wessels jetted off to the WHO's Department of Violence and Injury Prevention (VIP) in Geneva, Switzerland, for an eight-week internship. Among other things, Wessels will assist the VIP with the development of an 'evaluation primer' on outcome evaluation for parenting programmes in low- and middle-income countries.

"This project is particularly necessary as very few programmes in low- and middle-income countries have been evaluated to determine whether they are effective or not," she said prior her departure for Switzerland.

It's exciting to see how Wessels' thesis has fed so directly into work that is both locally and globally relevant, said her supervisor, Dr Cathy Ward of the Department of Psychology.

Wessels, who spent a year as a research assistant with UCT's Safety and Violence Initiative, will also help with the implementation of a global status report on violence prevention while at the VIP.