Pearl Mbolekwa

South Africa

Pearl Mbolekwa (29) was born in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho, and is currently living in Bloemfontein in the Free State Province of South Africa.

Pearl is an educator and South African sign language interpreter. She has worked at the Resource for the Blind in Lesotho as a Braille transcriber, and as an educator at various schools, both inclusive and special. Pearl has also worked as a community development worker for the blind.

While working as a South African sign language interpreter for the Free State Department of Health, Pearl was responsible for ensuring that disabled people in the Free State were provided with hospital access.

Pearl continued with the same line of work after joining Wits University’s Disability Unit, but today she accompanys deaf Wits students to their respective classes.

At present Pearl is studying for her BA (Hon) in Drama, through Drama for Life at Wits. She would like to use her teaching and facilitation skills to “close the gap between the deaf and the hearing”. She believes that drama offers the most powerful means of achieving this goal.