Pearl Mbolekwa

South Africa

Pearl holds a BADA (Hon) in Dramatic Arts from the University of Witwatersrand and is currently doing her Masters in Dramatic Art at Wits University through the Drama for Life program.

Pearl is also a qualified educator and South African sign language interpreter at Wits University. 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.

Having worked with Deaf learners in her research project, she collaborated with GALA, training Deaf learners and adults about HIV/AIDS through image theatre and participatory method. They are now ready to be peer educators both at school and outside.

Pearl is passionate about making a contribution to the vivacious community theatre and 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.