Pamela Sithole juggled part-time domestic employment with medical study at the University of Kwazulu-Natal for six years.
Sithole, 25, who graduated with honors in dermatology last month, utilized her money to buy essentials like food and clothing while studying.
Pamela Sithole, now an intern doctor at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital, had to juggle her studies and part-time domestic work to put food on the table.
Sithole spent her days working for her employer, Val Shirley, while her friends went on vacation during school breaks.
The intern doctor from Phoenix, KwaZulu-Natal, who now works at the Helen Joseph and Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospitals in Johannesburg, spoke with Sowetan about her experience.
“I knew I wanted to be something that made me feel alive, that made a difference.”
“The only thing that I knew would achieve this was working in the health profession as a doctor,” she said.
Sithole said it was the strength of her humility that allowed her to do work that many would see as mundane for her age.
Her determination to achieve her goal of being a doctor one day kept her going.
Sithole was reared in a four-person home by a divorced mother.
“My older siblings had to financially support us because my mother could only find jobs here and there,” she explained.
Sithole got her first job washing dishes for a household on Christmas Eve as a result of this. She was just 14 years old at the time.
“In my church, there was a lady who worked as a domestic worker.” She needed assistance doing the dishes on Christmas Eve. “I went and helped her,” she explained.
“I am so proud of her and the manner in which she has concluded her studies. We are all looking forward to being able to say we are a friend and the future patients of the amazing Dr Pam,” she said.
Sithole said she hoped her story would inspire others who were also faced with the harsh realities of the world.
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