Volunteer with children & animals in South Africa
| country: | South Africa |
| location: | Limpopo Province |
| price: | From £290 (1 week) - £1590 (12 weeks) excluding flights. Price includes meals, accommodation, laundry and one trip to town per week, where appropriate |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
read 2 travellers reviews
description
Educate and inspire children to care for their environment through the medium of a wildlife orphanage. We can never guarantee which animals will need our help when you are visiting. There could be a number of animals or there could be none. This project is therefore mainly focused on educating children about wildlife.
To achieve our goals in terms of education for the children and care for the orphaned animals, we need the help of volunteers. You can join us for an experience of a life time, an internship, a gap year, or just a holiday! The volunteer period starts from Saturday. On arrival you will be shown your room and the facilities. On Sunday we have a late breakfast and a general briefing to help you in your confidence and ability to enjoy your experience.
Participate in a community project, sharing your knowledge for the future of the underprivileged children Help animals and learn about wildlife and conservation Stay in a beautiful area where you will meet South African and many other different cultures Where possible or when opportunities are available, we will give you time to visit the surrounding area and do some sight seeing
For accommodation only see here
6 underprivileged children are collected from their school on Monday and they stay with us until Friday. A different group is collected each week. The children are all aged between 13 and 15 years and are the grade 8 class. They are in a class of 160 children at the school and many of them have not even learnt their “times tables” or very basic English. We try to enforce the basics in education and to adjust our teaching methods to the level of each child. Our methods are not always conventional but are fun for the children. Many of them do not understand even basic English and their standards are at a very low level.
We welcome your diversity, knowledge and innovative ideas. No experience is necessary.
Other learning activities include: Team building games “Thinking games” (eg. Card games) Bead work incorporating mathematics and self expression General etiquette and good manners are enforced by role play. General education including life skills, and construction projects.
The day to day care of animals
The orphaned wild animals provide the basis for inspiring care and compassion for the environment. To this end we try to have animals that can be touched and caressed. This is not always possible. As a volunteer you will be expected to accompany the children on stabling duties.
These tasks include: 
Cleaning and disinfecting animal camps and cages Providing fresh food and water for the animals Checking the health and condition of the animals Compiling newsletter articles for individual animal sponsors Research and record keeping of the animals Basic first aid for animals
Many animals require extra care and sometimes this may involve working during the night. The monitoring of animal food resources and the specific diets of the animals is a vital part of your work.
Renovation, building and maintenance
We are continually growing, and often physical work is required. Duties can include: Renovating animal camps Building new animal camps and cages Renovating accommodation Painting General construction and repairs
Fundraising, marketing and communication (minimum of 3 months)
Volunteers may opt for this department. We only take one volunteer in this section at any one time, and you will concentrate on: Preparing fundraising proposals, Compiling funding request Seeking additional funding opportunities Marketing and advertising Forming new contacts (networking) Compiling and dissemination of monthly newsletters Communication
This experience is basically office bound and most of the work is done on the internet. You may also be involved, if you wish, in the education of children, care of animals and guests, but your primary concern is the marketing and fundraising. One of the functions of this department can also include the organisation of meals, purchases and care of guests who may be staying at our camp.
To achieve our goals in terms of education for the children and care for the orphaned animals, we need the help of volunteers. You can join us for an experience of a life time, an internship, a gap year, or just a holiday! The volunteer period starts from Saturday. On arrival you will be shown your room and the facilities. On Sunday we have a late breakfast and a general briefing to help you in your confidence and ability to enjoy your experience.
For accommodation only see here
the project
Teaching basic subjects to children 6 underprivileged children are collected from their school on Monday and they stay with us until Friday. A different group is collected each week. The children are all aged between 13 and 15 years and are the grade 8 class. They are in a class of 160 children at the school and many of them have not even learnt their “times tables” or very basic English. We try to enforce the basics in education and to adjust our teaching methods to the level of each child. Our methods are not always conventional but are fun for the children. Many of them do not understand even basic English and their standards are at a very low level.
We welcome your diversity, knowledge and innovative ideas. No experience is necessary. Other learning activities include:
The day to day care of animals
The orphaned wild animals provide the basis for inspiring care and compassion for the environment. To this end we try to have animals that can be touched and caressed. This is not always possible. As a volunteer you will be expected to accompany the children on stabling duties.
These tasks include:
Cleaning and disinfecting animal camps and cages Many animals require extra care and sometimes this may involve working during the night. The monitoring of animal food resources and the specific diets of the animals is a vital part of your work.
Renovation, building and maintenance
We are continually growing, and often physical work is required. Duties can include:
Fundraising, marketing and communication (minimum of 3 months)
Volunteers may opt for this department. We only take one volunteer in this section at any one time, and you will concentrate on:
This experience is basically office bound and most of the work is done on the internet. You may also be involved, if you wish, in the education of children, care of animals and guests, but your primary concern is the marketing and fundraising. One of the functions of this department can also include the organisation of meals, purchases and care of guests who may be staying at our camp.
travellers' tales
Overall I rate our holiday as excellent. You meet great people, see wonderful scenery and wildlife. And rather than lining the pockets of a giant tour company, the money you pay makes the difference to someone else's life.
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volunteer travel - what's it all about?
Are you are looking for an adventurous trip with a purpose, or on a gap year or career break? If you want to make a difference in some of the world’s most important conservation areas - and in community projects - then volunteer trips are for you! Volunteers tend to have a sense of adventure, and come from a range of different backgrounds and from all over the world. Edward Abbey said 'sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul'.
how this holiday makes a difference
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We are primarily a conservation education medium, using orphaned wildlife. This is spread to the local community, schools and the under-privileged through our sponsorship. We believe that responsible conservation comes from responsible education. It is all very well being taught about conservation, but to really make an impact there should be care and compassion, which is sadly lacking, particularly in the rural community who primarily see wild animals as a source of food and income, hence the large poaching problem.
No segregation by race, colour, class, physical ability or creed. Everyone has an equal opportunity and learn to work together. By working as a team, we try to remove any stigma that may be attached to different people. With our motto of “make a plan” the team tries to overcome any disadvantages of other team mates.Our main policy of “doing good” will be a guide line in the life of participants and visitors.We hope that these two tenets will make a difference not only to the participants, but be spread worldwide. By paying for accommodation and staying at the camp, you will be supplying the means for us to support the orphaned wildlife and to sponsor the under-privileged. This in turn will increase education in conservation, and spread the concept of the “make a plan” and “doing good” policy. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |