Volunteering in Mozambique
| country: | Mozambique |
| departures: | 2008: 3 Sep |
| price: | From £1770 (6 weeks) - £2510 (10 weeks) excluding flights. We can help arrange flights from the UK. Group size 2-10 persons, minimum age 18 |
the amazing things you'll be doing
This placement takes volunteers deep into what can only be described as raw Africa. Be part of a small team who will help some of the poorest communities implementing life changing projects…
Take the plunge and venture deep into the heart of Africa to the shores of Lake Malawi, basing yourself at the award winning Nkwichi Safari Lodge, built on a 100,000 acre private concession hugging some of Lake Malawi’s wildest coast and pristine beaches. The Lodge was built and is owned/managed by Patrick Simkin and his partner Nadia who founded the Manda Wilderness Trust. The trust has single handedly developed life changing community and conservation projects that greatly need your help.
In addition you will be needed to help in the lodge so that your time spent there is varied and diverse providing you with a true insight into how the local economy works and giving you contrasting experiences. In your time off you will be able to make full use of the lake with all the water sports on offer, venture into the bush on safari or simply sail peacefully down the Lake on an African Dhow. It is now possible to catch the ferry across the lake to Likoma Island or Nkhata bay, both popular with back backers learning to scuba dive.
Placement outline Volunteers have the opportunity to experience the many different faces and lifelines of Mozambique. It achieves this by providing a combination programme with projects in ecotourism, conservation and community through which the volunteers rotate. This gives 3 contrasting working and indeed life experiences, which in itself creates a thorough and rewarding experience for all involved. An excellent and diverse scheme offering rewarding and challenging projects for volunteers to get stuck into.
Note: July departures are 6 weeks duration only. This is an ideal programme to suit those school leavers who do not want to take a full gap year or undergraduates wanting something exciting to do in their holidays. It offers the opportunity to help on some of the conservation and community projects listed above and a little time helping at the Lodge.
Community projects - Approx 3.5 weeks will be spent on this phase. These projects are for the benefit of the local communities and are in villages close to the Lodge, such as Cobue, Mbueca and Mala. Activities include: help establish and run a community market to sell agricultural products, repair and develop a local maternity ward for surrounding villages, supervise school building projects, and teach English, hygiene/health and conservation to schoolchildren.
Conservation - Approx 3.5 weeks will be spent on this phase. These projects are close to the Lodge and volunteers will help build and establish bush camps in the reserve, help anti poaching and patrolling for animal snares set by poachers, carry out aquatic and land reserve studies, identify and map game movement, and assist in road and simple bridge construction.
Adventure - Weekends off to travel and explore independently, including safaris on foot, canoe or dhow, and trips to Lake Malawi with snorkelling, sailing, hiking and climbing.
Take the plunge and venture deep into the heart of Africa to the shores of Lake Malawi, basing yourself at the award winning Nkwichi Safari Lodge, built on a 100,000 acre private concession hugging some of Lake Malawi’s wildest coast and pristine beaches. The Lodge was built and is owned/managed by Patrick Simkin and his partner Nadia who founded the Manda Wilderness Trust. The trust has single handedly developed life changing community and conservation projects that greatly need your help.
In addition you will be needed to help in the lodge so that your time spent there is varied and diverse providing you with a true insight into how the local economy works and giving you contrasting experiences. In your time off you will be able to make full use of the lake with all the water sports on offer, venture into the bush on safari or simply sail peacefully down the Lake on an African Dhow. It is now possible to catch the ferry across the lake to Likoma Island or Nkhata bay, both popular with back backers learning to scuba dive.
Placement outline Volunteers have the opportunity to experience the many different faces and lifelines of Mozambique. It achieves this by providing a combination programme with projects in ecotourism, conservation and community through which the volunteers rotate. This gives 3 contrasting working and indeed life experiences, which in itself creates a thorough and rewarding experience for all involved. An excellent and diverse scheme offering rewarding and challenging projects for volunteers to get stuck into.
Note: July departures are 6 weeks duration only. This is an ideal programme to suit those school leavers who do not want to take a full gap year or undergraduates wanting something exciting to do in their holidays. It offers the opportunity to help on some of the conservation and community projects listed above and a little time helping at the Lodge.
a day in the life of a volunteer
Nkwichi Safari Lodge- The Lodge consists of six luxury chalets and support buildings. Volunteers will be split into pairs spending 2 weeks each (approximately) in the Lodge. Volunteers will help in all aspects of the running of the Lodge. This will include entertaining guests, preparing meals and drinks and staff training. The perfect way to learn how an eco-tourism lodge operates. There will be various safaris on foot, canoe or dhow and recreational activities include: game walks, snorkelling, sailing, hiking, climbing etc. Community projects - Approx 3.5 weeks will be spent on this phase. These projects are for the benefit of the local communities and are in villages close to the Lodge, such as Cobue, Mbueca and Mala. Activities include: help establish and run a community market to sell agricultural products, repair and develop a local maternity ward for surrounding villages, supervise school building projects, and teach English, hygiene/health and conservation to schoolchildren.
Conservation - Approx 3.5 weeks will be spent on this phase. These projects are close to the Lodge and volunteers will help build and establish bush camps in the reserve, help anti poaching and patrolling for animal snares set by poachers, carry out aquatic and land reserve studies, identify and map game movement, and assist in road and simple bridge construction.
Adventure - Weekends off to travel and explore independently, including safaris on foot, canoe or dhow, and trips to Lake Malawi with snorkelling, sailing, hiking and climbing.
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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Environmental policy: Volunteers are based in a private wilderness concession. The projects are either in walking distance of the accommodation or a short drive away. We ensure that one vehicle carries as many volunteers as possible. Project work includes a mix of rewarding community and conservation projects – anti poaching patrols, snare collection, helping in schools, AIDS awareness, monitoring game movement and helping the safari lodge etc. Hands on projects working alongside committed communities are a powerful way to educate the next generation of travelers.
In addition we have well briefed and professional project leaders working alongside village elders who ensure the message is got across. Our teams are normally no bigger than 10-12 per departure and foodstuffs are bought locally and resources such as heating in camps where possible is done in an environmentally friendly fashion e.g. solar panels. In addition rain water is collected for drinking water. Clothes washing is done where possible with bio-degradable soap. Litter is collected and disposed of properly. Social responsibility: We ensure that all our programmes work with the full agreement of local elders and that volunteer’s work side by side amongst the community. More often living in the community. We pay the communities for looking after volunteers and every volunteer has a donation to the community included in the cost – currently £80 per person. This is used to buy materials to build classrooms, pay for education fees and so on. We also work alongside local charities as often as we can supporting their aims. All volunteers and Project Leaders are fully briefed on the destination, host community, local culture, religions, customs and particularly ways of behaving. Economic sustainability: We ensure that approximately 60% of the cost of each volunteers scheme is paid to the project leader in-country to cover all their in-country costs. This includes paying local communities for food and accommodation where appropriate. In addition we pay communities a donation as described above and source all food, drink, equipment, fuel locally thereby enhancing the local economy.  The hosts employ as many staff as they can – in Mozambique they employ: a project leader, cooks, security guards, rangers and cleaners, thereby doing as much as we can to provide local people with jobs, cutting down on unemployment and providing families with an income. Sometimes this income supports numerous relations. We also recognize that volunteers spend their own money on drinks, transport, souvenirs, services (taxis), medical care, park fees, activities e.g. rafting, diving, climbing etc which are major contributors to local suppliers incomes and the overall economy. |
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. |