Volunteering in South Africa
| country: | South Africa |
| location: | South Africa wildlife reserves |
| departures: | 2008: 3 Sep |
| price: | From £1955 (6 weeks) - £3055 (10 weeks) excluding flights. We can help arrange flights from the UK |
the amazing things you'll be doing
Experience the ultimate African safari; thrilling wildlife encounters combined with life changing conservation and local community projects. Based in a game reserve, south of the Kruger National Park, we challenge you to help run an exclusive lodge, assist rangers on safari and make a real difference to the lives of local people.
Live at Kwa Madwala, a private ‘Big 4’ (leopard, lion, elephant and rhino) 1000 hectare game reserve, situated just South of the Kruger national Park between Swaziland and Mozambique, home to a renowned safari lodge called Manyatta, cleverly built into the sides of local kopjes. Your time will be split between helping run this fantastic safari lodge, and assisting in the local conservation and community projects. This diversity will ensure you leave Africa both fulfilled and exhilarated, having made an enormous contribution to some of Africa’s most valued wildlife and their fast-disappearing tribes.
Placement outline Through this exciting and diverse mix of eco-lodge, conservation and community projects you will experience the many different faces of South Africa. The placement gives 3 contrasting working and indeed life experiences to broaden your horizons and surpass your expectations. 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.
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. You depart early July and return in time for A level results.
Conservation - During your time on this trip you will: assist rangers and trackers in all aspects of their duties; search for and rescue injured game; assist with anti-poaching patrols; partake in Reserve management initiatives (fencing, bush clearing and removal of snares); assist in the Leopard Project which aims to help the leopards become more conditioned to humans and vehicles – this will involve tracking and monitoring their movements; help construct bird hides and viewing decks used to monitor animal movements; build cheetah bomas for their breeding programme; and assist with the construction of elephant back safari stables.
Community - During this phase you will assist with the construction of housing in the reserve for disadvantaged and under privileged individuals; assist with the construction of a cultural village educating tourists on the background, history and culture of the local Swazi people who are indigenous to the area; help implement small micro enterprises empowering local community members e.g. developing commercial vegetable gardens; help implement 'food' gardens to improve dietary conditions; and help in a nearby children’s orphanage.
Adventure - Activities include a flight in a micro light aircraft over the reserve above the crocodile river, which is the southern border of the world renowned Kruger National Park (1 free flight included), safaris in search of the ‘Big 5’, a full day tour of the southern side of the Kruger National Park, and camping in the reserve.
Live at Kwa Madwala, a private ‘Big 4’ (leopard, lion, elephant and rhino) 1000 hectare game reserve, situated just South of the Kruger national Park between Swaziland and Mozambique, home to a renowned safari lodge called Manyatta, cleverly built into the sides of local kopjes. Your time will be split between helping run this fantastic safari lodge, and assisting in the local conservation and community projects. This diversity will ensure you leave Africa both fulfilled and exhilarated, having made an enormous contribution to some of Africa’s most valued wildlife and their fast-disappearing tribes.
Placement outline Through this exciting and diverse mix of eco-lodge, conservation and community projects you will experience the many different faces of South Africa. The placement gives 3 contrasting working and indeed life experiences to broaden your horizons and surpass your expectations. 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.
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. You depart early July and return in time for A level results.
a day in the life of a volunteer
Kwa Madwala’s Eco Lodges- You will be assisting the rangers in their daily tasks and participate in game drives, bush walks, searching for big game, and assisting with the elephant safaris. You will assist with the general management of the lodges, including the bar, waitering, maintenance, front of house, kitchens and entertaining of international guests. You wil partake in all morning and evening game drives (helping with the spotlight at night) and walking safaris. Conservation - During your time on this trip you will: assist rangers and trackers in all aspects of their duties; search for and rescue injured game; assist with anti-poaching patrols; partake in Reserve management initiatives (fencing, bush clearing and removal of snares); assist in the Leopard Project which aims to help the leopards become more conditioned to humans and vehicles – this will involve tracking and monitoring their movements; help construct bird hides and viewing decks used to monitor animal movements; build cheetah bomas for their breeding programme; and assist with the construction of elephant back safari stables.
Community - During this phase you will assist with the construction of housing in the reserve for disadvantaged and under privileged individuals; assist with the construction of a cultural village educating tourists on the background, history and culture of the local Swazi people who are indigenous to the area; help implement small micro enterprises empowering local community members e.g. developing commercial vegetable gardens; help implement 'food' gardens to improve dietary conditions; and help in a nearby children’s orphanage.
Adventure - Activities include a flight in a micro light aircraft over the reserve above the crocodile river, which is the southern border of the world renowned Kruger National Park (1 free flight included), safaris in search of the ‘Big 5’, a full day tour of the southern side of the Kruger National Park, and camping in the reserve.
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 game reserve. 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 – farm work, helping in orphanages, building elephant bomas, monitoring leopards 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. For instance in Costa Rica volunteers live with a family who are paid for all meals and every night’s accommodation. 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 South Africa 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. |