Volunteer with orphans, Western Cape South Africa
| country: | South Africa |
| location: | Western Cape |
| departures: | 2009: 16 Nov |
| price: | From £1245 (4 weeks) - £2045 (12 weeks) excluding flights. Price includes dormitory accommodation, airport pick-up, online TEFL course. Does not include food, return transfer, local transport. |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
the amazing things you'll be doing
Surrounded by children aged five and under, you’ll be dishing out lots of love (as well as the odd tissue) to the children at this home who have had a difficult start in life due to abandonment, abuse or neglect. Working amongst the dedicated but over-stretched staff, you’ll find yourself providing the children with stimulation and care in order to boost their physical and emotional development and enable them to go on to happier and healthier futures. You'll need to possess a genuine love of children and a willingness to get involved in all aspects of the homes daily running, from playing games and organising activities to helping to prepare food and changing nappies. Our TEFL certification is included to give you ideas for fun educational activities.Christine Revell Children’s home is registered to provide care for 49 abandoned, abused, orphaned and neglected children, some of whom are HIV infected. Full residential care is given to children from birth until the age of five years at the home.
The home strives to create and maintain a healthy, nurturing environment where children can grow and develop physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially. Our aim is for every child to reach his or her highest potential. At this tender age, the children in care already have to deal with loss of affection, the anxiety of separation and effects of abuse and neglect. With volunteer help, we therefore try our best to give the children the love and care they so desperately crave – together with a good balance of discipline.
At the time of writing there are 50 children in the home but numbers will vary. The children have often had to deal with the stress of loss, abuse or neglect and so need lots of your love and attention. The older children attend an onsite creche where they can learn basic colours, shapes, numbers, etc. The centre is also able to provide specialized attention for any children that show behavioural problems, but local occupational therapy students also spend time here.
a day in a life of a volunteer
You'll be working alongside the 26 staff members, including the director, welfare worker, admin staff, domestic workers and relief workers. You will be getting involved in all aspects of the running of the home, these local staff work on rotation 24/7. The older children at the home attend Little Star Crèche on the home premises from 8:30am to 11:30am. Under the guidance of two qualified staff members, they learn about shapes, sizes, colours, and are taught rhymes. Students who indicate behavioural problems receive additional specialized attention from Occupational Therapy students. Typical tasks include: best time to go
Naturally, South Africa’s seasons are the reverse of the northern hemisphere with summer heat burning from November to March and cooler winter temperatures from June to August. Temperature wise, spring (September to October) and autumn (April to May) provide a happy medium. Certain must-do activities are restricted to specific times of year: safari is best from June to September and the whale watching season is June to December. The busiest time, hence the most expensive, is during the summer months, while the major school holidays are during December and Easter. volunteer travel - what's it all about?
Are you 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 believe that travel can change lives! Travelling can change you as a person and, if done responsibly, can have a profound effect on the people that you meet and the places that you visit. We want as many people as possible to experience the heart and soul of another culture in the way that we have, and in doing so, help them to make a positive and lasting impact on our world.
South Africa may have reached the status of a middle-income country according to UN classification, with Cape Town being one of its economic centres. Yet, poverty has not lost its tight grip on the majority of this country’s citizens. Due to the welcoming and friendly people as well as its beautiful flora and fauna South Africa has become a popular travel destination, but the children of the many townships are in no position to benefit from a boom in the travel industry. Volunteer travellers, however, could change this by standing up to the challenge and using part of their time abroad to make a difference to a few of these children’s lives and brighten up their day. If you choose to care for orphans on this project you will work alongside exceptionally dedicated members of staff, whose aim it is to provide underprivileged children with a perspective and a future. You could find yourself helping the older children of the home learn about colours, shapes and numbers or spending some playtime with the little ones. Additionally, you might be required to support staff with general caring duties such as feeding and bathing. This will not only be a load off their minds, but an exciting change for the children. You’ll stay in a shared dormitory room in volunteer house ensuring that you directly support the local community while you’re there. You’ll also be supported by your local in-country coordinator; Ali who with her team is best placed to understand the specific economic, social and developmental needs of South Africa. On average 48% of your placement fee is distributed in-country for the services included with your placement (i.e. Local support, Food, Transport & Accommodation) meaning that the local communities are directly benefiting from your travels to their country. The remaining funds are required to cover the administration costs associated with sourcing, training, marketing and coordinating your travel experience. We do not give a financial contribution to this or any of our projects as we believe that money is rarely the answer to complicated development issues; if it was, the poverty problems in the world would be getting better! Short-term aid relief can cause aid-reliance and financial instability and the corruption seen in many developing countries means the guarantee of your money going to the heart of the cause is massively reduced. From our experience (and by learning from our mistakes) projects benefit far greater more from a sustainable framework to ensure they develop rather than short-term financial aid relief. If money is paid directly to projects then they may become dependent on that income. If that country or project becomes unpopular, or through restrictions in the opportunity to travel to that country, the money dries up and they are no longer able to continue with their work. Supplying projects with enthusiastic volunteers creates a constant supply of helpful hands and as they are not reliant on an income can continue without the assistance of the volunteer travellers, although significantly slower in achieving their goals. Instead of giving money direct we operate a grants scheme from our Helping Hand Foundation. This is designed to allow all our partner projects to submit applications for funding to achieve a specific objective. In 2007 we have supported a number of partner projects including the installation of 20 toilets at a school in India, the construction of a community centre in Brazil and providing a radio communications unit for a turtle conservation project in Costa Rica. |
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