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Sustainable and ongoing development of local communities is always the primary aim of our volunteer projects and this project is no different. You’ll take up where others left off and you’ll be involved in the continued personal development of these vulnerable women and children through a variety of different mediums.
This project was set up in September 2001 with the aim of helping women in distress, and their children, to make a new life for themselves. The staff are trained counsellors and the women are given the opportunity to deal with their issues and regain the confidence to move on with their lives. You will play a vital part in helping these vulnerable women develop new skills and confidence.
By taking part in this project, you are helping these women leave the dependency of an abusive partner and learn skills to provide for themselves and their children. Without the volunteers to teach the women the skills and to provide an income to the project, the centre would not be in existence.
Volunteers are given cultural advice before and on arrival, affording you an understanding of South African culture which will guide your interactions with local people and improve cultural awareness.
Your actions can positively and directly influence the local economy, society and culture, whilst allowing you the opportunity to have close interactions with local people. By shopping at markets and seeking locally produced goods and services your presence will have a positive impact on the local economy.
You will have the choice of living with a host family or in the shelter accommodation that is provided for the women and children. Whichever option you choose, you will, again, be directly benefitting the local community and economy. By living in the shelter accommodation you’ll be providing much needed income and employment to the local population. The house is simple and you’ll be actively encourage to recycle, be efficient with energy and water usage and preserve the surroundings. It’s a chance to immerse yourself in the project and gain a great understanding of the culture and lives on these women. The money that you pay us will go directly to the projects to pay the wages of staff members and for the food you will eat. All of your food is prepared for you and sourced locally, thus directly assisting local businesses. If you choose to stay with a host family, money you pay towards food and accommodation goes directly to the family. This provides not only much needed income for the families but also income for local businesses from food purchases and the money you’ll spend during free time. By taking part on the project you’re bring financial support and learning experiences for the whole community.
The biggest difference you can make is direct to the women and children though love and attention. You will gain incredible insight into the community and make many friends through close up personal contact with the local people and culture.
Environment
Transport to and from the project is left up to you to choose (costs covered for public transport). Public transport is always recommended by Travellers and all nearby public transport routes are shown to all new arrivals. If taxis are required, you will be encouraged to share with other volunteers in order to lessen the impact of pollution wherever possible.
Having regard for the local community by being consciously aware of your impact is encouraged in all our documentation for all our projects in all our destination countries. This is because we feel very strongly that many countries are subject to, for example, water shortages, high cost of energy and high impact of energy usage, the negative impact of litter and general pollution. Thus we encourage our volunteers to be aware of these possible impacts so that they contribute positively and not negatively to the community in this respect
Our company
You taking part in this project enables us to continue to donate financial assistance as well as necessary goods, where it is needed around the world. Examples of donations include building new classrooms, providing school uniforms for poorer students, buying computers, sports equipment, playgrounds, toys, mattresses, classroom equipment and funding school trips and the building of libraries, and more. We also donate significantly to conservation research efforts and the purchasing of necessary conservation equipment. In the past, these donations have been made in all continents and in projects where we work, and some where we do not work.
Recent donations made include
- Monthly donations to a variety of schools, orphanage and animal sanctuaries around the world to help with costs.
- Donations to a school in Zambia to sponsor the education of five children per year.
- Donation made to a school in Ghana to build new signs to advertise the school, buy a photocopier, buy reading books and pain some classrooms in need of repair.
- Donation of funds to build a toilet at one of the schools we work with in Cambodia – until now the children have had to go into neighbouring houses or in the bushes!
- Computer and Camera for a Street Kids project in South Africa.
- Ongoing monthly donations made to orphanage in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and every year additional money given at Christmas to buy presents for children.
- Approximately £1,500 towards the building of a desperately needed classroom in a Zulu school in eMakhosini, South Africa.
- Water tanks for various projects in Ghana and Kenya to allow the children safe drinking water.
- Toys and play equipment for children at a project that was severely lacking funds for this in South Africa.
- A donation of books for the Red Cross Hospital in Cape Town.
- A donation of $400 to the elephant project in Thailand.
We employ an all local staff force in most of our destination countries, which benefits the local economy. These range from skilled country managers, who are often pillars of their community, to local labourers and craftspeople. We believe in paying our overseas staff fairly, and many are rewarded with higher than average wages for local standards. When required, we send local staff on training courses to widen their skills. For example, a member of staff in South Africa recently attended an ‘eco-school’. Here, she was trained in eco teaching methods, which she will take to the schools around her region of South Africa to encourage eco-friendly farming methods.
We are committed to upholding strict ethical standards that ensure a positive and lasting impact upon the environments, communities, institutions, volunteers, animals, children and people that we work with. For example:
- We encourage our volunteers to make the most of local opportunities available to them, such as shopping at local markets, eating in local restaurants and using local services and transport.
- We encourage volunteers to pay fairly for goods and services. We believe that over payment for goods and services or payment to beggars can have negative consequences and result in the over-reliance of tourism within the local community.
- We strongly advise against purchasing wildlife souvenirs or anything which may perpetuate the death or cruel treatment of animals for the purpose of profit.
- We advise on dress codes and codes of behaviour in all of our destination countries to ensure volunteers don’t cause offence to local communities.
Our aim is to create always a win-win-win situation in terms of the benefits for the local communities and institutions that we work in, for us and for the volunteer. We do not embark on any project that is not beneficial to the communities, institutes or volunteers. We conduct regular volunteer satisfaction surveys to monitor our performance. We are also an incredibly environmentally aware company – we recycle in our offices and carbon offset when we need to send staff to our destinations. Although individually these are small actions, we believe it’s the first step to preserving the planet for future generations.
Our projects enable vital conservation, research, care and education work to take place directly where it is most needed. For example, the schools where we teach English very often have no other English teachers, and so they rely on us for continued lessons. We kept a Species Survival Conservation project in South Africa afloat until completion after it was threatened by lack of funds. Our volunteers contribute, all over the world, to projects that would not exist without them.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
