Pre-Vet Students get Hands-on Experience in South Africa

While volunteering with the Pre-Vet program, through VA32 we get to see and do so many fun things!

Here are a few of the tasks we've done over the past few weeks:

When working with the wildlife, we have gone on several game captures at one of the few local game reserves, mPongo. While at mPongo, we get to drive around on the game drive looking at all the animals: giraffes, zebras, nyalas, waterbucks, warthogs, impalas, lions, monkeys, elephants, bushbucks, and many more!

Oporto British School Students Volunteer in South Africa

Last month VA32 and Buccaneers Backpackers hosted a team of students from Oporto British School in Portugal. The group of 16 students, supported by teachers from the school, were to spend a week in South Africa enriching their experience of our beautiful country, exploring some of South Africa's highlights and volunteering their time on a meaningful community development initiative. 

The students put together an awesome movie about their experience in South Africa:

Over to project leader Tobs for a little more about the project:

Building Classrooms in Rural South Africa

Progress of the new classroom at Silatsha School in the Eastern Cape of South Africa 

The building of the new classroom at Silatsha School has progressed again as our last two groups of volunteers from project partner EDventures brought their energy, willingness to get their hands dirty and enthusiasm for power tools, to the project!


To see the beginnings of this building project read the last blog about it's progress "Volunteers Continue Building Classroom in Rural South Africa".

Over to group leader Milton:

"The first group of volunteers this season were awesome - they completed the work we had laid out for them at Gwegwesha Creche and so we moved them onto helping to complete the new classroom at Silatsha School which has been a project in progress for a while.

Working with EDventures in Rural South African Communities

VA32's group volunteer programs are supported this year by our new partner EDventure International (who work in collaboration with tour operator Pangea Trails). Our group projects offer parties of school, college and university students, sports teams and special interest groups, the opportunity to take part in hands-on initiatives in community development in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

2014 has seen the successful hosting of two EDventures groups so far, who always arrive with unlimited enthusiasm, a willingness to get their hands dirty, free and open minds and a whole ton of smiles...here's more from VA32 group leader Milton:

"We worked in the Mooiplaas area at Gwegwesha Village which is about 40 minutes drive from Chintsa. The group were given the task of helping to build a kitchen for the Gwegwesha Pre-school which is run by husband and wife team Wellington and Nolundi. The Pre-school is a tiny building which barely fits in the subscribed learners and it was near impossible to find the space to make breakfast for the children - and really not a safe place to have heated pots and pans, hot water etc. with the children so close by.

ertasten den Lehrerberuf in Suedafrika

Von Marina und Miriam

Seit nun gut vier Monaten sind wir im unglaublichen Chintsa. Wir koennen uns zu den gluecklichen Studentinnen der Universitaet Nuernberg zaehlen, die die Chance ergattert haben, in Suedafrika unterrichten zu duerfen. Das wurde uns durch die Partnerschaft der drei Saeulen Buccaneers, Volunteer Africa 32 und der Friedrich Alexander Universitaet Nuernberg ermoeglicht. Einen herzlichen Gruss hierfuer an Dr. Poschardt, der in dieser Hinsicht Grossartiges geleistet hat. Cheers Poschardt!

 In Nuernberg studieren wir Lehramt auf Grundschule. Schon nach dem Abitur wollten wir beide uns keine Chance fuer einen Auslandsaufenthalt entgehen lassen. Und hier sind wir. Jeden Tag gibt uns das Unterrichten einen besonderen Moment, den wir wohl nie vergessen werden und uns vor allem im spaeteren Berufsleben nicht nur in einer Hinsicht weiterhelfen wird.

Student Teaching Abroad in South Africa

A group of Texas State University teaching
students at one of our partner Wild Coast Schools

For the past few years Volunteer Africa 32 Degrees South (VA32) has been working to form partnerships with several US and UK universities to offer student teachers, psychologists, social scientists and other professions, the opportunity to extend and develop their skills through hands-on experience teaching on the VA32 Wild Coast Schools Education Projects. Using our experience working with universities including Texas State (US), Nuremburg (Germany), Marburg (Holland), York (UK) and Pacific Lutheran (US), this program has been fine-tuned to suit the specific needs of students and professors and to become an instrumental aspect of students professional development in their chosen field.

2014 sees the official launch of the new Students Teaching Abroad Project which places groups of students in the rural classrooms of the Wild Coast to deliver computer literacy and English language support to young South African learners. These objectives support the aims of VA32's long standing Wild Coast education initiatives while also developing the skills of students in teaching and classroom management, resource development and more.

Minha experiência como voluntário na África do Sul

Me on Chintsa beach :)

Experiência única, mil sentimentos. Viagem difícil de ser descrita, mas facilmente de ser lembrada na memória. Os sorrisos não serão esquecidos, assim com os nomes muitas vezes foram. Pais novo, vilarejo pequeno, língua (bem) diferente e muita história para contar.
Cintsa me surpreendeu a cada dia e se revelou ser uma cidade bem simpática. Tive o prazer de conhecer pessoas muito legais e que realmente fazem diferença na comunidade.

Me and teacher Phumla at Chintsa East Pre-School