Volunteers Holiday Club in Chintsa

Half term holiday fun!

Schools were on holiday earlier this month for one week. With the help of Wild Coast Schools volunteer Amy, we took over Chintsa East school with our fun activities and games for the week.

Making musical instruments from recycled stuff

MONDAY... hosted an eclectic mix of activities for everyone. Kick starting the day was musical instrument making. We recycled old water bottles, and filled them with different materials. I explained how different materials make different sounds and the children had great fun experimenting outside! We also decorated our water bottles using paper and felt-tip pens. Once everybody had finished, we taught the young holiday clubbers how to make the musical instruments really quiet and really loud, before moving on to rhythms!

Next stop we iced our own biscuits, with sweets, which was a tasty treat. The children then chose to get sticky with mosaic making or energetic with drama games. The holiday clubbers left us happy and tired out at the end of the morning.

Volunteers Complete Classrooms at African Angels School

The past 4 weeks have seen two groups of ISV Impact Volunteers working with VA32 on a Community Development Initiative to help develop the facilities at the new African Angels Independent School - and this week the projects are almost complete!

(Read our previous blog Group Volunteers Aim to Make A Huge Impact on Chintsa to see the launching of the projects and what work was completed by our first group).

Community Development Project- Completion at African Angels School 

New Computer Lab - ready for computers to be installed

The new computer lab for the school has been set-up and is ready to be installed with computers (which will happen within the next month!).

The door was varnished and a new mural painted on the wall

The Adventures of Ali: A Fair Trade Volunteer

Ali, a young Israeli come Cape Townian, recently joined the Fair Trade Travel Pass to explore the country that she now calls home. Travelling from Cape Town to Jo'burg on the BazBus, Ali enjoyed a 21 day adventure and had a very eye opening experience!

During the pass she spent a week in Chintsa, a night at Buccaneers Backpackers followed by a week on the Wild Coast Schools Project. She documented her time here with some stunning blogs and photos highlighting the volunteers experiences and day-to-day life on this Fair Trade volunteer project. 

Below you will find excerpts of Ali's blog and some of our favorite photos. Click on the link at the end of each section to read the original blog in full and see more of Ali's stunning photos.

The First Day on Project

The kids lining up outside the mobile
computer lab "being birds" with
Ash - the volunteer co-ordinator

"Today we were teaching grades 0 - 2; children between the ages of 3 to 8 years old. 

Responsible Travel in South Africa: The Fair Trade Travel Pass

The Fair Trade Travel Pass is a travel package which was launched in 2012 aiming to make it as easy as 1,2,3 for conscientious travelers to explore the best bits of South Africa using only Fair Trade travel establishments. The concept of responsible travel is not new to the world but it can be difficult and labor intensive to try to find verified responsible tour operators, accommodation providers and attractions - just at the time when all you really want is to be able to relax and get some much needed head-space. In steps the Fair Trade Travel Pass (FTTP)!

Journeying from Cape Town along the coast to Chintsa and the Wild Coast, on to the Drakensberg and finally to Soweto in Johannesburg, the FTTP explores some of South Africa's most popular destinations; veers off the beaten track on the thoroughly wild Wild Coast, takes in some of the natural wonders of this beautiful country and explores the sights and sounds of our urban townships. A real mix of purely South African experiences. And all stops are at Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA) establishments. The Pass is also available in reverse order staring in Jo'burg and ending in Cape Town.