Top 3 Outstanding Volunteer Program - Global Youth Travel Awards 2015

Volunteer Africa 32 degrees South (VA32) are proud to announce being awarded third place in the Outstanding Volunteer Program category at the 2015 Global Youth Travel Awards, announced in Cape Town last week. We entered the category in collaboration with project partner International Student Volunteers (ISV) whom we have built a solid working relationship with since 2009, when their volunteer groups were first hosted in Chintsa.

“The past two weeks have opened up my eyes to new people and new cultures. I gained friends and knowledge about South Africa and the beautiful communities. This experience with ISV and VA32 is on that cannot be topped” – Emily Carmack

Volunteers Help to Build Chintsa East Soup Kitchen

Children lining up for a hot meal at the soup kitchen

Local hero in Chintsa, Temie, is an inspiration to many in our small town. Temie recognised that during weekends and school holidays, many children in Chintsa East village went without food - during the week this need is covered by school feeding schemes such as the Bulugha School scheme which is run and managed by the school, and the Chintsa East Feeding Scheme which is managed by Friends of Chintsa. Temie took it upon herself, with the help of a few friends, to try to alleviate this problem and provide disadvantaged children in the village with at least one hot meal per day during days when they are not at school.

Temie's Soup Kitchen was born!

The Challenges of Volunteering in Rural South African Schools

VA32 are lucky enough to partner with Texas State University who bring a group of teaching volunteers to Chintsa annually to support the Wild Coast Schools Project. The students volunteer in various rural schools including Bulugha School which is on the outskirts of Chintsa and gets consistent support from volunteers in their permanent computer lab, and Chefani School which receives intermittent support when volunteer numbers allow.

Learners at Chefani School

Volunteer teacher Emily took the time to share her experiences and the challenges that she faced while teaching at Chefani School. This is the first in a series of blogs and movies shared by the Texas State volunteer teachers:

Working in Chefani (a rural school on the Wild Coast of South Africa) was such a meaningful experience! In the beginning, it was quite apparent that the learners here were not too familiar with working with volunteers. This made the first few days quite difficult. I felt that a majority of the children were apprehensive of us being there and teaching them something new, which made it difficult to establish a connection with them. This improved, however, over the next few days as they became more comfortable with us even just being in their surroundings. What sealed the deal in establishing our relationship with these kids was playing games with them before we began our work. This allowed them to loosen up and become much more comfortable with us as a group and as individuals.

Volunteers Build New Loo's in Rural Schools

A completed toilet black
in one of our partner
Wild Coast Pre-schools

It goes without saying that schools need loo's! Yet in many rural pre-schools in the under-developed Eastern Cape of South Africa there is a lack of sanitary facilities. VA32, with the assistance of volunteers from International Student Volunteers, have begun to tackle this issue in partner preschools in the wider Chintsa area.

Volunteer groups have been working with VA32 project leader Milton at Mzwini and Somila Day Care Centres at the Southern end of the Wild Coast of South Africa.

The toilets are built on the long drop design which is a particularly popular solution in rural areas where there is little access to running water.

57 Volunteers, 40 Project Days: Project Complete

57 Volunteers, 40 Project Days,

40 Hours of Building, Digging, Cement Mixing, Gardening & Painting

Mandela Park Creche - 

Classroom Extension & Garden Development Project

A New Classroom for Silatsha School - The Beginnings!

Introduction to the site and other work done at the school

During January we had a great team of volunteers from project partners EDventures International & Pangea Trails. Group leader Tobz was tasked with supporting the team of eight Aussie's and their co-ordinators on a long term project at Silatsha Primary School in Mooiplaas. 

The project is building a new classroom at the school where currently several grades share the same classrooms with very limited space and facilities. 

Volunteers Building in SA...African Style!

Our final group of volunteers this season, who travelled with EDventures and Pangea Trails to Chintsa to join one of our Community Development initiatives, began a new project at Mama Tofu's traditional Xhosa village.

Mama Tofu is the oldest registered tour guide in South Africa at the age of 93! Her homestead is a living and working example of a traditional tribal Xhosa homestead where volunteers and tourists can visit, sleep and eat while they learn about Xhosa culture, traditions and life.

Mama Tofu was assisted by local tour company African Heartland Journeys to become registered and trained as a guide and the company assist her today in supporting her tours and helping in the village when necessary.

This project created an incredible opportunity for our volunteers not only to assist in supporting community driven local economical development, but also in experiencing hands-on traditional building techniques using the resources available in the natural environment of a traditional village... i.e., cow dung!

Silatsha School Classroom Completed!

Last month a long term VA32 project was completed by a small group of volunteers who travelled to South Africa with EDventures International.

The building of a new classroom at Silatsha School has been in progress since July 2013 when the school was identified by VA32 and local NPO Friends of Chintsa, as in dire need of additional space to teach the current number of learners at the school effectively. To catch up with the progress of the project from start to finish check out the blogs below:
"Volunteers Build New Classroom in Rural School"

"Volunteers Continue Building Classroom in Rural South Africa"

"Building Classrooms in Rural South Africa"

  

The final group of volunteers joined the project at an exciting stage with the classroom in need of some vital finishing before it was ready for use. These tasks included:

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.

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

The VA32 Ambassador Project

On Friday 31st Jan the VA32 Ambassador Project was opened up to our entire network of friends and supporters. The Ambassador Project aims at securing volunteers for the Wild Coast Schools and Community Preschool Projects for 2014, through the help of our past volunteers, current supporters and interested parties who share their experiences of Chintsa and VA32 with their own networks of friends, colleagues, local schools and colleges, classmates, sports teams, students unions and more!

What's in it for them?
A free volunteer placement! Any ambassador who refers five volunteers on to VA32 (the volunteers must confirm their placement with a 35% deposit) will be hosted for free, for two weeks, on one of our volunteer projects.

So who's getting involved?

An Ambassador Case Study...

10 reasons to volunteer in South Africa by Adel Groenewald

Voluntourism is a term that was coined when more and more people started travelling the world to volunteer in foreign countries. Not only is it a great way to see a new country and really get stuck in with the culture and environment, but it’s also a great way to meet new people – especially if you’re travelling alone.

Although almost every developing country now offers volunteering progammes, South Africa has more going for it than most. Have a look at these 10 reasons why South Africa is the perfect place to volunteer and you’ll be convinced before you reach the bottom.

The African Pre-Vet Experience

Our awesome Pre-Vet team have written their first vlog! Check out what they've been up to over the past few weeks:

"Hi everyone

We are the pre-vet team on VA32's African pre-vet program and we’re very excited to be on this blog! Here are a few of the best things we’ve done so far…

Game capture - working with African Wildlife

Kira and Morgan loved capturing impala on a huge golf course, we ran around a lot that day but it was amazing hands on experience and a lot of fun! Maggie’s favourite capture was a six month old giraffe; they’re really tricky to sedate and transport but it went off without a hitch!

The 6 month old giraffe on our game capture

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.

Volunteering at the Orphanage: Greensleeves Home of Safety

Volunteers running outdoor activities with the kids at Greensleeves and the colourful parachute

Wednesday afternoons can only mean one thing - an afternoon at the orphanage "Greensleeves Home of Safety". With children coming from difficult backgrounds, Greensleeves is a loving place of safety for 26 orphaned children. Every week we head on down there with the volunteers and some fun activities "up our sleeves"!

As soon as the Volunteer Africa bus enters its gates, we see beaming faces and little legs running as fast as they can towards us! Just giving our time and attention, means a lot.

Combining computer literacy, with fun activities and homework help, there is never a dull moment. Adding in the countless cuddles and laughs... it ends up being the volunteer’s favourite day of the week.

Volunteers Continue Building Classroom in Rural South Africa

The Winter season is pretty much over here in Chintsa (and the heat has already hit!). We've enjoyed a huge amount of support from International Student Volunteers (ISV) on our Community Development projects where enthusiastic and committed hands have made huge progress on the building project at Silatsha School in the Eastern Cape, as well as other community based projects. 

To read the original two blog posts about the building project in Silatsha click on the following links: "Volunteers Build New Classroom in Rural School" and "Volunteers Continue Rural Building Project".

This final group of ISV volunteers worked really hard and were able to really make an impact on the building work. Check out what they got up to:

Volunteering with the African Angels - South Africa

With an outbreak of volunteers filling Chintsa East School and Bulugha Farm School the Wild Coast Schools Project had a rare opportunity to undertake our first computer project in the brand new African Angel’s computer lab and we were welcomed by a hoard of children eagerly awaiting to use it. 

“Who’s on computers today? Who’s on computers today?” The children run up and ask the volunteers as soon as they step foot in the African Angels School. It’s an absolute novelty for them, the brand new computer lab, and it’s so refreshing to see the children so enthused about learning.

Volunteer in Community Preschools in South Africa

As term 3 began VA32 hosted four volunteers on the Community Preschool Project in Chintsa, South Africa. The project aims to support local under-resourced and under-staffed preschools by placing international volunteers into the classroom to assist with planning lessons and resources, acting as a teachers aid, running small group activities and one-on-one tasks with the children and well as engaging in creative educational play. This help is vital in such schools where there can be up to 40+ children in one classroom, with only one teacher.  

The Project

Volunteers work in the preschools from 8am - 12.30pm from Monday to Fridays. Volunteers help to supervise break and play times...

Volunteer Vivian with the preschool kids at break time