Pre-School Volunteering Experience | Chintsa

My name is Tracy Rocero. I'm from Toronto, Canada and the reason why I wanted to volunteer at first was to make a difference in my life and change the life of others. That soon changed and made a huge impact on me when I first stepped into the the preschool in Chintsa.

When I first started out in the classroom I was very nervous but excited to know that I'd be doing something that I know how to do on a day to day basis (I am a teacher in Canada). Then, realizing I'm entering not just a classroom but a community - that was all new to me.

Pre-Vet Students help aminals in Chintsa Community

Last week we wrote a blog about some of our experiences on The African Pre-Vet Experience in Chintsa, where we explained some of the tasks we had taken part in with African wildlife, agricultural animals and zoo enrichment. You can read that blog "Pre-Vet Students get Hand-on Experience in South Africa" here. This week we're going to go into another aspect of the project - community work with domestic animals.

Stephanie showing the kids her cool pictures of the animals we've
worked with

Once a week, we go to the Cintsa village and do community work with the dogs. Ticks and fleas are very common in these areas, so we come every week to dip the dogs to kill the ticks and fleas. We also treat mange, a common disease found in many dogs in the village, along with Transmissible Venereal Tumors (TVTs). Our pre-vets will also treat any wounds, burn marks, and treat infections. Often times, our dipping site gets stampeded with the children and while waiting for dogs to come, we will often play with the children.

Checking in the the Wild Coast Schools & Preschools Volunteer Program

2013 End of Term Assembly

Last term ended with a BANG in Chintsa!

Volunteer Matthias helping the learners to
organise their presentations in assembly

A celebration assembly at Chintsa East school was filled with songs, prezi presentations and certificates. This term we focused on Human Rights for our older learners in the Wild Coast Schools computer labs and Friendship and Responsibility for the younger learners in the foundation phase and preschool.

The end of term assembly also marked the end of Nuremburg volunteer Matthias’ last day teaching in Chintsa, having taught at the school for five months. It was a sad day for everybody at the school. It was also Maria’s last day at Bulugha.

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...

Pre-Vet Students Volunteer in South Africa

Pre-vet volunteers assisting in an impala relocation

December saw the arrival of two groups of Pre-Vet volunteers through International Student Volunteers (ISV) who have shown huge support to VA32 projects throughout 2013. These groups were the first to take part in the new Pre-Vet Group Program designed for groups of students, schools and special interest groups looking to volunteer on a worthwhile program.

Based in an Eastern Cape Game Reserve, the Pre-Vet volunteer teams spent 2 weeks working with the local wildlife including rhino, nyala, impala, giraffe and countless bird and small mammal species as well as taking part in lectures and hands on conservation management tasks. They also had hands on experience with agricultural livestock and vulnerable domestic animals in local farms and townships.

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.

Volunteer Teaching at the African Angels School

“Good morning Charlottte!” Being asked to volunteer teach at African Angels School is always a treat. With Grade R teacher Christy away for the day, I jumped on board the teaching train.

Grade R had been learning about wild animals, I saw some fantastic giraffes and artwork dotted all around the classroom. I also had the help of enthusiastic teaching student Jamie, who has been working with African Angels since October.

The Pre-Vet Team Volunteer in Rural Townships

Team Pre-Vet have been doing some amazing work in rural Eastern Cape communities as a part of the VA32 Pre-Vet Project where as well as taking part in exciting African wildlife captures, assisting with veterinary work and studies, we also focus on helping the thousands of neglected domestic animals in local townships. Find out what the team have been up to this month...

"Hi everyone!

We pre-vets have just returned from an extended outreach mission in the former-Transkei, South Africa. For those of you who don’t know, this area is a huge territory with thousands of cultural villages and was one of the "homelands" of apartheid South Africa. 

Traditional thatched rondavels at Bulungula

We were working in an area called Bulungula, where a non-profit organization called the Bulungula Incubator has done some amazing work for the surrounding communities including several educational, health and infrastructural development projects. The backpackers we stayed at is called Bulungula Lodge and is one of the Incubator’s biggest projects as the community owns 40%. You can read more about this amazing place and their mission here: www.bulungula.com.

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.

What a Load of Rubbish!

An Update from the Wild Coast Schools Volunteer Project

We have been having a whole load of litter fun with our young learners. The topic for this school term has been My School Environment and we have been learning about litter; where it belongs and the different types of litter that we make. We decided to explore recycling one week, by making our own monsters out of rubbish!

Texas State Teaching Students Volunteer in Chintsa

The TSU volunteer teaching team on Cintsa beach

Three weeks; ten teachers; four projects; two schools. And only three to four contact hours for each group per week! But the creation of fantastic digital stories and poems using Microsoft Powerpoint were achieved at both Bulugha and Chintsa East School, with the help of Texas State University.

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

Volunteers Continue Rural Building Project

Our latest group of International Student Volunteers (ISV) spent time in Chintsa with VA32 from 20th July - 2nd August. This group were here to work on our current Community Development Initiatives which involves the continuation of the classroom building project (first mentioned in the original post "Volunteers Build New Classroom in Rural School") at Silatsha School on the Wild Coast.

The group worked with project leaders Denver and Milton who had the help of ISV co-ordinator Katie, and achieved huge success in pushing the building work forward at a seriously speedy rate!

South African Angels

Me with the Angels on the beach :)

When I was asked to write this blog about my time with the “African Angels Independent School”, I tried to recollect and summarize the most special occurrences I experienced during my stay in Chintsa, South Africa. Not an easy task for almost 5 months of school and afternoon activities…Events like taking the children to the zoo or beach, celebrating Human Rights Day with a fun sports competition or entertaining kids at the Greensleeves fundraiser with face paints were wonderful and unique memories that will stay with me.

Computer Literacy Students Blog

Some of our computer literacy students have taken an interest in the Vlog and have written a short blog each to be a part of it. Although the internet connection is not currently working at the schools the girls have taken the time to type out their blogs and include a photo of themselves. Read the blogs of Sinesihle, Lusanda, Nolubabalo and Zizipho below:

My Blog

By Sinesihle Luqongo

What is my name? My name is sihle my sername is luqongo

Volunteers Build New Classroom in Rural School

The latest group of International Student Volunteers (ISV) volunteers joined VA32 in Chintsa from 24th June - 5th July and were the fourth group of volunteers taking part in several community development initiatives this winter season. This group saw the start of a major project based in local township school Silatsha which will be undertaken and completed over the next 12 months.

Silatsha school is situated around 50kms from Chintsa and receive support from VA32 volunteers as often as possible, through building and maintenance of the school facilities, sports initiatives and computer literacy classes when possible.

Silatsha currently has five small classrooms in which to teach 8 classes of children from Grade R - 7. In 2010-11 VA32 worked with ISV volunteers to build their fifth classroom and 2013 marks the start of a sixth classroom.

Volunteers Uplift Chintsa Preschool

Our third group of International Student Volunteers were with us from 8th - 21st June. Following on from the amazing work that the previous groups did at the African Angels School (you can read about their work in our previous blogs "Volunteers aim to make a huge impact on Chintsa" and "Volunteers Complete Classrooms at African Angels School"), group 3 set to working with Phumla at the Chintsa East Preschool. Phumla's preschool building and facilities were in need of some serious care and attention. Check out the work that this great group of volunteers completed:

Volunteering to Maintain Phumlas Preschool

The volunteers completed the following tasks:

- Cleaning, scraping and re-painting of the school building

Volunteers Work on Pioneering Sports Development Program in Chintsa, South Africa

This winter season VA32 is pioneering a Sports Development Program for local schools in the wider Chintsa area. Four groups of ISV volunteer groups will be hosted during the next three months and will facilitate this program along with VA32 project manager Denver. 

There is a huge need for programs like this in South Africa where there is no physical education (PE) included in the core curriculum. Extra curricular activities are provided by many private schools (or by sports clubs and training outside of school) and in many cases make up for this lack of sports development, but in the rural schools of the Eastern Cape there is a distinct lack of opportunities for rural learners to take part in these kinds of activities. This could be for many reasons; the families cannot afford to pay for the classes or buy the equipment, the kids cannot get to the clubs and classes as they have no transport and there are little to no clubs hosted locally for kids.

See How Our Garden Grows!

The afternoons for volunteers are filled with community development initiatives in Chintsa which are designed to support the schools and people who VA32 work with every day.

The last few weeks have seen a new gardening and beautification initiative begun; driven by volunteer co-ordinator Ash, Kate from Friends of Chintsa, local teacher and carer Phumla and (of course) our education project volunteers.

The Gardening Initiative

The gardening initiative has several aims and outcomes:

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.