Volunteer in South Africa: Disabled Children/ Special Education/ Old Age Care Project

Project At A Glance

Location: Cape Town Start point: Cape Town Duration: 2-12 weeks Hours: 30-40 hours per week Food: Local food (3 times a day) Room: Host family or hostel Date: First and Third Wednesday of each month

Project Summary

Volunteers in this project will be working with disabled children, helping children who need special education, or assisting senior citizens remain active. The general age ranges of the people you will be assisting varies from 5 to 44 years old and, have a variety of physical and mental disabilities like cerebral palsy, down syndrome, water heads, hemiplegic, hearing, speech, sight, autism, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and TB.

In the special education group, most of the students have learning disorders and have a short attention span. Basic reading and writing skills according to their age and intellectual abilities have not been achieved. Due to their disabilities most learners experience problems learning anything. Learners are divided into class groups according to their functionality. In one class group teachers have to work out different individual programs according to the intellectual abilities and capacities of the learners. All learners require specialist services like speech & occupational therapy. Physiotherapy and services from social workers and nurses are essential.

If you wish to take care of the older citizens than volunteers should help with the physical stimulation classes. Many in the older group just need help stretching and walking so volunteers improve their physical conditions and maintain them. Much of this is done during the physical stimulation classes at Rusthof Old Age Home.

Skills/Qualifications Needed

There are no specific qualifications required for this project. However, volunteers interested to work must have love for the kids and seniors and, willingness to share their time and compassion with patience and high flexibility.

Volunteer Responsibilities

Volunteers in this project must have a lot of patience. Some tasks include teaching the special education students and helping them with therapy. Volunteers may also help take care of all the disabled children and all tasks included in that. The seniors will also need help with their physical stimulation as you monitor progress and supervise activities.

Room/Food/Supervision

IFRE arranges accommodations and food (3 local meals/day) for the duration of your volunteer project. During orientation and training program, volunteers stay in our hostel in Cape Town. Our hostel is located in the heart of the city giving volunteers easy access to all parts of the city. Volunteers stay with a host family (aka “homestay”) during the volunteer program. Our host families are socially respected and are well versed in the art of hosting international volunteers. Host families offer a safe home, private rooms (occasionally rooms will be shared with other same-gender volunteers) and shared bathroom facilities with running water.

Volunteers will receive three meals of South African cuisine each day. Breakfast normally consists of cereal and toast; lunch is packed to take to your project and dinner is a nutritious home cooked local meal (meat & vegetables, rice or potatoes & salad). Host families provide typical meals that are traditional to South Africa.. Throughout the volunteer project, our local staff stays in contact with volunteers with either face-to-face visits or via email/telephone. IFRE’s main office is in Cape Town and our in-country coordinator serves as a point of contact for local volunteers. If project placement is very far from our main office, then our local staff members maintain communication by email and/or phone and the local project director will serve as a volunteer’s contact. Upon program placement, personal placement documents provide specific details of accommodations and project.