Work With Orphaned and Impoverished Children in South Africa

Project At A Glance

Locations: Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Albertinia, Knysna, Oudtshoorn & Riversdale Start point: Cape Town End Point: Cape Town Duration: 2-12 weeks Hours: 30-40 hours per week Food: Local meals (3 times a day) Room: Host family or hostel Date: First and Third Wednesday of each month

Project Summary

HIV Aids, poverty and other social issues have left many orphans throughout South Africa. Help is urgently needed to support these children by offering them an education, a home and love. South African community projects provide a refuge from the harsh conditions of the streets. Our projects target creating places where they can laugh, learn and grow—an opportunity to experience the childhood they never really had before they entered these programs. IFRE volunteers offer education, compassion and friendship these deficient in the lives of these children.

Skills/Qualifications Needed

There are no specific qualifications required to join this orphan support project. However, volunteers should be enthusiastic about caring for others and empathetic to unfortunate and often dire situations.

Volunteer Responsibilities

Volunteers may be involved with teaching English, helping with homework and teaching basic conversational English. Volunteers will help with supporting recreational and artistic activities with the objective of educational learning (i.e. reading stories, performing puppet shows, caring for and playing with the children or organizing and developing sports activities). Additional assistance is needed with supporting in the kitchen/helping to serve lunch in the dining room and assisting with location-specific duties: routine building maintenance, construction, etc.

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.