ISV - Volunteer Projects in South Africa

I traveled with ISV to South Africa during July/August 2012. The volunteer portion of my trip was absolutely outstanding. I think back on my volunteer work everyday, realizing how much it had an impact on me. Everyday was different and brought on a variety of obstacles.

My volunteer project was based in a township called Langa. There, we worked with children in preschools as well as in an after school program called Happy Feet. It was very challenging but incredibly rewarding; there was a massive language barrier with the kids but they were so grateful to have us there. Happy Feet really inspired me to change courses. I immediately applied to the education faculty at school and cannot wait to become a teacher. My ISV volunteer project gave me some essential experience for my education.

Happy Feet was a community development project, but ISV offers other types of volunteer projects as well. Other groups did building/planting projects, some were placed in game reserves working hands-on with animals, doing tracking work or maintaining the game reserve itself. It all depends on what you want to do.

ISV also offers adventure travel - all in all I visited five countries in five weeks. We did game drives, cliff jumping and abseiling in South Africa. We swam with dolphins and whale sharks in the Indian Ocean. We did a horse back ride along the beaches of Mozambique. We did mountain biking through the hills of Swaziland. We sat on the edge of Victoria Falls in Zambia. We saw hundreds of elephants and camped under the stars in Botswana. Sound incredible? I can tell you with 100% honesty that this trip was above and beyond expectations.

ISV will not let you down. The entire trip was an experience of a life time, I would do it over and over and over again if I could. I cannot wait to visit South Africa again!

I had an amazing time in South Africa, volunteering at the Ann Van Dyk Cheetah Centre at De Wildt as well as he adventure tour around southern Africa. I simply can't put into words the experience, definitely eye-opening. South Africa is a beautiful place, ISV does a great job combining both volunteer work and discovering Africa. As an animal science major, the volunteering was very helpful in cementing my career path, giving great hands on experience with the animals and also educating me on animal behavior, the breeding, and research program there. The adventure tour was simply getting your reward for working hard during the first two weeks. I did more in those two weeks than I ever have in my life. We went to amazing places, learnt a lot about the cultures and did crazy, adrenaline-pumping activities. I'd definitely go again if given the opportunity !

In January 2012 I travelled with International Student Volunteer to South Africa to be involved in a 2 week conservation volunteer project followed by a 2 week adventure tour around South Africa. I’ve always been very passionate about animals and working with them (as I am a vet student) and ISV the perfect opportunity for this. For our project we were working and living in Lapalala Game Reserve, an environment fill with wild exotic animals such as zebra, wilder beast, giraffes, rhino, leopards and impala just to name a few. Our mission was to carry out field work in the reserve, which the reserve’s scientists could then use to assess whether elephants and lions could be re-introduced into the area. Working amongst these animals and seeing them wild in their natural environment was truly amazing and an experience I will never forget. Knowing that wild rhinos walked around the camp at night and coming out of your cabin in the morning to see a family of warthogs at your door was surreal. We also had the experience to meet the critically endangered black rhinos that were to be released in the park, it was spectacular. This volunteer work left me with such a feeling of pride and accomplishment and further sparked my passion for wildlife. ISV projects were amazing as I could have confidence that the volunteer projects were sustainable and of great importance to South Africa. Not only did the experience benefit South Africa’s conservation programs but also changed my life and perspective of the world. I loved this project so much that I didn’t want to leave!! Then however we were off on our 2 week adventure tour of South Africa!!!! This was another truly unforgettable experience and we were lucky enough to do activities such as kloofing in the middle of the largest green canyon in the world, a night drive in Kruger National Park where we came face to face with wild lions, tree-top canopy tours in famous yellow-wood forests and dolphin and fur-seal watching. My favourite day however was when we got to abseil of Table Mountain in Cape Town!!! Crazy experience. I met the most amazing people on my trip who I will keep as lifetime friends. This was the most amazing experience of my life and it has truly changed me forever.

The ISV trip to South Africa in Feb of 2012 was one of the most fantastic trips I have ever been on. Each day brought a host of new exciting experiences and the work on the first two weeks of the tour was both extremely rewarding and interesting.

My group and I (about 15 all up, comprised of people 18-22 years of age) conducted habitat assessments at Lapalala nature reserve in the Limpopo province in South Africa. We were doing these assessments to ascertain whether the reserve could once again sustain populations of lions and elephants, after they had been hunted from the park earlier in the 20th century. The work was very rewarding, and the days in the field gave me the opportunity to see some of Africa's most amazing wildlife, such as leopards, giraffe's and hippo's.

The adventure tour after our volunteer work took us from Kruger national park in the northeast of the country (where record rainfall kept us in the park for almost 24 hours!) all down the eastern coast, finally ending up in Capetown. Along the way we were able to participate in amazing activities such as bungy jumping, zip-lining, shark cage diving and surfing, as well as a number of activities that could not be achieved in any other country. We were also exposed to a more grass roots level of the African culture, gaining more appreciation of South African society than you would get in similar tours by other companies
My volunteer work in South Africa was an irreplaceable trip, one where I made friends that I am still in regular contact with today, accomplished a real difference in the conservation work we undertook and had my entire outlook on life changed for the better. I would recommend anyone looking to do some volunteer work and have a great deal of fun to ISV, as their knowledgeable and extremely friendly staff made the trip infinitely better and the organisation allowed us to focus more on having a great time. 10/10.

What an amazing experience!! ISV took me to 5 different countries in Africa which gave me a real perspective on Africa and it was amazing, beautiful, wonderful and exotic! Our two week volunteer trip was at a reserve called Lapalala where we took surveys on vegetation, mammals and birds. It was so interesting to get to know the environment of Africa because it is so different from North America. The animals there are out of this world! They fulfill every child's dream of being in the Lion King. ISV had great leaders who taught us so much about the different places in Africa and its cultures. Every Safari we took we learned something new and became familiar with all the animals. We also got to also go to Victoria falls which is a wow moment it its self. I would defiantly do this trip over again and again!

My journey through Africa started with a night in Johannesburg, early the next morning seven of us headed off to the beautiful country of Swaziland. I didn't know much about Swaziland but after two weeks I was in love. This country is amazing! the people are fantastic and all so happy, and the country is beautiful. We roughed it for our two weeks of volunteering. Sleeping on the ground in tents, showering once every two days (if you were lucky enough to have the shower working), and waking up at 4:30 every morning. The view from the look out was to die for, it looked across the entire private game park and you could spot giraffes as you ate your breakfast! or even as you had a shower! We worked hard; tracking tortoises, macheteing, and setting live animal traps and experienced the local culture on some village tours. Already the African experience was incredible and we still had the adventure tour to go! I was very sad to leave Swaziland but we still had so much to look forward to.

The first few nights of our adventure tour were in Blyde River canyon, an awesome place. For the first time in two weeks we saw beds! That itself was a great thing. But so much to do! We did some kloofing and tubing down the river, and also played some paintball, with some not so good results....

After Blyde River we were off to Kruger for some much anticipated game drives... unfortunately the weather did not abide by our rules. On our full game drive we experienced a slight issue with flooding and hung out in the safari trucks for a few hours...Once we managed to get back to our accomodation we had a 3-course meal and warmed ourselves up. The next day, we had a flight to catch!

Jefferys bay was everything we had been told it would be. A great backpackers and some surfing lessons and we were having a ball. We also managed to see some Lions at the lion park!

Next stop Tsitsikamma, a georgous little town. Here we travelled through the canopies doing some ziplining- lots of fun! Then took a beautiful hike around the coastline. Reminded me a lot of home.After an 8 hour drive we arrived in Cape Town. We were to spend the next 5 days here and what a fantastic 5 days they were. A few hikes, some town tours, shopping, and my favourite: abseiling down table mountain! We spent an entire day up the mountain and had a chance to do the heighest commercial abseil in the world- 115m!! Such an incredible place.

Cape town was our last stop sadly before heading back to Jo'burg and home. I had such an amazing time, with incredible guides and made new friends for life. Africa is a beautiful country and definitely somewhere that i will be returning to.

ISV is an amazing program that incorporates volunteer and adventure, with friendly outgoing and helpful staff, i doubt there is a better company to travel with!

Nothing will be ever agin top this experience. From talking to community members, to playing with kids, to having them sing and dance for us, to hugging them and genuinely helping these communities in indescribable. There is nothing more beautiful and rewarding than seeing the smiles of these kids faces. It is something I think about every day and will never forget! The adventure tour after the volunteer work...wow! accomplished thinks I never eaven dreamt of doing - playing with lion cubs, abseiling down table mountain, smimming beneath waterfalls, doing the highest bridge bungee in the world, ziplining through rainforest canopys, amazing hiking, safari rides, cliff jumping...the list goes on and on and on...words cannot describe it!!!

ISV is a perfect combination of volunteer work and fun. I was nervous to go to Africa for my first time but it ended up being so safe with ISV that I am returning again this summer. You get to meet locals with ISV, which is not something you would get out of traveling alone, and they truly know all the best things to do for fun.

Every single day was full of action and there was never a dull moment. We were either doing something cool and unbelievably crazy (microlight flights, caving, kloofing, safari, surfing, sailing, bungee jumping), or hanging out with our new best friends (who I have plans to see this summer also, because the friends you make on this trip really do become a permanent part of your life).

Best yet is knowing that the kids who's school I fixed up will be able to continue their education without the government shutting their classrooms down because we made them safe and sanitary. I know I made an impact, and that's priceless to me.

In terms of cost/value for money, don't kid yourself if you want to go to Africa for 5 weeks, of course it will have a price tag attached. I've looked into cheaper, purely volunteer-work organizations but would still choose ISV over them because with ISV I got to see 5 countries in Africa and have so many amazing experiences from doing the activities they include, and this isn't something you get from most other organizations.

Bottom Line: I don't know a single person who went on my trip who regrets that decision.