Teaching & Youth Development in South Africa

My firt experience in Africa.
My first day eated gnamachoma in the slums.
My first morning I sow the best sunrise ever.
My first climbing to the Table Mountain.
My first face to face with apartheid.
My firs run into someone who never sow a coloured person before.
My first roommates from Germany.
My last memories of Xhosa language: Molo.

It was wonderful to get to know the country by working with the people there, not only as a tourist. Especially the different projects (T-Bags and the Ikhaya le Themba) gave me diversity. I had only highlights, no difficulties. =)

Myself, husband and two boys aged 9 and 7 have just returned from an amazing experience in Swaziland, helping to teach orhpaned or vulnerable pre-schoolers. The All Out Africa team do amazing work with the local community, but they also ensured that we as volunteers were happy and safe at all times. The boys took part in all the activities, helping to organise games with the children, helping with lessons or reading stories. At break times they all played together and had fun. The accommodation at the lodge is comfortable and safe, and the staff are very friendly and helpful. Swaziland is a great place for families at the weekend too; we really enjoyed exploring the nature and game reserves.
I can wholeheartedly recommend volunteering in Swaziland with All Out Africa, and I know that our experience will stay with us forever.

I really enjoyed working on field conservation research in Mlawula Nature Reserve. Here we learned about the indigenous species of plants and the impact these have on wildlife populations. Also enjoyed teaching bird conservation and information to children living in the Shuwula Village. I feel that the conservation work is only going to beneficial if we begin to educate the future generations about properly taking care of the land and the animals.

I absolutely loved my eight weeks with All Out Africa in South Africa. The program is based in Hout Bay, about 20 minutes outside of Cape Town. I did a teaching placement at the primary and intermediate school, working with all the different classes of the school in the computer classroom to work on literacy, numeracy and computer skills. I felt like my presence helped reduce large class sizes for the teachers there. School was on holiday for the first half of my time there because of the World Cup, but All Out Africa's program coordinator had put together an amazing holiday program for the children of Hout Bay. During school, I attended the staff meeting every morning and felt welcomed by all the teachers and staff. It was definitely a lot to do, but the kids are amazing and the work was rewarding. Despite my short stay, I felt like I was actually making some kind of small contribution to helping the school and the community. Hout Bay has a township, a fishing community, and a more affluent community. It is pretty safe, but you definitely have to be smart about your whereabouts and the time of day. The amenities of the volunteer house are much nicer than I was expecting, and I made amazing friendships with some of the other volunteers and local South Africans. Hout Bay is breathtakingly beautiful (as is really all of Cape Town) and you are definitely close enough to Cape Town to go in on the weekends, if you don't mind paying for transportation. It offers an opportunity to engage with the community in a rewarding way during the week and also explore and enjoy Cape Town on the weekends. South Africa has a fascinating history, and there are a lot of things to do in Cape Town.

I cannot stress how amazing the program coordinator is! And I miss Hout Bay every single day.

I had a wonderful time volunteering in Swaziland with All Out Africa. Some of the environmental projects I helped out on were vegetation studies, rodent trapping, working with Marabou Storks, small carnivore surveys and game counts.
The staff were really helpful and friendly, and eager to ensure that the volunteers had the best experience possible. We learnt a lot about the area, and did fun touring things as well as environmental work. Which is not to say the environmental work wasn't fun, because it certainly was!
The whole program was really well organised, and I didn't feel unsafe at any point.
I would definitely recommend this program!