Program Reviews

I had a fantastic time volunteering for SASTS and am planning a revisit to South Africa to catch up with friends i have met whilst volunteering.

I was picked up from the airport by a minibus, which came just for me and had more than enough room for my bags. The SASTS house is in a fantastic location, less than a minute’s walk from the sea, a 7/11 and half a dozen pubs and restaurants.

The SASTS house is always full of volunteers, newly arriving as well as those who return to the SASTS house for the weekends. There is always something to do, whether it is hiking Lions Head, chillin out at camps bay or organising a tour to the garden route.

My second day was spent making friends with other volunteers, organising future trips and getting ready to hit Long Street.

The following day the volunteers were transported to the SASTS HQ to attend an induction talk, before being taken to our host families.

I had so much fun on my placement. I feel that the work i did in the schools really benefited the children, i got to live with a real family, not in a fancy hotel and really emerge myself in their culture. If you get the chance just go it barely costs anything as well...

My volunteer experience in Africa was way beyond what I expected. I enjoyed my placement with the kids at the school and cottage. I also was placed with a really nice and welcoming host family. MaSimba and Howard from SASTS were also helpful. Overall I really enjoyed my time there. I would recommend this program to anyone thinking of volunteering in South Africa.

I'm a primary school teacher back home and I made great experiences teaching abroad. It was quite a challenging though.

I worked in a school where many stundents in my class had major problems in counting, writing and reading. I think it would have been more helpful to give a systematic coaching to them. expl: one to four stundest per hour or extra lessons for them. Unfortunatelly I wasn't that long in the school to develope this kind of coaching. Eventhough I had the feeling that some of them really improved a bit and finally got the basics.

Living in a hostfamily was a great experience and the food was good. Well I gained a bit of weight because it was oftern quite greecy.
The area where i was living (Athlone) was quite calm. I didn't felt save all the time, but it was really ok. If you have a bit money with you and no bags etc, I think you are quite save. Its just different from the place where I am from...

During my stay in SA I worked for 9 weeks at a small primary school in the cape flats and stayed at a host family close to my project. My host family was outstandingly nice and really integrated me into their family. The work at school was demanding but interensting.

SASTS really cares about its volunteers and if there's a problem you'll receive immediate and professional help from them. At least, that's what i heard from other SASTS volunteers in Cape Town. I, personally never had the need to contact them, since i was absolutely happy with my host family and my work at school.

Many people at home were a little worried when I told them that I was gonna go to Cape Town because of criminality and stuff. But, quite honestly, if you act a little "street wise" you won't have any problems. Try to stick to the locals. In my case, I learned a lot from my host brother who introduced me to the capetonian night life ;)

an overall good time, learned alot about myself and enjoyed the diversity of the City and the people.

Always lots to do over the weekend and the sites where great, I had a wonderfull host parent, and the kids at the school where amazing.
Thanks to all the hostel Staff and Howard and his Wife, I miss you guys

"Thank you SASTS for making this experience even better than I had expected. I wanted an immersion experience. I was looking to truly become a member of the community that I was volunteering in. You set me up with the most amazing host family who took me in as one of their family and taught me to live as a South African. Nuri stopped in every other week and checked in on me at my project to make sure that things were going smoothly and would coach me when they were not. On the weekends, Howard and Simba were amazing at advising me on the best ways to see this beautiful country and even helping me do it in the most economical ways possible. I can honestly say that SASTS under-promised and over-delivered. Thank you."