Reach Out Volunteers

I do not even know how to describe my volunteering experience in St Lucia, South Africa as its hard to put into words how life changing it really was, working for the first week in the creche truly took my breathe away, helping these children with nothing brought tears to my eyes everyday, they were so happy and full of love and just appreciated having us there to help them, they were actually on school holidays when we arrived but yet everyday they were there to greet us with smiles on their beautiful faces ready for a day with us, the smallest gestures like food and water was enough to bring you to tears and i can speak for the whole team when i say if we could have brought everyone of them home with us we would have. We successfully built concrete slab for future purposes along with weeding the vegetable patches, digging up the ground from scratch and mixing all our concrete by hand in wheelbarrows, it was really strenuous work but seeing the kids everyday made it more then worth it, saying goodbye at the end of our week was one of the most emotional moments of my life but knowing that i helped made it easier, i miss their faces more everyday and I know that those children will always have a special place in my memory and heart.

The second half of the trip was spend at the Thanda Game Reserve helping raise awareness for the endangered animals such as the wild dogs and cheetahs, we would track them everyday by foot and car as well as learning about preserving our nature and how it will affect us if we don't, the most important part about this for me was the Rhino poaching where more then 700 were killed last year for their horn alone, we learnt about the effect its having on the species with less then 2000 left in South Africa alone, its heart breaking to see such beautiful animals and natural habitats being destroyed for nothing, the information I learnt while at Thanda will definitely be something I will never forget.

One of the best parts of the program was my amazing team, a group of girls that all came to South Africa with no expectations and for different reasons but mostly to help out the less fortunate, this experience ended up being so much more then we every could have imagined, we made some friends that will last for a lifetime, these girls helped me change my views on life and appreciate that there is so much more to the world then a superficial life style and i feel that my life is a alot happier since i had this experience with you.

Finally My team leader Ben Fox, I cannot believe that you have the privileged of working and living the way you do, it has made me completely reconsider my career path and i value everything you taught us more then I can ever express to you, i couldn't have asked for a better person to lead our experience, what you do everyday has truly inspired me to be a better person and im so thankful that i met you.