Location
  • Namibia
Length
26 - 52 weeks
Classroom Audience
Early Childhood High School Middle School

Program Details

Classroom Audience
Early Childhood High School Middle School
Housing
Apartment Guesthouse Host Family
Age Min.
21
Age Max
74

Pricing

Starting Price
2490
Price Details
The program fee includes the following items:
+ Housing or hosing stipend
+ Living stipend
+ Pre-departure preparation and visa assistance if necessary
+ Supplemental overseas travel medical insurance
+ Comprehensive orientation, mid-service, and end of service training conferences
+ 24-hour in-country field staff support
+ Access to remote teacher quality support
+ Alumni services and networking

Participants are able to successfully fundraise all or a significant portion of their program expenses. Please refer to our fundraising page for more information about fundraising possibilities. Also note, international travel to and from the program is the responsibility of the participant.
May 13, 2019
May 21, 2018
8 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

Join WorldTeach this January to December in Namibia.

For over 20 years, WorldTeach has partnered with the Namibian Ministry of Education to provide English, science, math and technology teachers in rural elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the country. WorldTeach has been working in Namibia since 1990, only months after the country’s independence, assisting the Ministry of Education in efforts to improve education standards and amend the inequalities of the Apartheid era. Similar to the our semester and summer program, volunteers are tasked to teach any of a variety of subjects from English, math, science, computer literacy, to health. Many of our volunteers also contribute to their community working to create extracurricular clubs and workshops with the limited resources.

While there is a great need in Namibia's rural areas, WorldTeach is sure to work with each volunteer to make sure that their placement is one in which they will be successful.

This program is no longer offered. View more programs from WorldTeach.

Video and Photos

Program Highlights

  • Experience the contrasting beauty of Namibia
  • Expand your ability to adapt and work effectively with limited resources
  • Contribute to previous academic progress
  • Engage in extracurricular activities and community life
  • Earn an accredited TEFL certification (optional)

Program Reviews

4.90 Rating
based on 10 reviews
  • 5 rating 90%
  • 4 rating 10%
  • 3 rating 0%
  • 2 rating 0%
  • 1 rating 0%
  • Benefits 4.9
  • Support 4.65
  • Fun 4
  • Facilities 4.75
  • Safety 4.65
  • Instruction 4
  • Support 4.5
  • Value 5
  • Academic Rigor 3.5
  • Job Assistance 3.5
Showing 1 - 8 of 10 reviews
Default avatar
Mallory
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Namibia Semester

WorldTeach is an amazing opportunity to develop new skills, stretch comfort zones, and learn about yourself and others. If any of those are things you'd like to do-- don't think, just apply! You'll get the added bonus of beautiful terrain, interesting culture, and wild animal safaris. The country is easy to travel when you have free time and would like to see what is beyond your placement site. There is even the opportunity to visit neighboring countries with ease. You will go through a comprehensive orientation before you take over your classroom and the field director is always available via email or phone.

What would you improve about this program?
I wish living with a host family was feasible as a mandatory housing assignment. I lived in teacher housing and was glad to have the opportunity to live closely with my coworkers. However, many of them vacated the school grounds on the weekends. Living on a traditional homestead affords volunteers the opportunity to soak up much more of the local culture.
36 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Christopher
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

WorldTeach - Namibia 2016 Year

WorldTeach is more independent and we are allowed a lot of freedom to live around our placement sites. I met a lot of great friends and still keep in touch with teachers from my school in Namibia. I'll never forget my host family and the lifechanging experience I had in my close-knit village community. On school break we did some great traveling in South Africa and Namibia. Then after the close of the our program we took a great trip across Botswana. It's the most beautiful region of the world I have ever been.

What would you improve about this program?
More Volunteers!
40 people found this review helpful.
Response from WorldTeach

Hi Christopher,

Thanks so much for providing this review. We're so glad you had a positive experience and that you are still in contact with your community.

We completely agree about more volunteers! Namibia is such an amazing place and we want to help more people have the experience that you did.

Thanks again Christopher!

Best,

Caitlin

Default avatar
Abby
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Do This Program!

Spending a year teaching abroad was one of the hardest things I've ever done. It won't be easy, you won't feel successful, you'll be uncomfortable, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Namibia is a beautiful, contrasting, contradicting country, and experiencing it will change how you see so many things. It's true that the people are warm and welcoming, curious and often considerate, but the lack of individual creativity and personalized thought among village children can often be very confusing and frustrating for Westerners.

Every day was in no way rainbows and smiles and hand holding. In fact, it was usually the opposite. I felt lost and useless so many times. But, I knew my fellow staff appreciated the effort I was putting in and it made me a much stronger person. Some of the most beautiful people I have ever met came from this experience (both Namibians and fellow volunteers) and traveling around the country is unlike any other.

What would you improve about this program?
While my school had a great staff and my host family was amazing, I was placed as a computer teacher in a lab that almost never worked. There was only so much free-styling I could do teaching computers without actual computers for an entire year. I was often angry that WT had placed me at my school after the previous volunteer has terminated early, in part, due to this same issue. I felt like a wasted resource.

My suggestion would be that WT Namibia do a better job in choosing it's placements. However, I know that this year (the one after I left), that has happened. We are putting volunteers in a lot of new regions of the country and experimenting with different types of sites. So, I know this issue is working towards being taken care of.
38 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Jacob
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Life-changing Experience

As a college undergrad, I hadn't really experienced the world. I knew I wanted to work in education and I had an inkling that Africa would be perfect for me! WorldTeach was the perfect option. I enrolled in the summer program and was placed in a small village to teach ICT (computers). The support on the ground in Namibia was fantastic and I fell in love with the culture. Teaching learners, some of whom were older than me, will have forever altered the course of my life and my passions. I recommend World Teach in every way--great placement, great training, great support. I only warn you, if you go to Namibia you will forever want to go back!

What would you improve about this program?
Honestly, WorldTeach was everything I had hoped it would be. I have no critiques.
31 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
KSZ
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

I know Namibia like the back of my hand!

It's a statement only one who has been to the country can make and understand. If you look at the geographical shape of Namibia, it does look like the back of a hand with a couple fingers tucked in.
My summer teaching in Namibia was an experience I cherish, one of the proudest and most memorable delights of my life (I've since been married and had a baby, so Namibia competes with a lot of personal accomplishments and life highlights).
Looking at Maddie's pictures and reading her story brought me back to the summer of 2007. The images from her village mirror the images of the learners from my village of Talismanas, on the border of Botswana. I befriended one of the teachers, who introduced me to the livelihood of those in my village, and the students came to my room daily to practice sudoko, play scrabble, or enjoy extra snacks.
No, teaching was not easy, and I am a high school teacher of English. I can say, without question, that I would give up my job in suburban Massachusetts to return to Namibia if I could. Life there is so much simpler. Frustrating, yes, but simple.
What I remember most besides the beautiful smiles of my many learners was the evening sky. Never had I seen so many stars. I had to pause while writing this because I got swept away in the memory of its true awesomeness.
WorldTeach is a wonderful program, and the experience of being able to affect the lives of learners around the world is undoubtedly rewarding, but you will be more impressed by what you learn about yourself and your perception of the world if you have the courage to partake in this journey. Register now! There is no better place to spend your summer, your year, perhaps even a few years (or longer) of your life!

35 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Laura
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

I highly recommend WorldTeach Namibia

I was a WorldTeach volunteer in northern Namibia during the 2006 school year. I taught high school biology, physical science, and HIV prevention classes. It was a challenging but wonderful experience. I am still in touch with many of my former students and colleagues from the school. I will never forget my experience in Namibia, and I hope to go back. I highly recommend WorldTeach; their level of support for volunteers is excellent because the number of volunteers in each country is relatively small, so it was easy to stay in touch with the field director and get help whenever I needed it. I felt valued by the community, which was wonderful as a newcomer.

37 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Trish
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

WorldTeach Namibia Changed My Life!

I went to Namibia in 1993, thinking I would have an adventure and help a few people. It turned out that I did all that, plus learned an amazing amount about myself, about a fascinating community, about the world. It completely changed my life goals and set me off on a new career in international development, which I have pursued and stuck with since that time almost 20 years ago. I have had many amazing adventures and experiences, in Africa as well as other parts of the world, and I trace it all back to my experience as a WT volunteer at a rural school in Namibia.

My official role was to be an English teacher for 7th and 8th graders, but I ended up doing much more. I taught an evening class for teachers (the language of instruction had just changed to English, but many of the teachers had very little English skills); taught a literacy class for the dairy workers who were laborers across the street; established the schools first library; started a hiking club with a Namibian teacher so we could get kids out into the surrounding hills and visit and appreciate the ancient rock paintings; and much more. I learned a completely different way of looking at life, of living in the moment, of thinking how to use existing resources creatively.

Plus, I made life-long friends with other volunteers, fellow teachers and students.

I could not recommend WT Namibia more strongly!

37 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
kanmullen
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

A time I will NEVER forget or regret

The time I spent in Namibia was some of the most rewarding and happy times of my life. The students were SO eager to learn. The school I was at was isolated from cities and roads. That just made the school more tightly knit. I felt that I was fully accepted by the Namibians I met. I also felt like I made a real difference during the time I was there.

I still look back fondly on my time there even though a whole decade has passed. If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at kanmullen@yahoo.com with Namibia as subject line.

I hope you take this opportunity. I am sure that you won't regret it.

41 people found this review helpful.

Questions & Answers

Hello Tamara, There are teaching positions for 6 months or less! We send teachers to Namibia for the summer. We also send volunteers to Brazil, India, Morocco, South Africa and Ecuador for the summer as well. Feel free to visit our website or email us at info@worldteach.org for more information. Thanks for the question, Your friends at WorldTeach

Hi! I was a Namibia 2013 volunteer and currently am serving as a 2016 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in South Africa. Thanks for your question! As far as I know (as of about 2014), a TEFL/TESOL was not necessary to apply for WorldTeach, BUT obviously that will make your application much stronger. I actually received my TEFL through WT while in Namibia, but perhaps your qualifications could...