Community and Conservation Volunteer - Rural communities - SA

As an Australian, coming to South Africa was a bit of an outlandish idea. I came to South Africa on exchange during school and ever since wanted to come back for another trip to volunteer more. I did my research and found a few places to volunteer at around Africa but Nourish stood out to me. From the first phone call with Loren to being greeted on arrival by all the staff, I felt very welcomed and safe. My experience at Nourish will be one I can never forget and am extremely grateful for all the staff at Nourish for making this opportunity come true for me. Highly recommend volunteering at Nourish, it was awesome!

Fantastic experience - travelling from Australia to South Africa was well worth it purely for Nourish. Staff were great - professional and fun. Shout out Donald, the volunteer supervisor - our time would not have been the same without you. Meeting volunteers from diverse backgrounds was awesome, and the activities Nourish provided/organised (such as horse ride safari, weekly town trips, and a weekend at Kruger) were unforgettable (and stress free!). Our volunteering time was spent with the green kids afterschool program, on-site crèche, local outreach, and harvesting/planting chilies on the farm. Our stay at Shik Shack (Nourish backpackers) was wayyy too short - will be back in the future and hopefully for a longer time :)

As a volunteer I really had a great time at nourish. I felt very welcome and I am grateful for this time. I really enjoyed working on the Green Kidz program. Working with the children was very rewarding work. Also all the other projects were amazing (the rise crèche and entrepreneurship). The work nourish does is really important for the community and it was great being a part of that.

Also i found it very interesting to see how the people live in the villages.
The people at Nourish and shik shack play a big part in this positive experience, everyone was very lovely.

I spent two months at Nourish as a Volunteer from the US. It was an amazing experience! The staff is so welcoming and friendly. They are passionate about their work and love sharing their culture. Nourish has so many ongoing projects within their space. This Eco Village is practicing what they preach. My background is in wildlife conservation and it is refreshing to see an NGO staying true to their mission of community based conservation. They hire local and serve the local community. This is one of the more affordable programs in South Africa and you are able to see where the money is going. They are able to accommodate various dietary needs and provide weekly trips to town. Nourish is located right next to Kruger Park. You can hear and see some wildlife. They are able to set up excursions to fill your weekends. I felt extremely safe and cared for during my time here. My only regret is not signing up for 3 months. Of all my visits to South Africa, this has been the best trip yet. I will definitely be back in the near future!

I really appreciated the Nourish volunteer program because it permited me to know another culture, to know the environment and the traditions of the inhabitants of the limpopo region.
I liked to spend time with the staff, all of them are nice. I also liked the variety of activities : you can work with kids, work at the farm, work at craft centre, work at the maintenance or at the recycling. I like that all of the activities contibute to respect and protect the environment.
I appreciated the differents activities that we did during the week-ends (hike on the blyde river canyon, game drive, bush walk)

Nourish is a nice program that permit you to encounter a lot of south african people to work and share with them.
You can do a lot of activities like work in the farm, in the creche, playing with all the kids, some maintenance staff or recycling work.
You are close to Kruger Park so you can visit it during the week-end. Also, you are at 30mn to Hoedspruit to make some shopping and buy snacks.
You can also visit the Blyde River Canyon to do a lot of nice hikes.
Enjoy your stay at Nourish with all the staff and the kids

Such an amazing experience. I stayed for 4weeks and i would advice to stay at least 2/3 weeks to get a proper experience. The eco-village is doing so much to help the community. As a volunteer, the activities and programs are fun, diversified and useful : farming, craft center, crèche, library, maintenance, recycling center and so on. Last but not least the Nourish Team is wonderful, you get the chance to create real and strong relationships. During weekends you also get the chance to visit the area (Kruger Park, Blyde River Canyon). 10/10 on everything, i definitely recommend it!!