Location
  • Tanzania
    • Arusha
Project Types
Sexual Health Service Learning

Program Details

Language
English
Housing
Host Family
Apr 14, 2016
Sep 26, 2014
0 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

Join Support for International Change as an HIV/AIDS educator in Tanzania! As a volunteer, your primary responsibility will be to run an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign in your assigned partner community. During orientation, you will be divided into teams of 3 or 4 volunteers with 2 Tanzanian counterparts. With your team, you will be responsible for teaching HIV/AIDS educational seminars and training peer educators and community leaders within your village. Each team will work with several school and village groups.

Video and Photos

SIC actively recruits volunteers from a network of well-known universities in the U.S. and U.K. but students from all universities are welcome to apply. Volunteers will live with home stay families in the villages in which they teach, allowing them to really experience the culture and customs of rural Tanzania.

Volunteers will also have the opportunity for vacation travel on their off time. Volunteers in the past have enjoyed activities such as climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro.

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Program Reviews

5.00 Rating
based on 9 reviews
  • 5 rating 100%
  • 4 rating 0%
  • 3 rating 0%
  • 2 rating 0%
  • 1 rating 0%
  • Impact 4.9
  • Support 5
  • Fun 5
  • Value 4.8
  • Safety 5
Showing 1 - 8 of 9 reviews
Default avatar
Dale
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

The best experience, i ever had!!

This is the most powerful experience i have ever had. It has completely changed my perception about many things, including what is means to be happy and to have a problem. I have also met amazing people.

93 people found this review helpful.
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SICwildcat
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

The Power of Education

I volunteered with SIC in the summer of 2005 and it changed my life. Teaching about HIV and AIDS in Tanzania opened my eyes to the power of education. Educators have the ability to uplift and improve the lives of their students, their communities and the world we live in. Because of my experiences in Tanzania, I chose to become a teacher and will be an life-long educator.

101 people found this review helpful.
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sicvolunteer14
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Incredible, unique program that provides the opportunity for collaboration across cultures and personal development

I spent the summer working with American and British volunteers in addition to Tanzanian college students who served as translators during our teachings. After undergoing and intensive orientation, I was placed in a group with 3 other volunteers and 2 Tanzanian. I lived in a homestay with another volunteer. Our host family was very welcoming and we became very close to them over the course of the summer. We taught in primary and secondary schools, at churches, at village meetings, and to the local soccer team. We also held testing days where community members could find out their HIV status. Additionally, we created a peer education club made up of students who were willing to continue teaching about HIV/AIDS after our volunteer group left the village. I would highly recommend SIC to anyone who is interested in HIV/AIDS, international health, learning swahili, or just being submerged in Tanzanian culture.

95 people found this review helpful.
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north19
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

SIC is a good choice

I whole heartedly recommend this program to anyone who is thinking about going into any sort of international health or development field. You will not only gain valuable experience and insight into how public health programs are implemented in low-resource settings, but you will also establish a network with your fellow volunteers and SIC's staff that may prove invaluable in your career.

SIC's volunteer program is expensive relative to some other programs in the region. HOWEVER, the organization is a not-for-profit and about half of the volunteer program fee goes to fund the organization's programs including year-round community health worker programs, mobile HIV care and treatment programs, secondary school peer educator programs and others. This means that SIC has established relationships with the villages where it places volunteers and that after volunteers leave SIC staff continue their work through year-round programs. Without these programs the volunteer experience would be quite hollow (as I suspect is the case with many other pay-to-volunteer opportunities). Furthermore, for the two month program there is a ten day intensive orientation led by a professor from a US university to prepare volunteers and introduce them to international public health issues.

SIC's volunteers certainly have a good time, but expect to spend 90-95% of your time in a village where drinking is discouraged (possibly even forbidden?). If that's your main interest this probably isn't the program for you. In terms of safety and staff responsiveness I think that SIC outshines many other programs. For each group of volunteers SIC has three program coordinators in the field and a program manager. These staff are accessible by phone 24/7 to both volunteers and parents (volunteers are provided cell phones). The one time I got sick the program manager picked me up that same day and took me to the clinic in town.

Four years later I'm working in the field and I still find my contacts from SIC very useful.

91 people found this review helpful.
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Kate
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Looking back - the best thing I have ever done

I have never travelled before, and surprised everyone when I applied for the SIC programme in 2008 (myself most of all!) What I enjoyed most about volunteering with SIC was how closely integrated to the communities you are. I had alot of friends who had done development work with larger companies, and had been put up in nice volunteer hotels. Nice, but a little detached in my opinion. Living with a Tanzanian family and working with the University teaching partners was a truly unique way to get to know the community and the people of Tanzania - who are probably some of the most kind and welcoming people in the world. You can see the changes you are making with your own eyes. I never felt worried the whole time I was there, as the SIC staff were always on hand to help you out if you were physically sick, or just homesick - the only time I ever felt unsafe was riding on an overcrowded bus (which the staff recommended we shouldn't do anyway!!)
Its quite a bit cost (I think more so now than when I did it) but you can fundraise your fees, and Id really recommend (if you can) making some savings to do other things whilst you're there. You get free weekends, and there is plenty to do and see!
Its often hard, its often dirty, its sometimes frustrating. I got a few tummy bugs, I sometimes cried and wanted to properly wash my feet! But it is 100% unique as an experience, and has really helped me with my teaching and research in International Health and Development. I wish I had made more of my once-in-a-lifetime trip, and I also wish Id taken a pair of jeans and a hoodie out with my - sometimes Africa is COLD! and sometimes you dont want to go socialising in your pyjama trousers. 3 years later and I still miss my SIC friends, my Tanzanian hosts, and even rice and beans. If you said I could go back tomorrow, I would.

93 people found this review helpful.
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laxgirl0001
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

SIC made a tremendous difference in my life.

SIC provides an excellent volunteering experience in the field of HIV/AIDS abroad. With this program, you work with international volunteers and Tanzanian university students to run an HIV awareness campaign in a village in rural Tanzania. The program is set up very well, with a focus on sustainability. In your village, you teach about HIV in schools, the community and any where else you have the opportunity to. You also run testing days as well as community days- days where you attempt to get entire villages to come out and get tested, learn and come together to talk about HIV/AIDS. One of the greatest aspects of this program is working with the Tanzanian teaching partners. These young Tanzanians are fluent in both English and Swahili but they are not just translators. They help you teach, enlighten you in the culture and become some of your best friends. My experience with SIC solidified my desire to go into medicine and the importance of public health and education.

88 people found this review helpful.
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macattack502
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Great first experience for students traveling to the developing world.

I really enjoyed my experience with SIC. I felt that I was able to make a difference in the community I was living and working in while learning about Tanzania culture. While the program is very supportive, SIC gives volunteers lots of autonomy to work on additional projects and freedom to be creative in their teachings. I have even continued to work with the organization after volunteering.

94 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
DJH
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Invaluable Leadership Experience

After falling in love with everything in Tanzania, SIC also provided me with invaluable leadership experience. I feel that I am better prepared for any career path because of what I learned while working with SIC.

97 people found this review helpful.

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