Destinations, South Africa (February / 2009)

Our projects in South Africa are taking off left, right and centre and there really is something for everyone to get involved with.

South Africa is a unique environment in which to spend time volunteering abroad and by living and working in the mixed-race communities in and around Cape Town, you'll start to understand the complexities of South Africa's past and present. Volunteers interested in working with children and young people can get involved with our Care projects in crèches within the poor townships or choose to teach English, IT or coach sports on our projects with underprivileged youngsters. Volunteers wanting to gain practical work experience in South Africa can also choose to work on our Conservation, Medicine and Healthcare, Journalism, Business, Law & Human Rights or Animal Care projects.

Make a real impact on our Human Rights placement in South Africa. We just don’t stop hearing good things from our Human Rights programme in South Africa. In November, hard-working volunteer Janet McKnight had her article on xenophobia published in the Journal for Identity and Migrations Studies following her Human Rights placement. More recently, our Human Rights volunteers, with the backing of the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) spearheaded the release of a wrongfully imprisoned refugee. These are great steps forward for our Human Rights project in South Africa giving future volunteers an idea of what can be achieved on this placement. For more information on these stories and our Human Rights placements, click here.

Experience life on a South African game reserve on our Conservation and Environment project. Our Conservation project in South Africa offers a unique and unforgettable experience to all volunteers. The placement is based on the very remote Legodimo reserve in Botswana, close to the South African border. Whilst volunteering on this project you may find yourself planting trees, clearing roads, using GPS systems to help map roads, digging elephant mud holes, building wildlife viewing hides and much more! You will also get to see plenty of wild game roaming around. For more information about this programme, please visit our project website.