Teaching assistant volunteering in South Africa

Planet

Protecting the world
We are passionate about encouraging our travelers to be kind to the environment as they travel. Each participant receives advice about how to care for the environment whilst they are away. This includes water usage, how to avoid single use plastic, and electricity usage.

We insist that all participants bring their own water bottles when they travel with us, and clean free water is always available. We have even created a water bottle that can be purchased before departure and encourage people to use it at all stages of their journey including at the airport, on flights and whilst on their project. We are striving for all of our projects to be free of single use plastic.

People

Meeting local needs
This project allows children living in some of the poorest townships in Port Elizabeth to have access to English-speaking volunteers and learn from them. As well as improving the children's knowledge of English, you will be helping to improve their life chances.

Supporting the local economy
The volunteer scheme provides work for domestic staff at the accommodation. You will eat locally-sourced food and make use of shops and leisure facilities in the town. You will not be taking jobs away from local people. The project employs local staff where possible, but relies on volunteers to support them.

Cultural sensitivity
We emphasise the importance of showing respect for local people and their customs in our briefing material. Participants will work alongside permanent staff, forming close bonds and getting an insight into real life in South Africa’s poorer communities. Our policy is to send people to the developing world in small groups or individually. This minimises the environmental and social impact that the participants have on the destination and helps them to integrate into the local community.

Childcare policy
We have strict policies in place when it comes to working with children overseas. We thoroughly check out the projects that we work with to make sure that there are clear policies in place. We also assess the suitability of our volunteers through interview to make sure they are motivated but also up to the challenge physically and mentally. All volunteers need to have experience working with children and must volunteer for a minimum of 4 weeks. Anyone working 1-1 with vulnerable children must provide a police check.