Volunteer Placements in Rwanda: Go Volunteer Africa

Subject: Feedback on Voluntary Work for RSDO in Rwamagana. Dear RSDO and mister Faustin, I want to thank you for the opportunity to be part of this project in Rwanda. It was a meaningful experience, and I truly enjoyed working with the children and young women, especially in encouraging their participation in sports. Seeing their enthusiasm and being able to provide sports equipment to schools was incredibly rewarding. The housing arrangements were good, and I appreciated the balance of staying with mister Faustin while still having my own privacy. It made me feel welcome and comfortable throughout my stay. One aspect that could be improved is the pace of the work. At times, I felt that things moved a bit slowly, and having more structured activities could enhance the impact of the program. However, I also understand that this might be part of the local culture and way of working. Overall, I am grateful for this experience and would love to stay involved in any way I can. Thank you again for all the support! Best regards, Sol van Berg

Go Volunteer Africa team led by Anna did such a great job, communicating with us via email and gave us the encouragement we needed to take this step with our family. Thanks so much. It was great to have Emily at the airport to meet us. The school and Head teacher Moureen - all were excellent. Thank you for being so flexible with us and providing such a fantastic experience for our family. We will remember it for the rest of lives! Gorretti does a good job cooking for us and taking great care of the house. We felt very fortunate to be well taken care of. We look forward to keeping in touch with them and the projects they are helping. We are now in Uganda, working on a construction project and we shall also share our volunteering experience. Our children are involved in tree planting project, very amazing experience so far and they love it, and every day is great.

I volunteered in Rwanda for 2 weeks with Go Volunteer Africa. Paul was our coordinator and he did a fabulous job with everything planning. He was very supportive and always available for help. Before I made my decision to volunteer I managed to talk with some of the past volunteers through a connection. I received varieties of feedbacks some were very positive and some were partially positive. But one thing I learned from all participants is that the projects associated with GVA are positive life changing and the hosts are very nice and honest. They will go out of their way to help you and make your stay smooth. I really enjoyed my hospital experience because I got to rotate through all the different departments in the hospital on different days including surgery, pharmacy, pediatric care, primary care etc. It was great to have this hands on experience. Since I had already traveled to Uganda and Kenya for safari, I spent the weekend volunteering with children. It was a lot of fun playing with the kids. Our host family was great. I shared a room in the same host family with another volunteer. It was also pretty easy to navigate the bus system between the family, the school and the hospital.

I have been in Rwanda for one month working within the women's support staff here and it has been an absolute eye-opener and one which has allowed me to experience many new things. From the moment I arrived at the camp, I was taken away by the beauty of our surroundings - the green forest surrounding the back of the camp and our views out over the green tea farms and the surrounding areas. Stunning. Living within a local community has also been a real eye-opener, seeing their way of life and how they have adapted to live in this small paradise has been amazing, especially the way that they have allowed us to fit into their village and are willing to help us with anything we may need. I have genuinely enjoyed every aspect of the program I have done here and I am so grateful to Go Volunteer Africa for making this arrangement. The local crew are also extremely fun to work with and the mixture of people on camp means that there is plenty to learn and never a boring moment. I would recommend Rwanda's women empowerment program to anyone, but be prepared for basic living standards! This is genuinely not a problem and I believe it has added to my experience here but maybe bring a few luxuries from home with you!! Enjoy!

I spent 4 weeks in Rwanda with Go Volunteer Africa and I was able to participate in different programs. Mostly teaching English to children and working with women projects. But they also have programs with sports and young men enterprises and lots of outreach activities. It was a life changing experience and we could connect with the communities and get to know the people who live there. For me, this was the number one reason why I loved this experience. The children's were kind and respectful, eager to learn. So the teaching was natural and easy. I felt home in our volunteer house living with 6 other girls and two boys. We had dinner together every day and spend weekends travelling together as well. I felt welcome by the city of Musanze and Kigali and by all the Rwandans I met. Throughout those four weeks not only did I build an individual relationship with each and every kid but I also made so many friends in the program. Jim, the Coordinator at Go Volunteer Africa’s offices who arranged my program in Rwanda was very supportive and making sure we got the best experience. The staff in Rwanda is extremely very helpful and I am looking forward to travel with you again in Malawi.

Musanze is an amazing place and my experience at the women’s center and with Go Volunteer Africa was incredible. It was very well organized right from the moment I signed up, Jim supported me throughout the entire experience, all of my questions were answered thoroughly and promptly and I had the experience of a lifetime. Although I had wanted to stay in Kigali, but Jim’s offer for Musanze turned out to be the best. I stayed with a local host family for culture experience. The host mother was outstanding and really caring. The project Manager Damien helped me and the other volunteers in every aspect of our trip. He knew a lot about the area, making it easy to get around, visit the best places and shops. During my time in Rwanda, I met a few other volunteers while I was there and we would catch up for a meal or go for swimming. GVA Rwanda is a very affordable, safe and flexible volunteering option. I would definitely recommend GVA if you are interested in a great volunteer experience in Rwanda.

This was my first experience volunteering overseas and it was challenging, rewarding, frustrating, satisfying, scary and joyful all at the same time! I don't think there is any way to understand what it is like and what it does for you other than to experience it first-hand. You will learn a lot about the daily realities of life in a developing country like Rwanda, learn even more about yourself and what you are made of, and most of all understand how even the smallest gestures of good-will and service go very far to help others in need. My Favorite Experience was working with the women groups and helping them in designing business plans for their small ventures. I was surprised that resources are so incredibly scarce for local organizations; it seems to be the biggest limiting factor for getting things done and making progress. The organizations themselves struggle to stay in operation on a daily basis, and have virtually no support from within their own country. My best received lesson... Face each day with an open mind and a healthy dose of humor. There will be many times when you will ask yourself "what am I doing" or "why am I doing this" but if you put aside the critical thoughts and embrace the experience, you will be surprised how things always seem to work themselves out in the end. Thank you team Go Volunteer Africa