Trusted Community Programmes in South Africa

The month in South Africa is really beyond my exception. I thought it may be boring or difficult to spend this month, but this trip is incredible!!! I was kind of stressful because of last school year and some tests, the time in Africa gave me a time get rid of the pressures and even all the technologies. There was no signal and sometimes the electricity didn’t work. I’m so pleasure to live there for that month. The kids were nice and patient to help me to skate and play with me, the local people took care of me, and there were always people there to teach me how to do gardening work and take me to the river for a walk. I planted my own vegetable in the small garden! Before I went to Africa, I had never woke up at 4 a.m. to hike to the mountaintop for the sunrise and spend the whole afternoon read by the river. There are so many things I would like to share with you that the trip and the people there are wonderful! I won’t forget the wonderful time in South Africa. Thank for the help from Vanessa and Bridget.

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It was a very good experience for me. I learned a lot about the people how they live there, about the culture and how blessed I am in Switzerland. I had issues with the communication between Hulda/ Raymond, the schools and me. What I really loved was to work with the kids. They are amazing and mad my day better. Sometimes the facilities/ infrastructure were a little bit difficult at the schools. One school don't have a field where we could play and the teachers from the school complaint, when we played to close to the class rooms but I had no other choice. In the school I felt save but not on the football field. Thats why I decided to go only in the morning to the schools. I skipped the afternoon at the field. Hulda and Raymond do a great job and I know it is not easy. They also have great ideas but have not the time to implement the new ideas. I enjoyed to work at the schools but I also think I payed to much for the whole program. For me could be more P.E. classes in the morning because sometimes I had only 2x 40min and then we were done. I had a lot of lessons they were skipe because of different reasons. I learned a lot about myself and the difference between the countries. I think for me it was a good opportunity.

Being part of "the Surfer Kids" was such an amazing experience. The program really has a great impact on the kids and teaches them valuable life skills. Spending time with the kids and getting to know them was incredible and I also got to improve my surfing skills. I can definitely recommend it!!

The two and a half month I spent here went by too quickly! Whether it was at school or at my project at the Care Centre I really enjoyed my stay. Exploring Cape Town and making a lot of new friends during my free time made the whole experience perfect.

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I have no words that could describe my short, but amazing experience in Cape Town. My heart is filled with beautiful memories at the places I've visited, the people I've met and of course the smiles of the kids that I had the honour to meet at the Children's Hospital. I feel nothing but gratefulness and hope I'll come back soon!

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The volunteering was a huge opportunity of a personal growing for me. Because of it, I came back home a better person than when I left.

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I've really enjoyed volunteering in Cape Town in the project Cape Nature Conservation. I had the opportunity to meet a lot of people, I've improved my abilities about environmental education with communities and understood how the African life work between environmental issues and cities' growth. This project of conversation has huge challenge and I've given my best on it.

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The program absolutely full filled my expectations. The reason why I chose the Shark project was for sure the sharks in the first place. I wanted to learn more about that beautiful species and wanted to get a closer look and first hand experience in that not so average business. It was an unbelievable experience and having close encounters with marine animals and especially with different kind of sharks almost every day is not to be put in words. I got to learn a lot about Marine Biology. The Marine Biologists definitely put a lot of effort in to teach us some very important stuff that is necessary when you study marine life (Presentations, data collecting on the boat and at local estuaries, catch and release of small sharks such as Pyjama sharks). An extra plus was working with tourists from all around the world and spreading the word to change their minds about those apex predators. The moment I got there I noticed how much they care for the ocean and our earth. We did a couple of beach clean ups, we cleaned their fishing line bins and even got to build our own. Every time we were out on sea and they found a piece of plastic they stopped and collected it. They are taking it very seriously which I thought is the best thing that can happen to this world. At this project education didn’t stop with Marine Biology. I got to work at their local penguin and seabird rehabilitation center and even got to do and assist the vet at an autopsy of a juvenile Penguin they found dead on one of their eco tourism tours. Even got to release two of their rescued African Penguins! Also our free time was filled with fun staff. Most of the time we had great weather so No-Sea-Days didn’t happen a lot. But when we had to face a No-Sea-Day due to a certain kind of wind we got to hike, did horseback riding and quad tours. Every Monday we had a Braai which meant that our Coordinators spend the evening with us and sometimes even one of our Marine Boilogists joined in. I got to experience a lot of quality time! The best time I’ve ever had and definitely the best decision I’ve ever made. I even got a really good friendship with one of the other volunteers out of that experience. So so grateful for everything.

I really enjoyed the experience as a whole. Cape Town is a beautiful city to do tourism, and work as a volunteer was a amazing self-development experience. I felt like I was helping me and other people at the same time.