Volunteer International Adventures

I volunteered in South Africa for 11 weeks and the experience changed my life. It taught me so much and inspired me to choose a career and most importantly I had a wonderful time! The project was a perfect balance of time teaching in the school, volunteering at the township soup kitchen and enjoying myself! I managed to see so much of the area and had a ball on safari and visiting local attractions. The house was a wonderful place to stay and I loved meeting other volunteers from around the world. Sharon was a wonderful support and a good friend. I would highly recommend this experience to anyone wanting to explore the world, give something back and have an unforgettable life experiences.

I was in Knysna teaching theater about 5 years ago and it’s still one of the most life changing, incredible experiences I’ve had in my life! It was a great mixture of teaching as well as experiencing the culture and beauty of Knysna! The children I taught were so willing to learn and I learned a lot from them as well. I’ve always wanted to go back and hopefully one day I will!

After a long career in social work in Scotland, this was a wonderful reminder of the value that social work services and community development can bring to areas of deprivation. A reminder too that this value doesn’t just depend upon financial resources but upon the personal resources that individual people bring - particularly respect, wisdom, compassion, empathy and humour. In the face of limited practical and financial resources compared to the UK, this remarkable project clearly delivers on its goals for young people and their families and for their community. The staff and the young people themselves were very welcoming and very willing to give their time to talk, to explain and to ask questions. I most definitely feel that I got more out of the experience than they did, but this did not seem to diminish their enthusiasm. I was very aware of the significant challenges the young people in the project were facing but by the end of the placement, I could see that in spite of that, young people are pretty much the same wherever they are. So full of potential, full of hopes and dreams and the energy to realise them if they have the chance. An inspiration to me in so many ways.