Volunteer for free

terencemc

Hey,
Don't be an idiot and pay money to volunteer. The majority of these programs seem to be designed to coax money out of saps who are willing to believe that a rope bridge built over a gorge will stand there for the next hundred years and wont be taken down and put up by the next group.

Check out these guys in South Africa, totally free...just pay for your food...I left a few extra quid at the end but that was completely optional.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19758829976&ref=ts

lorr3

hi there just wonderin could you tell me a little more bout what you did out there? how long? general experience of it????

towel401

any other link? I hate facebook myself

terencemc

http://www.jointventures.co.za

Hey guys,
This is the site below...It's not the best, you should check out the facebook one as people leave comments of their experiences there.
I only spent a week here...as I was on hols for 7 weeks and saw a poster about in Capetown.
I did a load of different stuff...mainly manual work: Making beds in the garden; clearing rubble from the house; building a shower system (since been replaced with a solar powered one). Most of the female volunteers, help out in the garden and go to school to help teach the kids songs in English and educate them on health (e.g. about fruit and veg...there were only 5 types of fruit and veg in the village before Louis arrived).

Heres my blog for the week I spent there - don't be worried about the snakes...Now that the house is finished it will be alot safer !



Got picked up by Louis, the fellow running the volunteer project on Monday at 8am from the hostel. Louis is your quitinscential Afrikaans guy. Mid 45's, former rugby player, served in the army for a while, got sick with a 9-5 and decided to set up this project. The guy drives a 1961 landrover and has a 3 foot blade chain saw in the back at all times so basically he's a mans man.
Now as this volunteer project was free (I've heard of some people paying up to 3 grand), I kind of knew I was going to get the real deal here and not some pussy made up jobs like those guys in Jeffreys bay.
The goal of the project is to introduce tourism at a very controlled rate into a really isolated community so that they have an income source. Its also there to improve the living conditons of the people...e.g. at the moment they only grow 5 differenet vegetables in Magwa but we're currently creating a garden to show locals how to grow other veg and fruit to increase their vitamin intake and make their diet more diverse. And to educate the kids...Kids start school when theyre 7 and if you live at the bottom of the gorge they start school when theyre 9 so their english is pretty poor.
The place was situated about an hour from the nearest main road and you needed a 4x4 to get theer as we had to cross a river enroute. On one side of the village was a 200m gorge and on the other a subtropical rainforest so really quite sheltered from civilisation.
So work wise...what did I do?
The first job that me, Louis and Greg (some American lad) did was filling the landy with tea manure a couple of times and dropping it off at houses for the locals to use in their new garden...the tea plantations are about a 25 min drive and as Louis has the only vechicle in the village, no one else can bring it in. In return, some of the locals had agreed to put down a floor of cow dung in Louis' house so that kind of created my 2nd job - Going around paddocks and fields with a barrow and shovel collecting wet cow dung.
The main project of the week was to build a shower at Louis' house so that future volunteers/tourists could use it. Greg and I made a nice screen by tying bamboo together and then used a winch tied on to the a rafter to lift the water drum up...Basic but cool design.
One of the days, Greg was clearing the floor inside for the cow dung when he came across a snake...nice to know that we were sleeping in the same room as a poisonous snake ! I came across 2 when I was clearing a pile of rubble and nailed both of em with the shovel. A 3 footer included...pics on facebook soon
Felt really macho after killing them but when the kids came up at night they were all playing with them so that took away from it a bit.

The kids came over to Louis's place every evening either to sing/play music or play baseball with us. It was quite refreshing to see that the kids didnt expect any payment or beg for any sweets in return...Most places you go to like that travelling expect some doh and it really takes away from the experience. Hanging out with the kids was a class experience...they'd just sit down beside you when youre reading a book and stay for 20mins looking at you...Kind of got a feel for the poverty over here...none of them had shoes and their clothes were all mixed and matched...check out my facebook ill put some up soon.

Went for a hike one day through the valley at the bottom of the gorge. No one lives there anymore as AIDS has killed most of the young people and the old people live in the village for better health care. Spent most of the other time working in the garden and cutting logs...Great Fun !

All in all, it was a really mind opening experience and I'd definitely be up for doing something like that in the future.


http://www.jointventures.co.za

TheBandit

This costs 18e per day.

"Come and volunteer with us for R200 per day. Food, accommodation, laundry, washing up and cleaning included so that you have time to volunteer. "

I wouldn't exactly call that free. Check out http://www.ecoteer.com/index.php. Some of these are free and some you have to pay for

terencemc

Hmmm...it was free when I was there. I'm sure if you email louis he will let you come for next to nothing. My total costs were about 400R for 6 days...food and transport. If you see how far the place is away from where Louis picks you up...it's a pretty reasonable price.

larry breheny

Sounds good to me.

WeeBushy

terencemc wrote: »

Hey,
Don't be an idiot and pay money to volunteer. The majority of these programs seem to be designed to coax money out of saps who are willing to believe that a rope bridge built over a gorge will stand there for the next hundred years and wont be taken down and put up by the next group.http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19758829976&ref=ts

I would like to point out that a lot of charities out there are not taking the mick out of you asking for money; most of them are ngos and the only income they get is from volunteers from wealthier countries like ourselves. I think its a bit unfair to say they are trying to coax money out of you, they genuinely need it. A few weekends raising the money they ask for isn't so difficult and helps make a huge difference to what they are trying to do so don't disregard out of hand charities that ask for a bit of money.

terencemc

Fair point wee bushy...I wasn't really referring to the likes of the red cross and the likes of NGO's such as Goal...More so the guys that places like Usit or STA advertise for volunteering GAP year breaks...My cousin did one and after hearing the amount she paid and the stuff she did on it...I couldn't help cringing in my shoes.

WeeBushy

terencemc wrote: »

Fair point wee bushy...I wasn't really referring to the likes of the red cross and the likes of NGO's such as Goal...More so the guys that places like Usit or STA advertise for volunteering GAP year breaks...My cousin did one and after hearing the amount she paid and the stuff she did on it...I couldn't help cringing in my shoes.

Yeah, usit etc aren't actual charities. They are more like travel agencies for the volunteering world, and take a large cut for "administration" purposes. A lot of that doesn't actually make it to the charities themselves. Im not the biggest fan of them; they make volunteering appear more expensive than it is and have a bit of a reputation for letting rich little english teenagers the chance to see the world and "make a difference" while keeping mummy and daddy happy that their little sprog is safe from the big bad world (rant over:D) but they do make a lot of programmes more accessible and raise their profile so I guess they are not a complete waste of time.