Africa is one part of my RTW trip that will be extremely close to my heart for many personal reasons and I would very much like to help out in community projects. My exploring will take me from South Africa to Kenya (in no particular hurry!) (and including a possible swoop round into Ethiopia, Somlia and Uganda then back into Kenya) and I wanted to get as much information as possible on various projects throughout these countries.

I am keen to be involved with projects that may not have an affiliated charity – projects that only people living in the area would know anything about. What I am reluctant to do is to be involved with projects where people have paid money to volunteer, and not one pound has been seen by people being helped. I would much prefer to be able to walk into a school or village and offer assistance in anyway that I can, but I don’t know how that would be viewed by the locals. I don’t want to offend!

The key for me is to be involved and become part of a community for a time.

There will be two of us on this trip myself (female) and username Baronbolton (male) and the aim is to be in Africa in 2009/2010 which I appreciate is some time away! At this stage all I am trying to do is gauge what kind of opportunities there may be.

I have been to Africa on three occasions but strictly on a holiday basis. I would be most grateful for any general advice about community work, projects and of course temporarily making a home in Africa.

Cheers!

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Don't be scared your life may end,
Be scared that it may never begin.......

This might fall into the categories of those you are trying to avoid, but I came across this website recently and found it quite interesting.
Life Changing Experiences, TEFL, Volunteer, Work Abroad & TEFL jobs with i-to-i
Regards
Paul

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If you think you are too small to make a difference you have never spent the night with a mosquito.

Many thanks for the link Paul. I fear however, that you are right; those are the kind or organisations I am keen to avoid. I really need info on the etiquette of riding into town and settling down for a given period of time and offering my help in the community. Information on how easy it is to fall upon a project while on your travels, and any possbile projects people are aware of currently.

I suppose I was hopeful that there may be someone living out there with some familarity on the subject of volunteering.

I appreciate your response nevertheless! Cheers.

Cha

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Don't be scared your life may end,
Be scared that it may never begin.......

I know a place in WEST Africa that would love to have someone to help out ... a village of 2,000 people. But if you're going down the Eastern route then I don't think it will suit!

Best of luck

Kira

Charlotte,

Help in Africa is very often seriously counter productive. It takes initiative away from local, volunteers fill positions which should be filled by locals etc. On our trip we have seen so much of the wrong kind of help. We have spoken to so many locals who say that all the aid workers should be kicked out of their country and so on! Have there been any substantial improvement over the last 30 years despite all the aid? I am glad that you recognize you should stay away from the large scale charity orginizations.

We have also seen good project though. Those are what they call "the grass root projects". On a very basic level, initiated and controlled by locals, helping them out where they run out of possibilities, knowlegde, leveridge etc. The driving force should always come from the locals. While you are travelling through Africa you will come across such projects, as we did. Just keep your eyes and ears open. I do know about one small scale project set up by two Dutch, I don't know the details but this is their web link; Stichting Tim & Kim Village Unfortunately it is in Dutch only but if you drop them an email.... It is roughly about develloping tourisme, schools, activities in the area (a village in Ethiopia) to create work and infrastructure in order to break through the poverty cycle. Maybe this suits your ideas

Cheers,

Noel
exploreafrica.web-log.nl

Firstly, Kira, thanks for the response and kind words, but yes, I will be staying on the east coast, save for Namibia.

Secondly, Noel, I appreciate your sentiments exactly. This was my worry; to basically stick my nose where it wasnt wanted, and to upset a community's own way of coping. Thanks for the info on the "grass roots" projects and as you say, throughout my travels I will keep my eyes ears and nose to the ground! I shall try and get in contact with this dutch project closer to the time as well. Whatever I end up doing my choice to be involved will certainly depend on what degree the locals take part and drive the project.

Once again, many thanks

Cha

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Don't be scared your life may end,
Be scared that it may never begin.......

I'm with Noel on this. Virtually every educated local I've met in Africa has expressed that they wished all the NGO's, the UN, and all other "do gooders" would leave their country ASAP. The sad truth is that many of these so-called "helpers" are more into it for their own benefit (job, building a flashy looking CV etc). Some of the worst I have met have by the way been people associated with the Peace Corp...

Most of the "help" Africa receives ends up making both the people and the nations even more dependent than they were from before. It basically creates nations of beggers, and beggers out of nations.

So pick any potential project very carefully,if you genuinely want to help them, and not just make yourself feel better by thinking you're helping them.

Erik

Hello Charlotte

Join CouchSurfing !!!

I have found that joining couchsurfing.com is fantastically useful in 'getting local' - you can build up a network of LOCAL people, who live and work in the various areas.

Everyone on there have been incredibly helpful - especially in Africa, cos everyone is keen to welcome visitors.

Not an AID ORGANISATION in sight!

I am planning a trip next year, and have already hooked up with a school teacher in Mali, a community worker in Algeria, a farmer in Angola and hope to increase my network so I have a local network in every country I visit.

Just to give you an idea - this is the map of local members for the countries I was looking in, along the west coast (and a few on the East)



Ofcourse - there is the added benefit of, once a member, having a GLOBAL COUCH to crash on, whenever you travel!

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