Further Information
Teaching English and Childcare in South Africa

On the community care project your main focus will be to teach life skills to the local children and help to fulfil some of their most basic educational needs. At the crèches you may work with a local care giver or teacher, assisting them and taking on responsibilities as your skills and experience allow. In general you may play three different roles:

1. Teaching – the children at the care points are generally without any kind of education and need the foundations of English and maths

2. Care Giving – most of the children come from homes where they do not receive much attention. Volunteers play an important role in giving the children this attention; playing games with them, teaching them basic life skills and giving them the care and attention they need at that age

3. Centre Development – volunteers are often involved with painting educational murals, organising fundraising events, developing the play area and small-scale infrastructure.

On the teaching project volunteers work with a number of state primary schools in the Hout Bay area. You may take on various responsibilities, depending on your skills and experience. The main focus is obviously teaching and the most popular subjects include English, maths, science, geography, social studies and religious studies (although it is best to focus on one or two of these options).

On both projects there are a variety of other activities that you, as a volunteer, might like to get involved in, including: sports (football, netball or you could introduce a new sport at the school), art, drama, music (bring an instrument and teach some kids to play), agriculture, and fundraising for the development of the schools.