15 ways to volunteer in Africa

July 29th, 2010 | View Comments

Guest post by @BorderJumping

If you have a personal story, volunteer resources, tips and advice you’d like to share for Do Good Thursday, please email me at monica@apairofpantiesandboxers.com.

15 Ways To Volunteer In Africa

15 Ways To Volunteer In Africa

Our Journey began in October 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — when we left to visit nearly every country in Africa. At every stop we are meeting with farmers, community organizers, labor activists/leaders, unions, non-governmental organization (NGOs), the funding and donor communities, and local press

All we hear about Africa in the United States are stories about conflict, famine, disease, HIV/AIDS, and hunger. The news tends to be so negative that it desensitizes people from the problems, makes people feel powerless, hardens us from doing something about it, and even scares them from visiting Africa (beyond a packaged tour safari).

Our goal is to highlight the stories of hope and success on the ground in Africa. We are visiting and profiling projects and innovations that are working (in sustainable ways) to alleviate hunger and poverty and spotlight things that are working on the ground that could be replicated or scaled up. We blog everyday on our personal site called BorderJumpers.

We want to highlight some ways for travelers to see Africa while helping cool initiatives on the ground by volunteering.

Here are 15 interesting options for you to consider (thousands more are out there….):

For Students….

Where Be There Dragons1. If you are looking for something next summer and curious about Madagascar – we fell in love with the capital city Antanarivo – you might want to check out Reef Doctor. You can get free diving training and certification and conduct hands-on marine research, all while working with local fishing communities in the third largest coral reef system in the world.

2. If you are looking for a study abroad, WorldTeach runs a terrific semester program in Namibia. You can teach a number of different courses for elementary and high school children, including English, math, science and computer studies. At the end of the experience, make sure to hang out in Africa a bit longer by taking the Intercape bus company to Cape Town for winter break.

3. SIT Study Abroad offers a program called “Social Pluralism and Development” based in Cameroon’s political capital, Yaoundé.You will stay with a family for five weeks and spend a couple of weeks living in a northern village, with additional visits to western and coastal Cameroon. With more than 200 ethnic groups, local languages and dialects in the country, the program explores development theories, gender, art and cultural expression, and history.

4. Carpe Diem Education program integrates travel, volunteer work, and academic studies. In Uganda, you will live in the village of Junja working with an NGO that is building school houses in Uganda and then move to another village working with an interfaith coffee cooperative learning to grow and pick fair trade coffee. In Tanzania you will work with a health clinic as a volunteer with a medical NGO, while studying Swahili. Afterwards you head on a four day safari in through Tarangire National Park.

5. The Rhythm of West Africa Semester organized by Where There Be Dragons begins in Thies, Senegal, where you spend five weeks in a town about an hour from the capital city of Dakar. Students will meet with various NGO, taken intensive French lessons, attend guest lectures, and volunteer with local schools. The program continues as students hike overland into Guinea, visiting villages and integrating themselves in rural life and concludes with a three week home stay and volunteer project in rural areas of Senegal.

6. Doane College offers a really neat program for those looking to really jet-set across Africa — seeing, studying, and volunteering in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Swaziland, South Africa and Lesotho.

For a Volunteer Vacation…

African Impact7. Africa Impact offers a wide variety of ways to volunteer such as conservation work in Swaziland, chimpanzee and wildlife care in Zambia, pre-school orphan teaching in Mozambique, HIV/AIDS awareness in South Africa, and lion rehabilitation in Zimbabwe.

8. Volunteering in Africa has programs in Ghana that include volunteer work in the area of orphanage assistance, teaching, health care, journalism. You can participate for 1 to 26 weeks and volunteer ages run from 16 to 70.

9. Marine Conservation offers a program in Seychelles where spend your time scuba diving upon the amazing reef while providing much needed data to local organizations and government.

10. The Center for Cultural Interchange offers projects in Benin that enable you to work at a center for troubled youth, at a hospital, participate in a social action project, or to teach at a nursery school in a community village.

11. The Global Volunteer Network places people in Uganda working on an organic farming project. Volunteers work along side Ugandans digging and maintaining demonstration gardens. Activities include raised bed and double-dug farming to best utilize soil and make planting, harvesting, and fertilizing easier.

For Seniors…

Cross Cultural Solutions12. GapYearForGrownUps offers some terrific short and long term volunteer projects in twelve African countries. Some of the types of volunteering include animal conservation, child development, mentoring youth, teaching reading and writing, and wildlife research. Programs last from a couple of days to several months.

13. Cross-Cultural Solutions provides a program in Tanzania for boomers who are 50-plus working side-by-side with local people on community-led initiatives. Programs last from 1-12 weeks.

14. At Global Volunteers volunteers teach conversational English and other basic subjects, caring for at risk youth, assisting with health care, building schools and community facilities and much more. About 50 percent of volunteers are older adults, drawn primarily from the U.S. and Canada.

15. Earthwatch Institute, is an international nonprofit organization with volunteer field researchers engaged in scientific and social science research around the world. With a strong emphasis on sustainability, it presently supports about 140 projects in 48 countries, including Africa. Forty percent of participants are older adults.

Border Jumpers

BorderJumpers began in October 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — when Bernard Pollack and Danielle Nierenberg began a journey to visit nearly every country in Africa. At every stop they are meeting with farmers, community organizers, labor activists/leaders, unions, non-governmental organization (NGOs), the funding and donor communities, and local press. Follow them on @BoarderJumping, @WorldWatchag (Dani) or @BernardPollack (Bernie) for the latest update.




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Building Uganda One Brick At A Time

July 25th, 2010 | View Comments

Dreams For Kids - Uganda

Military conflict in Northern Uganda has displaced 80% of the population into Internal Displaced Person (IDP) Camps. Lacking food and other basic necessities, these camps are plagued with high levels of poverty, rape and HIV/AIDS infections, making it one of the poorest regions in the country.

  • Over one million children are not attending school
  • 25% of children have lost one or both their parents
  • 12% of women 30-40 are widows
  • 80% of adult women have no complete primary school
  • Only 9% of men have completed secondary school

Northern Uganda has a 12% HIV/ADIS prevalence rate, twice the national rate

The data is daunting but this isn’t something we’ve never heard before. Statistics are important but so are solutions.

Dreams For Kids’ (DFK) mission is to “end the suffering and dying in Uganda by providing access to education and sustainable income sources for women who will rebuild their country and create a future of hope for their children.”

DFK is currently building a primary school in the village of Gulu. Join them in their One Brick at a Time Campaign. For as little as $10, every brick you purchase will help build their school. Cornerstone bricks are also available for $100.

Ensure the future of the children of Gulu. Buy a brick.




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India: In Search Of Artists Who Makes Dreams Happen

July 24th, 2010 | View Comments

Dreams For Kids - India

Remember when you were five and you chose your best friend based on whether or not they’d share their box of Crayola Crayons with you? Losing my “best friend” of the day and getting rejected wasn’t fun but my crayons meant more to me than PlayDough and Pringles. Every child should have the opportunity go through these growing pains and make the decision for themselves. It could even guide them to their future as an artist or an architecture.

Unfortunately, children in a small village in Maharastra, India called Pusla won’t have the chance to develop their creativity with our help.  Are you an artist who can offer your talents while traveling the world? Dreams For Kids and Ayuda Shilip, an Indian Non-Profit, have teamed up together with a mission to provide the environment, training and resources necessary to help Indian children develop their creativity and artistic talents.

Their focus is on encouraging and enhacing art and creativity. Some immediate goals include:

  • Building wells for clean drinking water
  • Developing plans to build schools where none exist
  • Creating art workshops in the schools
  • Developing an art exchange program with the US Dream Leaders program
  • Supplying adaptive equipment for children with disabilities.

If you have plans of inundating yourself with the beauty and wonders that India has to offer, give a little back by volunteering with Dreams For Kids in India.




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Do Good Thursday: Dreams For Kids

July 22nd, 2010 | View Comments

Dreams For Kids

A single act of kindness turned into a global youth organization. It all started on Christmas eve in 1989, Chicago, IL . Dreams for Kids founder, Tom Tuohy, and a dozen volunteers including Santa, delivered gifts and food to a children’s shelter, Clara’s House. This annual gathering, called Holiday for Hope, is now held in over 30 countries – the largest event of its kind in the world.

After that Tom began Extreme Recess when he met JJ in 1996, a young man paralyzed during a hockey incident. The program is dedicated to helping children realize and achieve their dreams.

In 2007, Dreams for Kids began its global expansion. Since its founding, Dreams for Kids have impacted the lives of over 28,000 children. Here are some of the lives they’ve changed:

“I can speak in front of a group of people! I can look at people with disability and see they are just like me! I accept people for who they are!   Keep this program, and never let it die out! It’s strong like the people in it. I LOVED it!! When new [Dream Leaders] programs are starting up I would want to be there and tell kids my story and how it changed me! I just want to be a part of it!!”
–Diamond Watkins, Age 16

“This summer Dreams for Kids came to San Diego. I had a great time playing wheelchair basketball. I would like to tell you how much you touched me. I will remember forever that you came to NSA. Now when somebody makes fun of disabled, I tell them, they are not disabled, they are able– able to do everything. Thank you for changing me.” -Heather, Age 10, Wisconsin

“For my birthday this year, I asked for donations instead of presents. So here are the donations ($250) for Dreams for Kids.” -Brendan, Age 10

Dreams For Kids currently has international volunteer abroad programs located in India, Uganda, Ghana and Haiti. I will be highlighting their projects from each of these countries around the world. Stay tuned if you are interested in volunteering and/or donating to projects in these countries.




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Undisclosed Sponsored Posts: Is There A Loophole?

July 15th, 2010 | View Comments

Undisclosed Sponsor Post

This past Tuesday, I posted an article about Tainted Travel Bloggers. A representative from Adbeans.com reached out to me and asked if I could post a sponsor post written not by other travel bloggers but by them for a payment of X amount. The representative also sent me a few examples of travel bloggers whom she has worked with before.

The first thing I noticed was that neither one of the travel bloggers explicitly stated anywhere in their blog post that it was a sponsored post and that they received monetary compensation for it. (I’m assuming that they did because that was what I was offered as well.) The second thing I thought was, “Did the blogger even edit this post or did they just post it exactly as it was sent to them?”

Many bloggers in the travel community expressed their thoughts and concerns about this issue. You might want to read my previous post before continuing because a few of my readers made some comments worth addressing.

Cornelius Aesop, from Monkey Brewster, raised some interesting questions.

Is AdBeans reputable, as in did they really pay these bloggers for this post or did they just gather a few posts from popular ‘insert genre here’ blogs hoping to encourage you to buy into their program with a mentality of – if they did it I should too.

If so, is the amount enough that it should be noteworthy that they were indeed paid for that post, or should that even matter?

I hadn’t thought of the idea that Adbeans.com could just be pulling out blog posts as an example without having actually worked with the travel blogger. But somehow I doubt that’s what they did. All the link examples they provided me were formatted the same way – in a list with a lot of pictures and hyperlinks.

Whether is $5 or $50, it shouldn’t matter how much bloggers are being offered in exchange for posting a sponsored post. I firmly believe that, as a blogger, the compensation you’ve received whether it’s money or a book for review should always be revealed. You don’t tell have to say exactly how much you received for the blog post but just saying that you received monetary compensation is good enough.

Keith Jenkins, from Velvet Escape, informed me of something I apparently overlooked about the FTC guidelines.

I’m not against sponsored posts but I do agree that a disclosure should be included. That said, FTC rules only apply to US-based blogs or if the company that has provided compensation is US-based so, ethics aside, there’s nothing wrong with not providing a disclosure if the blogger/client aren’t based in the US. Oh well…

Adbeans.com is a London based company but as travel bloggers, many of us can be blogging from the States one week, Africa the next and Asia the week after that. What would be considered as a US-based blog? If FTC rules only apply to US based blogs, then all travel bloggers can use this loophole to choose not to inform their readers when they have sponsored content, right?

Melissa Stanford, from The Innocent Abroad, clarified it a little for me.

It’s only required to put a disclosure policy if you’re American. If you are living abroad or your hosting is not in America, the FTC has no authority to enforce the law. However, I agree people should at least be honest. Most people are smart enough to know bloggers get paid to advertise; transparency about the subject means you trust your audience. Hiding your payment means you are afraid of them. That’s my take anyway.

If anyone is interested, here is the FTC guidelines.

After discovering what these travel bloggers have done, I cringe a little when I see their tweets. It’s not that I’m disgusted because I’m sure they are good people. It’s more of a damn-why-did-you-have-to-do-that type of feeling.




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