Latest Industry news

Chance Of a Lifetime Travel (COLT)

We are happy to announce that we have a new partner for promoting our volunteer opportunities in the UK. Chance Of a Lifetime Travel (COLT) is a family run business based in Cambridge, UK. 

Established in 2004, COLT is the only company to offer African Impact projects exclusively. All COLT employees have lived and worked in Africa, or have travelled extensively on the continent visiting the various projects that we are so passionate about. This means that they can answer almost every question that potential volunteers may have and are always happy to assist.

“To speak plainly, our USP (unique selling proposition) is service. We aim to remove any fear of the unknown. We pride ourselves on the unlimited help we can provide you when deciding to make that first leap of faith to travel to Africa. Once you have journeyed in Africa and the bug has bitten, Africa stays in your heart and you keep returning. No question is too trivial. Short of packing for you we will help you with absolutely anything you ask of us.”

Not only does COLT help individual volunteers or people looking for a gap year opportunity, they also cater to school trips. COLT is run by teachers with a lot of experience in organising and leading school expeditions.

Details of the various projects on offer as well as their contact details can be found at www.coltgap.com. You can also take a look at our website for information on all the projects on offer.

Useful tips before you volunteer

We love the enthusiasm and passion that our volunteers often arrive with when coming to volunteer for the first time.  Full of ‘oomf’ to help make a difference but with this enthusiasm, there can often be unrealistic expectations of what can be achieved.

In this article we hear from our Project Manager in St Lucia,  Alanna Wallas, on some great tips to prepare you before you come, to manage the emotions that often come with volunteering.

‘Making some alterations in what it means to make a “difference” can make a big impact to volunteers expectations when volunteering.  They can feel like they’re part of a process of development that’s making a great impact on the communities in which they work. To do this volunteers must overcome the emotions surrounding the voluntourism process that can often start off feeling elated and with a ‘save the world’ attitude and which can lead to a sense of disappointment and helplessness when this is not met.

Upon their arrival, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, volunteers are eager to jump into projects with both feet. Whilst it is a great attitude to have, it’s a lack of preparedness that leads to the feeling of pessimism that follows. Often this is because volunteers arrive with a certain picture in their minds, only to have that picture altered when they land at their destination.

Once the rollercoaster of projects is introduced, some volunteers experience a feeling of discontent, perhaps feeling helpless or powerless against the development process. Many of the ups and downs that come with volunteering on the projects are based around the notion of making a difference, and what constitutes the measurement of a difference made.

When working with sustainable development, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where life’s pace is very slow, making a difference can seem like it takes a lifetime. As a volunteer (and even a staff member) it is important to remember that with each day on projects comes a success. Every day means we are moving towards the achievement of our goals as volunteers, staff members and as an organisation.’

African Impact are here for the long haul… we build and create long term sustainable projects, this sometimes means you can’t always see the good that is being done. Your time energy and effort when put with the bigger pictures creates a huge impact, last year we achieved the following:

In 2011 we facilitated 1951 volunteers to over 60 different projects across Africa. This is estimated at roughly 2,949,617 hours of work that volunteers were helping in communities, clinics, conservation projects as well as other specialised projects.

Across the 6 different African countries African Impact supported and refurbished 12 schools, providing safe and secure areas for the children. Educational assistance was supplied to 13 schools and 12 children centres – allowing us to help over 1300 children in education last year.

Using education as a tool for empowerment African Impact has facilitated over 220 attendees to 10 different HIV education awareness programs with 84% success rate. Adults have been educated in over 19 different skills workshops.

Much needed support was provided to overburdened staff in 13 different hospitals and clinics across Africa and 2184 patients were visited at their homes and given basic medical care.

Two self sustaining prides of Lions (7 individuals) have passed through stage one of the programme, are now living in Stage Two release sites. 5 semi-wild Lion Cubs have been born within the release sites.

And this doesn’t include a whole host of a smaller achievements.  Without the support help and love of our volunteers we would never have been able to do this. Afrian Impact would like to take this opportunity to thank all our past volunteers for all there amazing work in helping us achieve where we have got to today and we invite all potential volunteers to come and help us be part of the bigger picture!

If you’d like to make a difference during your short time as a volunteer, think about the following quick tips before embarking on your experience:

Do your research – Reading up on African Impact, the project you’ll be working at and the area you’re travelling to will all help you acclimatize easier once you’ve arrived on site, particularly if you’re volunteering for only two weeks.

Fundraise and bring needed materials – Often a project will send you a list of items that are needed to help the projects work, or can supply you with a project “wish list” upon your request. Sometimes it’s as simple as bringing lightweight art supplies (like cotton balls or pipe cleaners) or medical materials like bandages, which you can see being used while you’re out on projects.

Arrive with personal goals in mind – Think of your skills at home and build some expectations around what you would like to achieve personally. From there, learn all you can about how you can use your skills to positively influence the project as a volunteer. If you’re a photographer, offer your photographs to be used as promotional materials; if you enjoy writing, maintain a blog for the official page or if you possess a green thumb, offer your services more often during farming and gardening projects.

Talk to everyone – Speak to the coordinators and managers of the project you’re on about what their upcoming goals are. Usually they’ll have a task for you to take on or an initiative you can start.

Expect a mixture of flexibility and rigidity – Some things you can change and some things you can’t. Project managers and volunteer coordinators are willing to take volunteer ideas and use them to the best of their ability. However, remember that your suggestions must align with practices that work towards African Impact’s sustainable development agenda.

Throw caution to the wind! – Experience everything and throw yourself into projects. Make suggestion after suggestion and work hard to put your mark on the project. That way, you’ll really see how you’re making a difference in the longrun.

To join Alanna and the team in St Lucia click HERE

To shoot or not to shoot?? Ethical photography

Do you love to capture the life of locals when your travelling?  Truthfully a lot of travellers do! We zoom in on their life, their homes, their children, we want to capture what we’ve seen and share it with friends, family, the world! A lot of the time the subjects of our photographs do not even know they are being captured. Is this how we should be taking our photos, is it the ethical way? Would you like unkown photos of you to be owned by those you’ve never met? It’s all about personal bounderies, and Lori Robertson an ethical traveller, has written a great piece on this for BBC Travel explaining her thoughts on the situation.

“Paul Berger, professor of art at the University of Washington School of Art, said a good rule of thumb is to “assume you’re being seen and act appropriately”.

Appropriate behaviour can be as simple as making eye contact with someone, showing your camera and making sure the person knows he or she is being photographed. If people don’t want their picture taken, they’ll probably tell you by looking away.

…sometimes travellers forget basic etiquette when in a foreign culture – or it goes out the window when trying to take a perfect photo. “There are more problems, I think, with people objectifying people [when travelling abroad],” said Lisa Helfert, a photographer from Bethesda, Maryland. Locals in poverty-stricken areas can sometimes feel like they’re on display for traveller’s photos, a criticism levelled at operators of so-called slum tours.”

“Again, the golden rule: would you be comfortable if someone asked you to pose for a photo?” Berger said.

Please read the whole of Robertson’s article ‘Ethical traveller: Taking photographs of people’

If you are interested in improving your photography skills and capturing some fantastic wildlife then take a look at our volunteer projects. On these you will gain exciting exposure to the African bush with both wildlife photography and conservation components.

African Wildlife Photography And Conservation – Thanda, South Africa

Masai Mara Big Cat, Wildlife Research & Conservation Project

Antelope Park Lion Research Photography Project

Passionate about photography, love the African bush?? Want to join our team??

We are currently looking for a new volunteer co-ordinator on our Photography and conservation Project. Based on Thanda Game Reserve, South Africa.

Previous experiences as a volunteer would be preferable as well as a love of photography and a dream of living on a game reserve. A competency with computers PC and MAC would be useful. You need to be excellent at communication skills and have a lively and self-motivated personality. You responsibilities will include interacting daily with the volunteers,helping with the organization of the project, weekend trips and driving of the volunteers (full license that enables you to drive) You must be over 18years old.

Our Big 5 Wildlife Photography and Conservation Education project offers exciting exposure to the African bush with both wildlife photography and conservation components to volunteers. We offer you the opportunity to improve their wildlife photography skills, and to help raise awareness in the local community about the importance of conservation.

You will be based in the exclusive Thanda Private Game Reserve, which is a 14,000 hectare Big 5 Reserve set in the stunning Zululand heartland around 1.5 hours north of the small town of St Lucia. The pristine bush of the Reserve is home to the Big 5, the extremely rare African Wild Dog and Cheetah. The area is also home to the Zulu tribe, a group of people with a very lively and colourful culture.

If you are interested to become part of our team and a fantastic project that is part of the African Impact portfolio please contact natascha@africanimpact.com

Volunteer AND get a qualification?? Find out more…

We have proudly partnered with ASDAN to offer you the opportunity to gain a qualification whilst volunteering in Cape Town that will support your university application and enhance your skills. This is our first accredited project and we are very proud to offer it to our UK volunteers.

What will you gain?
Upon successful completion of the Certificate of Personal Effectiveness Award Level 3 (CoPE Level 3) you will gain 70 UCAS points which is roughly the equivalent to a Grade A at AS Level. So, if you want to enhance your points for university or simply want to make your CV more attractive then this is the place for you!

Who are ASDAN?
ASDAN are a UK based charity specialising in qualifications that grow skills for learning, employment and life.

How does it work?
You will take part in the daily activities of our Cape Town Education project whilst working towards your Award. To successfully complete the Award you will gain credits by completing a minimum of 3 challenges and provide evidence to demonstrate your skills development in six units. These units are;

1) Introduction to Working with Others
2) Introduction to Improving Own Learning and Performance
3) Introduction to Problem Solving
4) Planning and Carrying Out a Piece of Research
5) Communicating Through Discussion and
6) Planning and Giving an Oral Presentation

Whilst there are 6 units you do not have to complete 6 challenges, some challenges can incorporate more than one unit, for example if you complete a research piece as part of a challenge you could also present this to your group of volunteers.

During your time in Cape Town you will be guided by our volunteer coordinator and they will assist you with your choice of challenges, however you will need to be proactive and think about your challenges carefully. We will be there to support you but it is important for you to make the decisions yourself. You will also be required to complete a portfolio of evidence to support the completion of each unit.

As a volunteer, you will assist local community teachers and contribute to our effort of providing children with a better education. In addition, you will have the opportunity to organize your own classes.

These are the ways in which you will assist the schools:

• Assistant teaching: Provide individual attention and assistance to children during lessons.
• Help with crafts, painting, reading and games.
• Organize special needs classes for children who have not been able to keep up with the pace of the lessons.
• Assist with giving the children their meals. Every child receives a meal, which is often their only meal that day.
• Clean, maintain and even refurbish the classrooms, most of which are quite run down.

Find out more about this very cool project by clicking Get My Qualification

Our Cape Town destination manager Emma would love to chat more about details so drop her a line at emma@africanimpact.com and she can call or email you back

Time Out Magazine reports Volunteering is not just for Gap Year students!!

Nanny Claire Baines enjoys volunteering on our over 30′s community project in Thanda, and has some fun monkey’ing around on our Chimfunshi project in Zambia!

Time Out Bahrain has just published an article about the part of Claire’s trip that she’s most excited about, which is visiting our Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage (wahoooo!!) where she’ll be doing everything from cleaning out enclosures to changing nappies on baby chimps who’ve lost their families!

Claire, 40, who’s been in Bahrain for three years as a nanny, explained: “I’ve always wanted to do something like this but, up until now, I couldn’t necessarily take the time to do it properly. Turning 40 was a bit of a turning point and I thought ‘right, now’s the time to do it if I’m going to do it at all’ so in a few weeks time I’ll be off to South Africa.” Claire had planned to work in an orphanage in Malawi but, when her travelling companion pulled out, she decided to look at other options and came across our Over 30′s Pre School And Community Development Project, South Africa which has been set up specifically to take advantage of the life experience of over 30s. “Lots of volunteer programmes are aimed at much younger people, particularly gap-year students,” she said. “I didn’t want to be the only older one and certainly didn’t want to feel as if I was playing mum alongside the other work I’ll be doing. I went on the internet and Googled ‘volunteering over 30’ and African Impacts’s Over 30s Pre-school and Development Project in South Africa came up.”

“It’s living in the heart of a game reserve in the Zulu homeland and working on a variety of projects, so one day you could be working with babies and young children who’ve lost their parents to aids, another you could be helping older teenagers to prepare a CV to help them try and make an impact in the workplace. I’m really looking forward to the variety and having the chance to give something back.”

After visiting us in Thanda, Claire will head on to Zambia to our Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage set up in 1983 when a game ranger brought a badly wounded infant chimpanzee to the cattle ranch of David and Sheila Siddle, a British couple who had lived along the Zambian copper belt since the 1950s. The Siddles nursed that chimp – nicknamed Pal – back to health and, as word of his recovery spread, found themselves inundated with orphaned chimpanzees some confiscated from poachers trying to smuggle them into Zambia for sale as pets, others rescued from dilapidated zoos and circuses all over Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. Their work continues today at what is the world’s largest chimp rescue facility where Claire will be putting her nannying skills to good use, through our volunteer project.

She said: “I must admit, this is the part I’m most excited about – even my mum is jealous. I’ve loved working here and my young charges are brilliant, I’ll really miss them, they’re very interested in what I’m going to be doing, I’ve promised to keep in touch and let them know what I’m up to. The family I work for have been very supportive knowing that I want to take the chance to give something back. To be honest I think this is going to be both the toughest and the most rewarding thing I will ever do. Speaking to the woman at the chimp rescue, she said some of the stories you hear are very harrowing so I can see myself doing quite a bit of crying over the next couple of months – I’ll probably end up wanting to take babies home with me, both human and primate – but I feel incredibly lucky that I’ve got the chance to do something like this. I’ve worked all over the world and travelled so much with the families I’ve worked for but this will be something totally different, taking me completely out of my comfort zone which I think will be very good for me. I’ll certainly miss Bahrain, but I can’t wait to get started.”

Click the link to learn more about our Chimpanzee & Wildlife Orphan Care Project and see if  your wild enough for this volunteer experience! As a volunteer you will get the chance to help take care of over a hundred chimpanzees in the biggest chimp sanctuary in the world! Interact with young orphaned chimps, record and learn about the animals’ behaviour, and help educate local Zambian children about chimpanzees and other wildlife. A unique way to contribute to the conservation of these endangered species!

If your looking for ‘grown-up’ volunteering check out more details on our Over 30′s Pre School And Community Development Project, South Africa This is a project set up specifically and exclusively for anyone over 30 years of age. The activities have been chosen to deliver sustainable change whilst providing you with the opportunity to share your knowledge, skills and experiences with young people in the Zulu heartland.

TimeOut Bahrain – Community – Grown Up Gap Year

Launching Our Wildlife & Monkey Sanctuary!!

Can you imagine assisting a vet to save a cheetah’s life, or bottle feeding orphaned baby monkeys? If so then this project is totally for you!

We have just launched our new sanctuary project in Malawi, a green oasis located in the heart of Lilongwe. One of Africa’s last truly urban wildernesses!

As a volunteer… you will be working alongside our animal carers and help with all aspects of animal care. Learning about wildlife rehabilitation and conservation. You will be given the opportunity to shadow our wildlife vet with health checks, operations, darting animals and treating injuries. Have fun with the rescued orphans providing surrogacy work, bottle feeding, playing and providing all aspects of care until they enter the next phase of our rehabilitation programme. You can get creative with our ongoing Enrichment programme

constructing ‘toys’ to keep our animals happy,

healthy and entertained.

Enjoy a night safari to see the nocturnal animals at the centre come to life. Search for elusive porcupines and bushbabies. You will be involved with maintaining and improving our Wilderness Reserve, which offers fantastic biodiversity with animals such as hyena, crocodiles, numerous insect and bird species, along with amazing examples of hardwood trees and even rare orchids. Enjoy riverside picnics, bird watching, partaking in our ongoing mammal censuses or helping to improve education signs. You can also get involved with our extensive community projects, helping local communities to support and benefit from conservation in a sustainable manner.

Specific work will be very much dependent on what projects are going on at the time. Here’s a flavour of some of the roles you could take on:

• Assistant animal carer: Work alongside our local Malawian animal carers to offer our animals the best possible care that they deserve…cleaning, feeding, hand rearing baby orphans and providing enrichment to those that need it. Please note that we take animal welfare very seriously as therefore we have a strict no-contact policy with the animals. The only exception to this is if you are hand rearing an orphan or working with the vet.

• Vet assistant: Work alongside our part time vet and help conduct full health checks on all new arrivals and regular vaccinations and check-ups on all the animals at the Centre.

• Rehabilitation and release assistant: Work alongside our dedicated animal care manager to rehabilitate rescued animals and settle them into new groups. If you are lucky you may be at the centre when we are performing a release. If so there might be the chance to help release back to the wild, whether that is in the Centre’s 60 hectare Wilderness Reserve or out at one of the Centre’s release sites around the country.

• Centre support: Helping with construction and maintenance or getting involved with fundraising events at the Centre.

• Education: Giving guided tours, working on new signage or helping out at the Wild Kidz Summer Camps and at local orphanages.

• Community outreach: Working with the community outreach manager, perhaps you could coach some of the youth wildlife football teams, work with the dance troops, teach at one of the local orphanages or help reforest local riverside locations.

• Conservation and Ecology: If you’re interested in conservation management or ecological research, we have several ongoing ecological surveys and mammal censuses and important habitat management work to implement.

• Marketing and Events: Anyone with experience in website design, pr, events, photography or documentary making would be more than welcome.

Lilongwe is a fantastic base for exploring Malawi and many top visitor destinations can be reached on a weekend break, such as the stunning ‘Lake of Stars’ just an hour away. You also have the added option of going on a big game safari at South Luangwa, Zambia, one of the world’s top safari destinations. We have a very special deal with an excellent local operator.

Interested in this Wildlife & Monkey Sanctuary Project? Contact Kylie our destination manager directly at kylie@africanimpact.com

Bringing hearts and minds together!

In the work we do, there is a strong focus on forming partnerships, creating connections, bonds, and touching peoples lives.  Yet with todays fast paced life and various forms to telecommunication, it is easy to be cloaked by technology and lose the human touch even when working with our own staff members.

African Impact realise the importance of coming together, the intangible value of face to face contact.  Which is why for the second year running we brought all our project and business managers from all our destinations around Africa to Cape Town for an exciting four days of workshopping and brain storming!

This year our registered charity ‘The Happy Africa Foundation’ took center stage, with sustainability being the hot topic. Sustainability is a difficult and complex subject where there are not necessarily any ‘right’ answers.  Anyone who works within this industry can understand the hair- pulling complexities involved.  Just as we can never be 100% green, we can never be 100% sustainable, this can be a bitter pill to swallow, but we continue to build sustainability as the foundation to each of our projects.  Like a gardener who attends to their land, we continually try and prune and preen our projects, looking for ways to  fertilise our soils, protect our saplings and create a harmonious environment for them to grow.

The four days were an incredible success.  There was a wealth of expertises, experience and knowledge from over 30 of our different staff members, and with that came an overwhelming amount of  passion and enthusiasm, a real privilege to be part of this dynamic team.

We worked hard and covered a lot of ground in a short period of time, but there was also time for some fun too… On the Tuesday afternoon we had a spectacular time with our friends at Green Pop a great organisation working hard to plant trees in schools, communities, and deforested areas throughout Africa, with the aim to spread environmental awareness, uplift under-greened communities, make greening enjoyable and combat climate change!

The afternoon showed that African Impact like to walk the walk and are certainly not afraid to get our hands dirty! We volunteered alongside a number of enthusiastic children at a secondary school in Manenburg township, Cape Town and together we spent the afternoon digging holes and planting over 60 trees.  It was a beautiful sight by the end of the afternoon to see the high school looking alive and green with fresh new sapling trees.

The four days was finished off with a traditional South African braai.   But in continuation with the subject of sustainability, only food was served to those who came in fancy dress… theme?  Recycling of course! Check out our facebook page for pictures and let us know who you think is best dressed.

A massive thank you must go out to all those who contributed towards the success of the 4 days, without you none of this could have happened!

Roaring updates

Our latest news from the Thanda Reserve…

Mufasa – our new male lion has been released into the reserve! His collar is fitted so we will be able to track him and the priority is for us to monitor his movements over the next month to see how he interacts with the other lions. We hope he settles in well, during his first week he has been very skittish and remains in the bushes!

Our cheetah’s visa has been extended - due to arrive last week the visa has been extended due to the cyclone disrupting flights! We are now expecting her next week. She is coming from a place called Uppington near the Bostwana/Namibia border. She is 3 years old, and will stay in the Boma for a few weeks. We will fit her with a collar, then if all is ok she will be released. We also have another lady cheetah coming to us towards the end of March. She is just one and a half years old!

If you would like to join us in the beautiful setting of Thanda Private game reserve, then have a look at the range of volunteer projects below:

Large Predator Research & Conservation Project

African Wildlife Photography & Conservation Project

Elephant & Rhino Research & Conservation Project

African Wildlife Big 5 Conservation Project

Over 30′s Pre-School & Community Development Project

Our NEW conservation project in Botswana!

If you want to immerse yourself into the heart of African conservation.. this is the project for you!  Join us on this conservation and research project located in the Northern Tuli Game Reserve, Botswana and help with the data collection and research for the Tuli Wilderness.

Volunteers assist in tracking, observing and monitoring animal species and updating the reserve’s database. They will be assisting in the preservation and protection of Botswana’s wildlife, and get very much involved with the work rather than sitting back and observing and provide a valuable resource to the project!

As Tuli Wilderness is a true wilderness and we therefore do not implement any land management policies. Animals ebb and flow with the seasons making it difficult to guarantee specifics. We do have research collars on various predators residing in the Northern Tuli Game Reserve.

Mammals that utilise the project’s core study area include Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Cheetah, Spotted Hyaena, Brown Hyaena, Wild Dog, Eland, Giraffe, Burchell’s Zebra, Blue Wildebeest, Kudu, Impala, Klipspringer, Bushbuck, Common Duiker, Steenbok, Black-backed Jackal, Bat-eared Fox, Warthog, Bushpig, Smallspotted and Large Spotted Genet, Civet, Caracal, Porcupine, African Wildcat, Banded and Slender and Selous’ Mongoose, Rock and Yellow-spotted Dassie, Hippo, Crocodile, Aardwolf, Aardvark, Honey Badger, Vervet Monkey, Chacma Baboon, Springhare, Scrub, Hare, Lesser Bushbaby and more!

The project director sits as a trustee of Children in the Wilderness, Limpopo Valley, and through this trust Tuli Wilderness works with and supports children from the local communities, inspiring them to care for and protect their natural heritage. We are actively involved within the schools and sponsor and operate 5-night camps for the local children, developing an interest and passion for conservation in them and nurturing leaders to become custodians of these fragile ecosystems in the future!

Here is how a typical day in the life of a volunteer might take shape:

Volunteers live within an unfenced bush camp situated in the centre of this land and against the banks of the dry Mohave River. Accommodated in thatched huts, complete with beds and all linen supplied, the volunteers wake to eat breakfast in the thatched lapa built around an Apple Leaf tree before the first planned activity of the day. Upon your return to the camp from your morning activity, volunteers transfer the collected data to the project computer, spend the time during the heat of the day browsing the library of literature on the flora and fauna, eating lunch and socialising with their new camp-mates.

Later, the second activity of the day is undertaken – either with the planned purpose or maybe with a new focus dependent upon what was found earlier that day (maybe predator tracks were found or a carcass located). Although this is characteristic of a typical day, some mornings may start at 3am or may continue beyond midnight into the kingdom of nocturnal creatures.

After a substantial evening meal and chat around the campfire, underneath the incredible starry night sky, volunteers retire to sleep in comfort and to a background of animal cries and calls.

Every Sunday is day off. However tasks such as data processing still need to be done on a Sunday.

Volunteers are welcome from anything from 2-12 week placements.

Are you interested in helping out in this fanstatic wilderness project. Click here for prices and more details or contact Kylie our destination manager for this project directly at  kylie@africanimpact.com