Cape Town Design Your Own Orphaned And Vulnerable Children Project Cape Flats townships

2013          GBP        USD        EUR
2 weeks   £ 760      $1330     € 990
4 weeks   £ 1150    $ 2015    € 1495
6 weeks   £ 1495    $ 2615    € 1945
8 weeks   £ 1860    $ 3255    € 2420

The Cape Flats area is home to many of the communities with which you will be volunteering: Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Langa, Mitchell’s Plain, Nyanga, Athlone and Grassy Park. Often referred to as the “dumping ground of Apartheid”, the Cape Flats are a melting pot of different cultures, ethnicities and languages.  Yet across these differences, there are many parallels such as crippling poverty, substance abuse, unemployment and HIV/AIDS.

Khayelitsha is the largest of these townships and where many of our projects are based. Home to just under 2 million people, locals live in a vast range of housing types from shacks built of wood and iron to larger permanent buildings. Visiting this township is an eye-opening experience where communal standpipes for water and blocks of individual toilets shared among a number of families is the norm.

How does ‘DESIGN YOUR OWN’ work?

Volunteers come to us with such a vast array of expertise, interests and passions.  We want to give you the ability to design your own project and volunteer experience in South Africa!  The options range from work with orphans and vulnerable children  to teaching, sports development, dance, and healthcare.

You can choose to do either orphan care full time or combine this with one other activity and broaden your volunteer experience.

Orphaned and Vulnerable Children

Emergency care home for abandoned and orphaned children

This home was established to care for abandoned and orphaned children aged between 0 and 8 years in the township Khayelitsha and the surrounding areas.  This area of Cape Town has been hugely affected by HIV/AIDS and is thought to have the highest rates in the Western Cape.  The home’s main aim is to place the children into foster care as soon as they are ready.  On average 60% of the children taken into the home are HIV+, therefore the first stage of the home’s process is to nurse the children back to health. Once the children are medically and emotionally stable, the home will look to recruit a foster family so the children can be reintroduced into a family environment.  Your role at the home is to stimulate some of the smaller children who are too young for school. One-to-one attention for these children is essential for them to develop and enable them to progress into pre-school. 

After-school Care

This after-school programme was established in 2007 through an organization of grandmothers who saw the need to provide a safe environment for at-risk children arriving back to empty homes in the after school hours. In collaboration with the local primary school in Khayeltisha, the grandmothers have created an after-school programme split into 5 groups based on ages ranging from toddlers to teenagers. You will be assisting the grandmothers by providing reading support, homework help, planning outdoor and gardening activities, and arts and crafts. The children are fully engaged in this programme and a committee has been formed which allows the children to express their thoughts and feedback on the atmosphere they experience.

If you choose to design your own project and split your time between orphan care and one of the other volunteer focuses, you could be assisting in one of the following areas:

Teaching

The focus of the Cape Town Teaching Project is to educate, support, and empower disadvantaged, orphaned, and vulnerable youth through a sustainable approach to community development.   As a volunteer, you are an essential part of the African Impact team, assisting our efforts in providing children and youth with a better education and a brighter future.  Throughout this experience you will have rewarding opportunities to help prepare and implement weekly learning activities.

As a teaching volunteer there are a number of types of schools you could be placed in, based on the needs of the community which are constantly changing and evolving: 

Pre-school

As a volunteer you will assist in taking care of the children and teaching basic lessons in the pre-school. Ages range from 6 months to 6 years and the role of a volunteer is to support the development of the children, as schools are often understaffed and lacking in essential resources. This helps to prepare them for their move to primary school where English is part of their curriculum.   You will work with the children and help to develop and stimulate them through song, play, and fun activities! 

Mainstream Primary School

In the heart of Khayelitsha, this primary school serves approximately 1000 children, mainly from Xhosa background. Here you will assist the teacher in the Grade R classroom by delivering English lessons, facilitating the daily routine, and helping children that are struggling with one-to-one attention. This will give you a true perspective of the schooling system in Cape Town. 

Non-Government School

This inclusive school specializes in providing a safe and positive learning environment for children who have missed school for over 6 months, are former street children, or who are at-risk youth with unstable backgrounds. The theory behind this programme is that children will thrive in a mixed environment where everyone is equal. There are approximately 95 children at this school with class sizes averaging 18 pupils. Working with the teachers of the junior grades, your role as a volunteer will be to help implement some of their intervention strategies through reading, mathematics, sports and leadership development.

Sports Development

Physical Education

In 1994 post-Apartheid, the South African government removed Physical Education from the school curriculum. As a result, student involvement in physical activity has decreased. The need for intervention remains great as sport is an integral part of youth development and helps to increase concentration and develop crucial skills such as leadership, team work, and communication. As a volunteer you will assist in one of the many township schools, primarily in Khayelitsha and Langa. You will work alongside a coach that gives each grade the opportunity for 45 minute Physical Education sessions as well as assist with:

•Creating innovative games and lesson plans
•Playing and coaching popular sports such as soccer and netball
•Designing drills and fitness tests to measure personal improvement
•Sharing your knowledge and skills with coaches and students

After-school Coaching

Extra-curricular programs provide youth with a means to get off the street and engaged in physical activity.  As a volunteer you will be given the opportunity to share your knowledge of fitness and sport with sports coaches and the community.  You will be involved in supporting the coaches to run drills, warm-ups, and referee games such as soccer, basketball, cricket, and field hockey. The students in Khayelitsha and Langa greatly benefit from your experience and friendship as you become a role model for them. 

Dance

As a volunteer you will work with one of our partners who have established dance outreach programmes in the townships of Cape Town, which reach hundreds of children from 3 years old up to teenagers. The philosophy of these programmes is to offer children who typically come from disadvantaged communities and backgrounds the opportunity to experience positivity and joy through the medium of dance. Many of these children are living in extremely challenging conditions where unemployment and poverty are rife and issues such as gangsterism and substance abuse are prevalent. These partners offer a safe environment for children to express themselves and strive to create a nurturing environment which develops self-esteem and confidence. The workshops take place in many townships across the Cape Flats area including Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Nyana, Athlone, and Grassy Park.  You will work alongside the outreach facilitators by helping to coordinate the dance workshops to ensure that they are engaging, fun and interactive. 

Healthcare

This home was established to care for abandoned and orphaned children aged between 0 and 8 years in Khayelitsha and the surrounding areas. This area of Cape Town has been hugely affected by HIV and is thought to have the highest rates in the Western Cape. The home’s main aim is to place the children into foster care as soon as they are ready. On average 60% of the children taken into the home are HIV+, therefore the first stage of the home’s process is to nurse the children back to health. Once the children are medically and emotionally stable, the home will look to recruit a foster carer so the children can be reintroduced into a family environment.  As a volunteer you will assist the home’s nurse every Monday to Friday with full health checks of every child in the home to monitor their vital signs and update their medical records. As and when the children need medical attention, you will support the health assistant with appointments at the local clinic. You will also help to stimulate the children to help them develop and enable them to eventually progress into pre-school.