Christmas Volunteering In Livingstone, Zambia Detail

Christmas Volunteering In Livingstone, Zambia

In December the schools are on their extended summer breaks, therefore, African Impact runs a varied programme of Holiday Clubs for up to a 100 children. Children in Zambia are always eager to learn and holiday clubs are an excellent way to provide school children with an additional source of education, sports and a creative outlet. Our wide range of afternoon community development programmes continue to run regardless of the time of year – help is still very much needed at the old people’s home, farming, building, sports coaching, and on the medical home based care project.

African Impact will organise a special Christmas Day activity either with one of the orphanages in Livingstone or at the Maramba Old People’s Home, as we have previously done, to bring some festive fun to some of the neglected and vulnerable members of the community.  In addition the team will provide a special Christmas meal and games to make your African Christmas one that you will never forget! If you are in Livingstone for New Years Eve there will be a massive party at one of the town hot spots to see in 2013!

Holiday Clubs in December
Holiday clubs are extremely important as they offer students valuable time to catch up on learning missed during term time due to the Zambian “hot seating” system. Due to limited classroom space and teachers, each class receives a few hours of teaching each day and then goes home so that the next class can come for school; this is what is meant by “hot seating”. Not only do holiday clubs give young people a safe environment to spend their summer holidays, it is also a lot of fun whilst serving as an effective educational tool.  You will teach lessons for the first half of the morning and then engage the students in recreational activities and games and teach the importance of a healthy lifestyle. For self-starters, this project is a fantastic way to direct instruction for a few weeks and leave your mark on the students’ education.

AFTERNOON COMMUNITY PROJECTS
After having spent the morning assisting with the Holiday Clubs you will help out the local community in different areas in the afternoon. You will rotate between the following community projects: 

Build / paint / refurbish schools and clinics:
Schools in Livingstone deal with a great shortage of classrooms, and as a result most children do not receive the full day of class that they need. With the help and guidance of professional builders and the communities we work with, we are aiming to build new classrooms for as many schools as we can raise funds for. Volunteers will help with mixing cement, making and laying bricks, laying concrete floors, plastering walls, and painting. It is hard, but highly rewarding work! In addition, we refurbish and paint existing classrooms.    

Home Based Care / Farming:
There are several Home Based Care programmes run by local volunteers in districts of Livingstone such as Maramba, Ngwenya, Libuyu, Nakatindi, and Dambwa. The volunteer workers spend each morning visiting patients within their local community. The patients generally have HIV (and various afflictions due to a low immune system), TB and malaria, to name a few ailments. Patients often cannot afford to go the clinic or hospital.

The Home Based Care community volunteers rely on medical supplies given to them by the government health department (which happens rarely) or donations.  However, some have secured their own plots of land that they use to farm for the purpose of raising money for their initiative. This is obviously the most sustainable way to ensure their project continues independently of aid.

We would like to assist all communities in setting up farming initiatives, as well as helping with actual work on the farm. The goal is to help in the initial set-up stages by assisting with the acquisition of land, tools and seeds.  Volunteers then help to prepare the land and work alongside the committee of local farmers and Home Based Care Givers with planting, watering, weeding and harvesting. With each new planting season, the local committee becomes more self-sufficient and are able to purchase more of their own seeds, allowing new farms to be developed.

Reading Club:
We arrange for students at various schools to come back to the club in the afternoon where our volunteers will assist with the literacy and reading skills of the children. As a volunteer, armed with your box of books, you will arrive at the school and help give the students the extra support that they need, including teaching them phonics, spelling, pronunciation and general reading and comprehension skills. It is essential that kids are literate in English in order to complete their education and improve their chances of securing a job later on in life.

Art Club:
Use a holiday club session (or possibly an afternoon session) to nurture the kids’ creativity! Volunteers will plan their own art club using suggested lesson plans, their initiative and creative ideas. Here you can encourage students to deal with a variety of issues through art. For example, you can hold an anti drugs campaign using your art club to produce posters, or make demonstrative models during the session in order to educate them on many different topics. You could also produce seasonal art e.g. Christmas cards, Christmas decorations, Easter masks etc., have finger painting sessions or papier mache - the possibilities are endless!! There is not much time in the syllabus for creative activities so this is a great outlet for the kids, and lots of fun.

Adult Literacy Club:
Not only a very popular activity amongst volunteers but also an extremely important project aimed at helping adults become more employable in a country with a literacy rate of only 60%.  There is a structured syllabus with beginners / intermediate / advanced classes, lesson plans, tests and a certificate upon successful completion.  The course will improve the students understanding of written and oral English as well as mathematics.

Maramba Old People’s Home (MOPH):
Elderly homes are not common in Zambia, and Africa in general, because culturally elders in a community stay with and are cared for by their family. People arrive at MOPH, therefore, from far and wide, destitute and typically without anyone to look after or visit them. Volunteers assist the understaffed facility with daily tasks such as cleaning, cooking, etc. and also engage the residents in games, reading, physical activities, etc.  The project is a great way to provide stimulation and improve the living conditions for the residents.

Family Support:
Kids here have to grow up really quickly as they are expected to help out with numbers of chores at home and older siblings help to look after the younger ones in typically large families. Volunteers run structured playtimes with children at pre-selected locations, taking along balls, jump ropes and colouring books and crayons, and spend the
afternoon interacting and having fun with the kids. This time allows them an opportunity just to be kids; to play games, be carefree and expend some of their boundless energy.

Project Costs:

2 Weeks     GBP660 / EUR860 / USD1185
4 Weeks     GBP995 / EUR1295 / USD1795

Christmas Volunteering, Holiday Clubs, Old peoples home, Community projects, December volunteering, Family Support, Home Based Care.