Take a gap year in Africa for volunteer work and travel. An Africa gap year is an excellent place for volunteer work abroad, whether you help communities in Africa or take part in nature conservation programmes. Africa has an amazing diversity of wildlife in some of the most unspoilt wilderness and conservation areas in the world, with Real Gap's projects as some of the best available in Africa conservation.
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If you are patient, enthusiastic, enjoy working with children and want to gain some valuable volunteer experience, then this worthwhile programme is waiting for you!
This is a unique opportunity to reach and experience the heart of real South Africa in a small community near Cape Town and get involved with the children as you help with their sports activities at the school, one thing is for sure, their enthusiasm will be unbelievable!
Travel to an amazing location in South Africa where you will not only have the opportunity to soak up the wonderful surroundings and lifestyle but also help brighten the lives of orphaned and disadvantaged children in Cape Town
There are hundreds of children in Cape Town’s inner city who live in poverty and are do not have the opportunity of an education and who have to grow up quickly to be able to survive. They do not experience a childhood that you or I take for granted. This is where your help will prove invaluable!
Join our action packed adventure tour and take in amazing scenery and incredible animal experiences. Enjoy the best South Africa's wildlife and try out thrilling abseiling, zip slides and sky high canopy tours.
Help the local children of the Masiphumelele township learn the basic skills they need in life including literacy, language and communication skills. Your interaction can greatly influence a brighter future for these disadvantaged children.
This is a great opportunity to experience the real South Africa in a small community near Cape Town, as well as making a massive difference to children’s lives by helping them to reading. Not only is this a very rewarding project but you will also be helping towards a generation of children build a brighter future.
Choose from a huge range of projects set up to improve the lives of disadvantaged children and adults in a great part of Tanzania. You could teach in primary or secondary schools, raise awareness of AIDS, or get involved in handicraft projects.
Experience an exciting and varied volunteer project on a beautiful Big 5 Game Reserve near to South Africa’s coast. Assist in conservation management whilst learning new skills and meeting some great people. You will also have the opportunity to take part in a worthwhile community project.
Discover the real Tanzania exploring the stunning scenery and wildlife on safari before joining a hugely rewarding child development project in Zanzibar, where you can help disadvantaged children at a local nursery.
Get involved with teaching, playing, singing and ultimately ensuring that you enthuse the local children about their education on this rewarding programme on the beautiful island of Zanzibar.
Work with local staff to offer friendship, love and support to orphans and disadvantaged children in West Africa. Help with homework, organise fun games and activities and most importantly build friendships and trust in this rewarding programme in the beautiful country of Ghana.
Enable school children from poor backgrounds the chance to a better future by helping to teach English, Maths, Science and Sports. This is a truly life changing project for both you and the children.
Surround yourself with some of Africa's most beautiful animals on this fantastic 2 week volunteer project. Located in South Africa, you will be assisting in caring for Lions, Leopards and Hyena's as well as many other species of wildlife.
Help Coach and play football with keen young players in a country where the sport borders on religion by assisting with well thought-out training and matches. Encounter Ghana’s other undiscovered marvels including rainforests, golden beaches and some of Africa’s friendliest people!
Help care and teach orphans and children whose parents can no longer look after them. Your love and attention can make a huge difference to the children in these two centres near Port Elizabeth.
Choose the 14-week placement which includes accommodation and meals during the 2010 Football World Cup!
Get close to the fastest mammal in the world! Monitor cheetahs and leopards and help restore the plains back to their natural state. You’ll play a vital role in preserving African wildlife for the future.
Help relieve the pressure on teachers who have up to 200 children to look after! Any assistance with core and creative subjects, and sport, will be much appreciated by everyone in the community.
Help improve the literacy, numeracy and communication skills of children in Port Elizabeth; you can really make a difference to the lives of your students and their future prospects.
Choose the 14 week placement which includes accommodation and meals during the 2010 Football World Cup!
Namibia is a vast and impressive country located on Africa’s south west coast where the scorched deserts that cover the country meet in dramatic style with the ice-cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean. This spectacular coastline stretches the entire 1600km length of the country from the infamous Skeleton Coast in the north to the vast Namib Desert in the south.
This worthwhile project gives volunteers the opportunity to work in sports organisations and community clinics in Ghana. You will assist in providing physiotherapy treatment to West African athletes and local patients whilst experiencing a different culture and way of live in this beautiful country.
Dedicate your energy and skills to helping some of the world’s poorest children. Assist with community support, improve orphan skills, or spend your time teaching basic subjects and organising school activities.
Go back to basics in the Namib Desert as you take part in projects that help elephants and landowners to live together in harmony. You’ll go on a unique elephant patrol and get involved in building projects.
Embark on a life changing marine odyssey and feast your eyes on rare and beautiful species as you travel from the shores of Mozambique to coast of Costa Rica. Mozambique – Sri Lanka – Peru – Costa Rica
Use your football knowledge to help coach these children in a country where football fever is building as it prepares to host the World Cup in June 2010. You will be running coaching sessions, organize tournaments and share your passion for football with African children.
Choose the 14 week placement which includes accommodation and meals during the 2010 Football World Cup!
Get stuck into the demanding but highly rewarding work of caring for sick animals, building enclosures, darting and relocating animals, and helping release them into natural surroundings.
Whether you work in an orphanage, women’s centre, school or clinic, you’ll be giving something back to an underdeveloped but extremely friendly community. Living with a local family will give you extraordinary insight into Ghanaian life. Project Video Now Online
Keep young people off the streets with sports sessions. Coach football, netball, rounders or whatever you fancy – even the simplest drills will fire their enthusiasm! Get involved in successful conservation and construction projects, too.
Set off on an incredible journey across the world’s most fascinating continent! Discover the hidden secrets of the African plains and get to know its wildest inhabitants as you walk with lions and hang out with monkeys! Zimbabwe - Namibia - South Africa.
Help provide AIDS victims with food, shelter, emotional support, education and increased awareness of the disease. Children who have lost their parents to AIDS are given the chance of a better future through this programme.
Enjoy the best bits of Tanzania, hand-picked by Real Gap staff. Carry out rewarding project work on a community project, trek Mt Kilimanjaro and go on a camping safari in some of the best scenery in Africa!
Covering Thailand, China, Malaysia, Africa and Australia, this really is the ultimate wildlife experience! Lend a hand with vital conservation work across the globe and get up close to a variety of animals! Zimbabwe - Thailand - China - Malaysia - Australia - USA
Do the unthinkable - walk with lions! Collect data, carry out research and watch as the lion cubs learn to hunt. You’ll also educate local children, and pay a memorable visit to elephant orphans.
As seen on ITV’s incredible Lion Country series, meet the stars of the show yourself!
Experience the ultimate in wildlife conservation and walk with lions through the African bush. As you walk alongside the lions, enjoy the exhilaration of being part of a hunt as the young cubs learn to stalk their prey so that eventually they can be released back into the wild.
As seen on ITV’s incredible Lion Country series, meet the stars of the show yourself!
Experience raw Africa through the plains of Kenya. You’ll witness it's breathtaking landscapes, learn about nomadic cultures, help provide first hand data on wildlife activities and promote harmony between the community and wildlife.
Actively help to save endangered wildlife species in Zululand by initiating, implementing and managing some of the most exciting monitoring projects in this part of South Africa.
Experience life in Kenya from the inside with the Kenya Gap Experience. It includes community work, a wildlife safari, a snorkelling excursion, visits to Diani, beach parties – and an overwhelming sense of achievement.
Channel the enthusiasm of poor but extremely eager children into learning. Teach English, run after-school activities, organise sports lessons and give them a chance to make a success of their lives.
Swim with great whites…in a cage! Sail through Sharks’ Alley, among seals and penguins, while you record shark activity. Tuition on shark behaviour, underwater filming and lots more will give you an in depth understanding of these magnificent creatures.
Spend your gap year on a travel extravaganza across Africa, Australasia and the USA! In just 12 months, you’ll take in the best of South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and the American South! Africa – Australia – New Zealand – Fiji – USA
Help run training lessons and matches for township children in Port Elizabeth and give them the chance to play the game in a fun and rewarding environment.
Choose the 14 week placement which includes accommodation and meals during the 2010 Football World Cup!
Volunteers with medical qualifications assist in hospitals while those that don’t are just as valuable in the orphanages. Plus, you’ll be involved in tough but very rewarding work to improve life in Nairobi slums.
Nurse injured and orphaned monkeys, plus baboons, snakes, crocodiles and any other animals needing attention. Longer-staying volunteers have the chance to work on sites that release monkeys back into the wild. Project Video Now Online
Give some much-needed assistance to medical staff. Help out at a hospital or clinic in the mornings, then dedicate your skills to playing with children, renovating schools or the Elephant Pepper Project in the afternoons.
Learn to build houses the Swazi way! Get hands-on construction, painting and repair experience and provide children with secure shelter and proper facilities. A great project that desperately needs volunteer support.
Walk with lions and watch cubs hunt their first prey. This is a rare opportunity to get close to wild animals while contributing to valuable breeding and release work. Explore the grasslands on horseback or elephant-back, too.
As seen on ITV’s incredible Lion Country series, meet the stars of the show yourself!
Spend your time in Malawi introducing children to community sports and getting involved with community projects. Based in an idyllic but desperately poor country, you’ll make a real difference to young people’s lives.
Give vulnerable children what they crave – love and affection. By organising games, teaching them basic English and maths, and helping build profiles of deprived children, you’ll play a vital role in improving their quality of life.
Improve your cricket skills at world class facilities in South Africa with help from some of the game's greats including past stars. This is a great opportunity to raise your cricket game to new heights as well as discover a magnificent country.
This is a fantastic opportunity to experience African wilderness whilst contributing to the conservation of large carnivores in this area. The carnivore research project offers a hands-on scientific experience as well as helping to conserve habitats and wildlife.
Help teach invaluable computer and sport skills set amongst Africa’s most spectacular scenery. This is a great teaching project, especially for first time travellers or those who may be nervous about taking the first step to teach. Project Video Now Online
Take part in projects aimed at helping children and adults in rural Mozambique. They could be fun days, English lessons, HIV/AIDS workshops, football tournaments, craft workshops, cooking lessons or house rebuilding for disabled villagers.
Handle rhino, train elephants and make a real difference to the future of endangered species in Zimbabwe. Living close to the animals will give you a unique insight into their lives and make for fantastic photos opportunities.
Internationally recognised all over the world, the online TEFL courses will enable you to teach and travel wherever you want, the only question is deciding where you want to teach!
Take an unforgettable tour of southern Africa, getting close to game in South Africa, working with orphans in Swaziland and snorkelling with whale sharks in Mozambique. Indian Ocean beaches provide a paradisiacal finale!
Make a difference volunteering in clinics and hospitals in Ghana whilst help local medical staff administer essential treatment to their patients. You will also be supporting under funded clinics and overworked staff as well as gaining invaluable insight into medical care in Africa.
Get up close and personal with whale sharks – they eat plankton, not humans! Learn to dive in tropical waters and collect data on whale sharks, coral reefs and turtles.
Make a difference to a country crippled by AIDS and unemployment. Help teachers with English classes or give your own lessons, set up new sports clubs, put on plays or get involved in building new facilities for the schools.
Experience some of the best sights and culture in Southern Africa whilst giving vital help and support to desperate families in two project locations. Combine volunteer work with children and families in need with travelling along the stunning Wild Coast and Garden Route from Swaziland to Cape Town.
Get yourself on course to manage a game farm or nature reserve. Surrounded by the Big Five and other African wildlife, you’ll learn about educational bush walks, how to identify animals, game tracking, navigation and more. Project Video Now Online
Get hands-on with orphaned and injured animals. The centre cares for big cats, baboons, crocodiles and many others, and is also working to tackle the problem of wild animals attacking farmers’ livestock.
Study the fascinating workings of the African savannah and help protect its fragile ecosystem. Enjoy a five day Kruger safari where you’ll have the chance to see elephants, rhinos, lions and leopards before working along side wildlife researchers in a national park in Swaziland learning hands-on conservation techniques.
If you’re looking to play rugby abroad, then there are few places that surpass South Africa as the ultimate rugby destination. With first class facilities this is quite possibly the best place to train and play rugby anywhere in the world.
Volunteer on different projects in this community in South-West Zambia. Helping to improve the lives of disadvantaged children and adults you will build mud hut homes for locals and assist in the pre-school, out patients department and home for the elderly. You will also experience a trip into Botswana for a bush camp and wildlife safari.
This intensive hockey programme involves individual skills training, fitness work and plenty of competitive match play, all in one of the world’s strongest hockey nations, South Africa.
Learn to Scuba dive at one of the best locations in the world, South Africa where you can swim with amazing marine life, including dolphins and seals. Whether you’re a beginner and just want to learn the basics or you’re thinking of starting a career in the industry, we have the course available to you!
Coach young, enthusiastic rugby players in the townships surrounding Port Elizabeth and experience the passion of South African rugby. The players you coach could form the next generation of Springboks and you will also have plenty of time to play rugby against local club teams yourself.
Choose the 14 week placement which includes accommodation and meals during the 2010 Football World Cup!
Learn to ride the waves at the surfing Mecca of South Africa (Jeffrey’s Bay) with some of the world’s top instructors. This course is open to complete beginners as well as those wanting to improve there skills and is endorsed by the South African Surf Association.
Combine paid work, volunteering and travelling into one fantastic gap year. Take the hassle out of the planning and set off on an adrenalin packed and worthwhile experience through South Africa, Australia and Thailand! South Africa - Australia - Thailand
Sample some of Africa’s exhilarating highlights. Camp in Kruger National Park with the big five, do a volunteer placement in Swaziland and learn to scuba dive in Mozambique. An adventure with a bit of everything!
Play a part in protecting South Africa’s beautiful Wild Coast. Work at a lion cub centre, sleep under the stars, learn about wildlife management, go on game drives and bushwalks, and more – perfect for outdoor people!
Through work experience at radio stations, newspapers and TV centres, you will gain valuable insight into the journalism and media industry in this beautiful country. This is a great internship placement to gain first hand experience whilst working with local journalists to help under-funded organisations.
Let sport work its magic on enthusiastic but deprived children in Swaziland. Organise sports days and run training sessions in football, tennis, netball and volleyball – or all four. Don’t be surprised if the children mob you!
Need a career change? Want a qualification? Always dreamt of working alongside the wildlife of Africa? Then this is field guide course in South Africa is the ideal programme for you!
Immerse yourself in a very different, very welcoming but very poor community and help with academic lessons and sports coaching. Perfect for people wanting to put their interest in a range of sports towards a worthwhile use.
Take this amazing opportunity to coach netball to young and often gifted players at the townships surrounding Port Elizabeth, also known as “The Friendly City". You will be helping to introducing the basics of the game, run fun training sessions, which will help these children play a sport they love.
Choose the 14 week placement which includes accommodation and meals during the 2010 Football World Cup!
Address your weaknesses, perfect your strengths and lower your overall handicap as you develop your ability at one of South Africa’s leading golf clubs.
Help provide much needed medical assistance and educate the local community about HIV/AIDS awareness on this medical programme in the beautiful location of St Lucia.
Live a horse lover’s dream! Help with the day-to-day care of neglected and abused horses and build up their confidence. You’ll be able to ride the Wild Coast’s spectacular beach and bush trails too.
Scale to the peak of the world's highest free-standing mountain and witness amazing views of Tanzania and Kenya. Join this great trek and get an immense sense of achievement when you reach the summit with the rest of your group.
Take this great opportunity to coach hockey to young and often gifted players in a great location. You will be introducing the basics of the game, run fun training sessions, build close friendships with your players and possibly even play for a local team!
Choose the 14 week placement which includes accommodation and meals during the 2010 Football World Cup!
Help teach the children in the areas surrounding Port Elizabeth the abiltity to swim. Not only is this a hugely gratifying experience, you will also leave a lasting impression on the children you meet and teach them a skill that could save their lives!
Put your love of photography to good use on a World Heritage Site. Photograph elephants, rhinos and many other creatures for a database, and possibly magazines. You’ll also teach local children about their surroundings.
Get up close and personal with Africa’s wildlife, from Black Mambas to Baboon Spiders. As a reptile centre volunteer, you’ll be involved in research, feeding, building enclosures, demonstrating and much more. Project Video Now Online
Offer vital support to young boys in Tanzania – AIDS victims, and those who have been neglected or abused. Teach them the skills and show them the affection they’ll need to lead happier lives as adults.
Join the Tanzania Street Children Sports Experience to enhance the lives of many Tanzanian orphans and street children in this incredible project. Your efforts will help to promote essential lessons and life-skills and will also give some orphans and street children the opportunity to train and play sports at a much higher level.
