Cape Town Teaching and Development Project

Project Age Limit
Minimum 18 years, maximum decided on potential participants’ health

Hundreds of children in the areas surrounding Cape Town in South Africa are living in poverty and not receiving the type of education or childhood that they deserve. This project involves providing vital teaching assistance at two schools within underprivileged communities of Fish Hoek, on the outskirts of Cape Town.

You will also assist in various aspects of community work and development initiatives to provide you with a diverse and varied experience and an insight into the lives of underprivileged individuals in Cape Town.

Your Project
You will spend your time teaching in 2 different schools within the Fish Hoek area, on the outskirts of Cape Town whilst also assisting in a number of excellent development schemes, aimed at supporting the wider community. These projects are outlined below.

Project Teaching
Children in Red Hill pre-schools have a severe lack of facilities and are taught from containers that have been brought into the community as donations. As a volunteer you will work as a teaching assistant in the classroom. You will find that most of the schools have meagre and ill-equipped facilities, but a wealth of children with a desire to learn. As a volunteer, you will assist teachers and contribute to our effort of providing children with a better education.

You will spend most of your time assisting teachers, so that you can give children the individual attention they desire but hardly ever get. In addition, you will have the opportunity to organise your own classes.

The first school in Red Hill is open from 8am until 3.30pm and has 20 pupils and one teacher. This little pre-school has been running for over 10 years and the children from the community have been lead by the teaching of a dedicated lady named Vuyiseka for the past 4 years, who is also assisted by the cook Siphokazi. The school is run out of several containers with very limited resources. The 20 children range between 1 and 6 years of age and are provided with 2 meals a day, which is sponsored by the Community Development Project.

Due to the current circumstances, the CDP are unable to sponsor the teachers wages and so as of January 2008, the school would come to a close. We have stepped in and decided to adopt this school and pay for the teacher and cook’s monthly wages. This will be financed through your volunteer project fees.

Our second school acts as an education centre, which is open from 7am until 5pm and has 35 pupils and 3 teachers. Situated on the upper slopes of Red Hill lies this pre school of children coming from more Afrikaans backgrounds. Three dedicated ladies run the school and the children, who range in age from 9 months to 6 years old. The centre has a lot better facilities than the rural pre-school, due to a generous donation from a Dutch gentleman, who sadly passed away recently. That said, the children are just as in need of assistance, care and attention as any others in this disadvantaged community.

Your role as a volunteer:

• Teaching assistance: Provide individual attention and assistance to children during lessons
• Help with crafts, painting, reading and games
• Organise special-needs classes for children who have fallen behind with their education
• Implement the “learn to read” programme which is an amazing one-on-one learning initiative which has had great success in other schools in the Cape Town area
• Organise and coach sport events
• Help with giving the children their meals. Every child receives a meal at most basic schools, which is often their only meal that day
• Help clean, maintain and even refurbish the classrooms, most of which are quite run down.

Please Note: During the school holidays volunteers will assist teachers in the community projects and also be involved in building, painting, holiday clubs and much more! Though the project might be slightly less ‘structured’ than during school term, there will be NO shortage of amazing, rewarding and exciting work to do with the local kids and in the local communities.

Community Development Projects
After having spent the morning at a school, you will help out the local community in different areas in the afternoon. You will rotate between the following community projects:
Build and paint schools, extra mural involvement and the reading programme: Schools in Red Hill deal with a great shortage of classrooms and facilities, as a result of which they are limited to the amount of children they can take. As a volunteer, you will help with fixing fences and windows, rebuilding and painting. It is hard but highly rewarding work! In addition, we refurbish and paint existing classrooms and containers.

Education and Care Centre: This centre houses 115 children with just 7 teachers. You will assist teachers with the afternoon after-care by helping to serve meals, playing with the kids, reading both one on one and story time and with any other skills they have i.e. art, music and dancing. Volunteers with adult skills such as computer, administration, financial or training can also add huge value to the teachers lives.

Against the backdrop of displaced communities, poverty, HIV/AIDS, unemployment and social decay, the project aims to foster healthy self-reliant and sustainable communities. The centre provides an oasis for local children surviving in difficult circumstances. However the centre was severely under-resourced and struggled to provide a meaningful education. With community involvement, the centre has now become a vibrant pre-school boasting a fully equipped school building with newly acquired furniture, classroom and office equipment, and quality educational material. We accommodate 115 happy children in five classes: two toddler classes and two pre-school classes.

Community Development Project: The Community Development Project was started to support both orphans and children with HIV/AIDS living in and around the local area. Many mothers from the community volunteered to take care of the children belonging to this project as they feel that it is important to show their love and support to these children. These volunteers feel that the entire community should take a stand to protect and care for these young children who are between the ages of 3 and 12 years old. The CDP support 12 pre schools in the greater area and volunteers would assist teachers, play with the kids, and help with stories, remedial work, reading and art.

Project Support
Throughout your stay in Cape Town you will have the support and guidance of our experienced project managers. They are part of our greater African support team, which will provide you with competent 24-hour field support and assistance. You will also have access to a 24 hour emergency contact number so that you can always reach a member of our UK team should you need to.

Project Orientation
Upon arrival in Cape Town all volunteers are involved in a comprehensive orientation programme, which is included in your fee. This is facilitated by your project manager and entails:

• An introduction to the town of Cape Town and surrounding Cape Peninsula and the communities you will be working in.
• An introduction to all our projects. Not only will you see where you will be working, you will also see where your fellow volunteers will be spending their days.
• At the orientation, volunteers will also receive our detailed ‘welcome pack’, which will contain further useful information for your time with us.