Volunteer projects in Africa

Volunteer projects in Africa give you the chance to be a responsible tourist and make a positive contribution during your time there. Africa is an incredibly beautiful continent and a fantastic gap year destination, but so much of Africa remains deprived - so volunteer projects in Africa are essentially an opportunity to give up some of your time in order to do your own ‘small bit' to help tackle some of these problems.

It's easy to imagine that working on volunteer projects in Africa is a depressing experience but, in actual fact, the very opposite is usually the case. You'll find many of the local people you encounter when you're working on volunteer projects in Africa have a tremendous spirit - despite the fact that they may be suffering hardships. Volunteer projects in Africa allow you to get to know locals - both the people you're helping and fellow project workers - in a way that's just not possible if you travel Africa as part of a conventional organised tour. In this sense, volunteer projects on an gap year in Africa provide you with a far more authentic and rewarding gap year travel experience. It's likely that you'll also be working alongside other like-minded travellers as well - so the post-work social life is usually excellent.

For the vast majority of volunteer projects in Africa, it's not necessary for travellers to possess any particular skills or experience - most volunteer projects in Africa are simply looking for people with plenty of energy and enthusiasm. Real Gap has a broad range of volunteer projects in Africa to choose from in nine different countries - so it's important to take some time deciding which programme most suits your abilities and interests.

Real Gap's volunteer projects in Africa focuses on the following two main fields…

Volunteer projects in Africa - Wildlife and the environment

Many travellers opt for volunteer projects in Africa that enable them to get involved with essential wildlife or environmental conservation work. For example Real Gap's newest volunteer project in Africa is our WWF-endorsed black rhino programme in Zimbabwe.

Volunteer projects in Africa - People

If you'd prefer to get involved with volunteer projects in Africa which help disadvantaged or impoverished people there are also plenty of hugely worthwhile community volunteering programmes to choose from - ranging from the chance to teach English in schools to providing support to people affected in any way by Africa's AIDS epidemic.

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