VOLUNTEER TANZANIA

Children are at the heart of every community in Tanzania. Education of these children is incredibly important, and Tanzanian families are becoming aware of the social mobility that can be achieved through education. However, there are many problems standing between a child and their education in Tanzania. The majority of the schools we place volunteers at are constantly understaffed and are always in need of teaching support and materials. Individual children suffer from a lack of personal support and attention, and their education falters as a result. It’s clear that classroom volunteers can provide much needed assistance with large class sizes, and help provide exposure to fluent native English. Working with teachers, you’ll help improve children’s education not only in English, but subjects like math and geography are universal as well, and you’ll be looking to help out the development in all areas. Working with other volunteers and resident teachers, you'll build on the work of previous volunteers to help the children progress in all areas of the curriculum, through traditional teaching methods, and fun activities such as games, art and physical activity. Working with children is enormous fun anywhere in the world, and it is a great privilege to help a child towards a brighter future, one we would like to share with all our volunteers. This program needs volunteers because the majority of Tanzanian schools are understaffed, there is a lack of proper teaching equipment and the few staff they have are not well qualified. We believe that education is extremely important to improve the lives of orphans and poor children and hence volunteers are needed to encourage and help these children to complete their education. We place our volunteers in private schools, public schools, or orphanage schools. In this program, volunteers can choose whether to be the sole teacher in the classroom or assist local teachers. Most schools have a total number of children ranging from 140 to 300, the children’s ages range from 3 years to 13 years. Most schools select their children from the surrounding area from low income families but also accept orphans who are in great need. Volunteers will teach classes depending on their education, confidence and experiences.

The School is called Elshadia school, there are approximately 150 students and 5 teachers. It is a core education day primary school. Subjects taught are: English, math, social studies (geography, history) science (biology, physics, chemistry), art and physical education.

The volunteer’s duties and emphasis of the work will depend on his/her educational background, past experience and expertise. The role of the volunteer can be: assist local teachers with daily classes; develop the curriculums and materials of the technical trainings; develop the curriculum and improve the pedagogical and methodological capacity of the trainers in life skills, youth participation and environmental education; support inclusiveness (inclusion of disabled students and students with special needs, inclusion of women); support in strengthening the school administration and infrastructure; develop student support services in the polytechnics that participate in the project. This could include for example developing monitoring tools for the polytechnics, student counselling and career guidance, as well as social and psychological support for the students.

English Tutoring: It's very possible for us to organize an English tutoring program for individuals or small groups of students who are unable to keep up with their class. It is also possible to arrange a special Speech therapy sessions or Speech Pathology for special needs schools and primary school teachers. Even a workshop can be beneficial.

REQUIREMENTS: Volunteers DO NOT need to be qualified or experienced teachers. Be 18 years of age or older. Have a minimum of 2 weeks availability. An intermediate to advanced level of English is needed for this project. Swahili is an advantage but not a requirement. It is recommended for participants to work for one month or more but not absolutely necessary. Work Hours: 6–8 hours per day, Monday through Friday, with evenings and weekends off to travel. In some cases, you may be required to work on Saturdays or Sundays depending on the activities planned. It is important to maintain flexibility in order to meet program and participant needs, which can sometimes change quickly in response to local events.

Be open and flexible, the truth is, things change on the ground, and much of your success as a volunteer will be based on how you’re able to adapt, shift gears, and come up with creative solutions to the problems you face. Dress accordingly. If you’re working in a School, dress simply but with clean clothes. Cleanliness shows respect towards the people you are working with. One very important thing to remember for participants in this program is that it normally takes a couple of days or sometimes a week before they start to get into the routines of the school, get to know the staff, and also let the staff get to know them.

ACCOMMODATION: We have two options in terms of accommodation, a volunteer house and a homestay. In our volunteer house two options are available; we have both dormitory style rooms and private rooms. Volunteer placement is not close to the accommodation. The placement is about 3 km away. We don't provide transport, but volunteers do take public transport to and from the placement. Volunteers and interns can also choose to live with a host family. The host families are within 15-40 minutes from work by bus. The host families will provide 3 meals a day, a private bedroom with a lock, a shared bathroom (with hot water), electricity, and running water. Please note that the electricity may sometimes be cut off at certain hours in the day time. This applies to the whole city, not just to one family. The host families have gone through security and background checks, so they are safe to stay with. All the host families are selected since they are friendly and welcoming families who are interested in sharing their culture with foreigners.

As we know, sports and games are very important for proper learning and understanding of a child in class, improving concentration, teamwork and physical fitness. We place volunteers in schools where they can teach the children sports and physical education. Football is a huge passion in Tanzania and you’ll find most premiership games on at bars in towns and villages and there is a huge enthusiasm for learning how to play the game better and setting up competitive teams. Other sports such as netball and athletics are popular too, and often won’t be taught formally to children. This is an amazing opportunity to share your passion for sport to teach and train groups of children who may never have received formal sports training before.

The special needs centre lacks the skilled personnel and relevant equipment to deliver the special care and attention needed to provide these children with a stimulating environment. Volunteers help with education and providing one on one stimulus and motivation for the disabled children. While on this program, volunteers may also be required to help with moving, lifting and handling, personal hygiene and other daily tasks that the children simply cannot perform on their own. This particular program is quite an intense volunteer experience, but one that will provide an ultimate reward. If you choose to, there could be an opportunity for you to sponsor a child that you connect well with and develop a relationship with after you finish the program and return home.

Working with local tradesmen, you’ll be building classrooms, renovating schools, and improving local infrastructure. It’s hard, rewarding physical work that’ll leave you with a great sense of achievement. From bricklaying to painting, the skills aren't hard to pick up if you don’t know how already, and you’ll be rubbing shoulders with members of the local community, making friends and improving the surroundings. You'll learn new skills, and contribute to the building of village pharmacies, orphanages and schools that may well stand for generations.

PLEASE NOTE: This program will require an additional $110.00 CAD for building supplies and requires a minimum duration of two weeks.