We recently received some African volunteer projects news from our liaison partner, Laura Goble.

African volunteer at creche

We thought it would be a good idea to share what she had to say and show you some of the progress volunteers like you have made and some of the projects that you could be helping with in 2010. Here’s Laura:

I recently visited our projects in St. Lucia, South Africa and was again struck by just how much our staff and volunteers are getting involved in the local communities. I was delighted to be able to go on 2 game drives in the nearby iSimangaliso Game Park (a world heritage site!) with our photography volunteers as well as getting some “hands on” time on the community projects, which was wonderful.

Being able to help volunteers with building a home for one of our African families on the “10 families” project was both fun and rewarding. The 10 families project was set up earlier this year to assist some of the most needy in the local community.

Our Project Managers consult with the Induna (head chief) of the community and then meet with the family to discuss what areas they most need help with.

These are long term projects and our volunteers work with a few families over the course of 3 or 4 months.

The morning spent with the ladies at the HIV/AIDS support group was a special time. It is a great forum for them to speak about various health and family issues and offer advice and support to one another. If certain health questions arise which no one can advise on, our volunteers are able to go home and research the topic and then provide information to the ladies the following week.

The ladies also make crafts which are sold at the volunteer house, with all proceeds being given to the person who made the item. A local man, David, comes at the end of the session each week to run a yoga class with the ladies – great fun.

Unfortunately I could not get to one of the HIV/AIDS education sessions during my time in St. Lucia but these are conducted both in a local primary school as well as to an adult group, aiming to break down stigmas associated with the disease and educate the community on the prevention as well as – very importantly – how to live positively for those who have already contracted the virus.

I spent a morning on the home based care project, which is growing from strength to strength. Volunteers, along with a coordinator, go into the community visiting sick people in their homes, offering support and basic medication to treat their illnesses.

These people are often not even able to get to the clinics so the support offered them by our volunteers is hugely valuable. It is both an emotionally demanding and rewarding programme and now forms the core of our medical placement (details here).

The game drives were lovely despite an usually rainy week. My camera looked very small next those of our photography group, with their selection of large lenses, etc. but I managed to get some good pictures and found the information given from the guides to be very interesting and insightful. I think the group had seen a good selection of game although they were always on the lookout for the elusive leopard…

On Thursday evening they showed us a slide show of a few of their best pictures from the week – very
impressive.

My final morning of voluntary work in Africa was spent at the crèche which of course was great! Being able to play with the kids and watching the volunteers giving lessons and interacting with them was fantastic. One little boy who has some physical and mental disabilities really caught my heart. I’ve put in a photo here of him and myself. So for anyone who wanted to put a face to the name, you can have a look