People looking to volunteer in South Africa in  the next year should look at when they want to travel and pay particular attention to the upcoming football world cup.

It’s not going to make a big difference to your actual African volunteer projects but it’s likely to have quite a big impact on flights to and from the continent.

The tournament starts on Friday 11th June 2010 (when South Africa as hosts open against Mexico) and the final is a month later, 11th July. As every continent has representatives in the world cup finals, flight prices from almost anywhere are likely to escalate a while before, and during the competition.

If you’re thinking of becoming a volunteer in Africa during this time we certainly wouldn’t want you to be put off, and there are options.

If you’re considering coming for a considerable time it will be less of a challenge, particularly if you plan to arrive before and leave after. Indeed if you were initially thinking about a short period of volunteering work, it might actually be more economical to stay longer and make the savings on the flight costs. You would need to look into this, of course, and we can help you here if you like (just drop us a line here).

The other main alternative is to choose your African volunteering project now and book your flights as soon as possible. The earlier you are able to do this the better. Although world cup tickets are already on sale, many people don’t book their flights at the same time so there is still some availability – although there’s no knowing when this will change.

The final option is to fly into a neighbouring country and get into South Africa by other means. From Windhoek in Namibia you can get a bus, which you can also do from Gaborone in Botswana. You could also fly to other parts of Africa, Kenya’s Nairobi airport for example, then take an internal flight. Of course many avid football fans will have the same information so you still want to make your decision as early as possible!

We would like your valuable help in South Africa for as long as possible, so not surprisingly we would like you to make your volunteering stay a long one and avoid high flight prices that way – but however you want to do it, we will help in any way we can. Just get in touch.

Here are the South African volunteer projects for 2010:

Medical and Clinic Assistance, Cape Town, South Africa

Sports Coaching and Physical Education, Cape Town, South African

Teaching and Community Development, Cape Town, South Africa

Medical Assistance and HIV/AIDS Awareness, St Lucia, South Africa

African Wildlife Photography and Conservation, St Lucia, South Africa

Orphan Care and HIV/AIDS Awareness, St Lucia, South Africa

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