Situated just off the Tanzanian coast in East Africa, Zanzibar is a fascinating archipelago with a deeply embedded history, an intriguing blend of cultures and stunningly beautiful beaches and sea life.

Renowned for its white-sand beaches and turquoise waters, it is also home to many historical monuments, Chumbe Island Marine Reserve and Jozani Forest, where the indigenous Red-colobus monkey can be found. The South coast offers you the chance to swim with dolphins in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.

Zanzibar Town, also known as old Stone Town (declared a world heritage site by UNESCO), is the capital of the archipelago. With a unique mix of Indian, Arab, and African mainland influences, its mesmerising culture permeates the main islands. The old Stone Town, with its narrow alleys winding amongst bustling markets and mosques, boasts amazingly crafted large wooden doors, which can be admired for hours.

Jambiani, where you will spend most of your time as a volunteer, is a village located on the southern part of Zanzibar’s beautiful and quiet east coast. About an hour’s drive from Stone Town, Jambiani is a long village stretched along the coastline, with stunning and long white-sand beaches where it will seem like you can walk forever. Here you will find a community operating at a leisurely pace amidst the sunny, tropical climate.

You will witness incredible sunrises and enjoy the warm waters, but more importantly gain a deep insight into life on the island and an array of experiences you will treasure for a long time.

Project Achievements so far:

From April 2008 to May 2009 African Impact volunteers contributed over 5850 hours to community development in the Jambiani community in Zanzibar. Our project structures, together with the support and advice of our charitable foundation team at The Happy Africa Foundation, are continuously assessing our work and project strategies to ensure that these hours are meaningful with measurable outcomes.

For the same period, we painted the inside and outside of the Sirijati Nursery School as well as redo the floor and posters inside the classrooms.  We also developed the gardens and put fences around all the trees at Ibrahim Milaat Nursery School, as well as varnishing all their doors. Our volunteers have also helped to teach English and computer keyboarding skills to the students at the Local Training Institute in Jambiani.

Despite being one of the Indian Ocean’s most renowned tropical paradises, Zanzibar’s local communities are severely affected by lack of education & training and unemployment. There are many possibilities to impact the lives of those affected by these problems, by getting involved in the local nursery, primary and secondary schools, tourism training schools and local environmental programmes to aid community development.

Location: Jambiani, Zanzibar Island (off the coast of Tanzania).

Project Age Limit: Minimum 18 years,  maximum dependent of potential participants’ health.

Required Experience: Some previous sports experience would be helpful but is not essential.

Project Highlights:

• Gain teaching experience in various schools and a tourism training institute.
• Assist in the teaching of English to not only children and scholars, but also teachers and other community leaders.
• Assist in improving educational facilities in the community.
• Enjoy some cycling to and from your volunteer projects.
• Developmental games with pre-primary school children & sport-afternoons on the beach.
• Playing a role in keeping the beach and village environment clean.
• Get a glimpse of life on the island, and have the opportunity to make a tangible difference in a community.
• Get a taste of the Zanzibar culture; learn a bit of Kiswahili!
• A great platform to not only explore other areas of the archipelago and try your hand at some water sports, but also to experience some of the finest safari destinations on the continent.

Volunteer Involvement in local Pre-schools:

There are 4 pre-schools in Jambiani. Volunteers support the local teachers in educating and playing with children. TEFL graduate volunteers are most welcome! They get involved in:

• Teaching English to children, teachers and local adults (This is where a TEFL qualification comes in handy, although this is not an absolute must).
• Singing and dancing with children.
• Developing the children’s creative skills through crafts such as painting, drawing and colouring.
• Playing developmental games with the children.
• General upkeep of the school to keep it a pleasant environment in which to learn.

Primary and secondary schools:

Working in the primary and secondary schools, with too many children to accommodate at one time, and shortages of staff and facilities, often two school sessions are run per day. 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, especially by aiding them in the English language (Again where a TEFL qualification would be really useful for your volunteer project).

These are the ways in which you will assist in the schools:

• Teaching in the classes (qualified teachers only and pre arranged before trip).
• Organise and coordinate sport afternoons with the scholars.
• Help maintain and even repair the facilities, most of which are quite run down.

Ramadan – School Holiday for 2010: 11 August 2010 – 9 September 2010

“Ramadan is an Islamic religious observance that takes place during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar; the month in which the Qur’an (occasionally written as Koran in non-Islamic cultures) was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims do not eat or drink anything from true dawn until sunset. Fasting is meant to teach the person patience, sacrifice and humility. Ramaḍān is a time to fast for the sake of Allah, and to offer more prayer than usual. During Ramaḍān, Muslims ask forgiveness for past sins, pray for guidance and help in refraining from everyday evils, and try to purify themselves through self-restraint and good deeds.”(From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan).

During this month all school children will be on holiday and the schools will be closed so there will be NO volunteer work associated with the schools in this month. However, there is still plenty of work to do; volunteers could be involved in some of the following activities:

• Work on the project will be focused on manual labour, such as painting, repair work, and possibly some building, depending on what we needs to be done at that time.
• Environmental maintenance work such as litter pick-ups and planting trees .
• Making school resources such as posters and lesson plans, etc.
• We hope that our adult literacy lessons can continue, although this depends on how energetic the students are feeling during their month of fasting.

During Ramadan our volunteers cannot eat, drink, smoke or chew in public. You will however be able to have normal meals back at the project base. Please also bear in mind that everything will be slower than usual in Zanzibar BY FAR as all the locals will be fasting which makes them tired!!

Local Tourism Training Institute:

In general tourism is considered to be the sector of activity with the most potential in Zanzibar. There is a drive through the tourism sector to deal with the issues of poverty reduction, education, youth, gender and the environment amongst others. The Tourism Training Institute was established to address these problems and to tackle the issue of many ‘foreigners’ (mainly from Tanzania mainland and Kenya) being employed in the local tourism sector, instead of local villagers.

The training school aims to train local villagers from Jambiani until they are themselves able to gain employment at nearby hotels and tourism facilities. Volunteers depending on experience and qualifications get involved in multiple areas to help with the training of these aspirants:

• Teaching English.
• Teaching Keyboarding.
• Life-skills teaching.
• Training students in basic administrative tasks.
• Training students in basic computer skills e.g. CV writing.
• Assist and supervise students in cooking classes and food & beverage management.
• Assist and supervise students in practical classes (‘role-play’, handling money, etc).

Please Note: The Tourism Training Centre is seasonal and does not run all year round!

Environmental programme – JAMABECO (Jambiani Marine and Beach Conservation):

The community of Jambiani is very reliant on its natural resources available to them, especially the ocean (fish, crabs, seaweed etc) and partly local crops that can be grown in the area. JAMABECO is a locally run NGO that African Impact partners with to help sustain the marine and land environment in Jambiani. Volunteer involvement often depends on current projects on the go in the village, and it can often be hard, but very rewarding work. Activities can include:

• Litter clean-ups along the beach and within the village.
• Planting trees.

If you are volunteering on our Zanzibar project during the time that there is a Zanzibar Public Holiday, you will have these days off to yourselves to either relax or do other tourist activities on the island.

Please be advised that we endeavor to keep all of our project documents up to date, however, due to the constantly evolving nature of a sustainable project this project will be at different stages over the next few months.  Some projects will become self sufficient and no longer require the assistance of volunteers, others will slightly change focus and new ones will begin. Volunteers will be involved in a diverse range of project work as things evolve and develop, all of which are moving the project towards a common goal.

PLEASE NOTE: Whilst Zanzibar is indeed a wonderful place to visit, with many brilliant activities on offer to do during “off” times, we do have certain commitments and obligations within the community that we need to fulfill, and relationships we need to uphold. So please do not view your placement as a holiday, there is much good and much-needed work to be done in this community.

Some great reasons to join the Zanzibar Teaching and Community Assistance Volunteer Programme:

• Tropical Island and a beautiful destination.
• Getting to know a different culture.
• Getting involved in different areas of the project (educational, conservation and community).
• Great sea food and tropical fruit.
• Make a child’s day by spending time with them at the nursery schools.
• Sports on the beach.
• Our crazy project managers are awesome!
• Impacting the education of the local Jambiani people so that they can benefit from Zanzibar Tourists.
• Enjoying a tropical BBQ on the beach.
• Market Racing around Stone Town with your team mates and learning Swahili and other interesting culture adventures.
• Incredible snorkeling and diving off Zanzibar island.
• Learning how the local women farm seaweed, do pottery and sew beautiful bright clothing.
• Meeting an incredibly funny Jambiani herbalist.
• Having meals with a local family in a local way.
• Making a difference as you live and work as a volunteer in just an amazing little village.

Project Typical Day:

Here is how a typical day in the life of a Zanzibar volunteer might take shape. Please note that your itineraries may differ from this, depending on your own experience/interests and the number of other volunteers on the placement at the same time. It will also depend on current projects on the go, school roster (e.g. school holidays) and tidal patterns (environmental work on the beach).

Monday to Friday:

• 07:00 – Get up and start getting ready for your project.
• 08:00 – Breakfast at Grand Bungalows, your beach-front accommodation.
• 08:30 – Lesson preparations for your classes.
• 09:45 – Head off on bicycle to your project placement.
• 10:00 – Start work at your one of our local nursery schools.
• 11:45 – Leave school and cycle back to our African Impact base for some sun & time out.
• 13:00 – Lunch break.
• 15:00 – Return to your placement or your allocated ward – doing some manual labour such as some painting, gardening, litter pick ups & repairing.
• 17:00 – Home Time You will make your way back to your base just a few minutes away. Now you will be able to cool down with a swim, find a cold drink, visit the internet café, socialize with the locals/other volunteers or just relax and unwind on the beach.

Evenings are very sociable affairs. Generally, volunteers discuss their days amongst each other whilst having supper together, prepare for the project the next day and enjoy sundowners at one of the many beachside café’s or hotels.  You will have Saturdays and Sundays “off” to do any tourist activities or to rest from your week of volunteering.

Project Cost:

2 weeks: GB£730 / 4 weeks: GB£1,100 / 6 weeks: GB£1,480 / 8 weeks: GB£1,865 / 10 weeks: GB£2,225 / 12 weeks: GB£2,580

Project Cost Includes:

• Project Fee: this entails financing that goes directly back into the project that you are involved with. This project fee facilitates funding for items such as building materials, equipment, supplies, foodstuffs, etc. Project fees are also used to buy vehicles/equipment and for developing new housing for volunteers to provide for the expansion of the project.
• All airport transfers from Zanzibar Airport or ferry port/harbour upon your arrival and departure.
• Orientation program.
• Any daily transport that might be required as part of the project during your stay.
• Full board and lodging which includes 3 meals a day in Jambiani at your base.
• Weekly laundry service during your stay.
• Assistance in your projects by various staff and volunteer coordinators.
• Full support from African Impact and your coordinator throughout your time on your Zanzibar placement.

Project Cost Excludes:

• Personal travel insurance for the duration of your placement which must include cover for repatriation. We recommend WorldNomads.com.
• All transport by air or ferry to Zanzibar Island.
• All items of a personal nature, such as curios, gifts, clothing (work and other).
• E-mail/Internet and telephone calls.
• Soft drinks, wines and spirits.
• All visas for border crossings.
• Any excursions over and above your planned itinerary in Zanzibar and Tanzania.
• Transportation that is not related to the project.

Project Orientation:

Upon your arrival in Zanzibar you will be met with a sign with your name on it and from there you will be escorted to your new ‘home’ where a representative will meet you. Once you have settled in and depending when you arrive, you will be briefed on the itinerary of the orientation program. You will receive a detailed Welcome Pack, which will contain all the important information you may need.

Project Support:

Throughout your stay at your placement you will have the support and guidance of experienced field-workers and coordinators. They are part of our greater support team, and will provide you with competent 24-hour field support and assistance.

Project Accommodation:

You will be staying in Jambiani at Grand Bungalows. The bungalows are set just off the beach, but one can see the ocean from the front door (see right) and the beach/sea is literally on their doorstep. Volunteers will room with 2 or 3 others and each bungalow has a bathroom en suite bathroom. Rooms will be fully furnished and you will be sleeping on bunk beds. We have mosquito nets and fans in the rooms.

Volunteers will be able to sit outside at the tables in their back yard in the shade for meals. A chef will be provided to cook for volunteers in the kitchen, which is situated on the property. Volunteers will have house keeping and laundry done on a regular basis. Bedding will be provided but travelers should bring their own towel.

During our busy months we will also have another house available to accommodate more volunteers.  This house is about a 10 minute walk from the main house and is directly on the beach.  Any volunteers staying in this house will still join the other volunteers at the main house for all meals and other volunteer activities that are held at the main house.  The volunteer coordinators will also be based in this house.

Please Note: There is NO HOT WATER for showering in; most places in Zanzibar do not have hot water.

Please Also Note: Zanzibar is a 95% Muslim society, and there are many locals that take offence at inappropriately dressed visitors. For this reason, women should avoid wearing revealing clothing in towns and villages and whilst doing project work.

Women should try and wear long skirts or shorts/pants (at least knee-length) and cover their shoulders. Men should keep their shirts on in the village/town area, and also wear at least knee-length shorts. Slacks are acceptable for both women and men.  Usual beach attire on tourist beaches is absolutely fine e.g. near your volunteer base.  Please also ensure that you are able to cover up any tattoos and remove any piercings while you are in Zanzibar.

Project Meals:

You will be provided with three wholesome meals a day. Breakfast usually consists of bread, fruit, eggs, tea and coffee. Lunch and dinner are full meals, and will be provided for you. Lunches may also be packed or may be local lunches at your placement. Please advise before you depart for Africa should you have any food allergies, or do not eat seafood in particular.

Please note that while we do our very best to provide you with varied and interesting meals, due to the nature of our rural location food will generally be quite simple but still nutritious. We ask that you are not overly fussy and ungrateful with what is provided for you.

Project Getting There: Our placement coordinators will meet you at the airport in Livingstone!!

You will need to fly directly into Zanzibar International Airport in Stone Town, Zanzibar, where you will be met by one of our experienced African Impact team. There are direct flights from Europe, the United States and South Africa to either Nairobi (Kenya) or Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) and then easy connections onto Zanzibar Island. Please contact us for any suggestions on airlines.

Optional Travel Highlights:

These are not included in your volunteering fee, but our project managers are able to assist you with making the necessary booking arrangements. See further details on Safari options in our pre-departure information.

Safari Options: Zanzibar and Tanzania offer a variety of tours and safari options, which are perfect for a week-end getaway, or a post/pre-project safari. Our office in Zanzibar is able to put together a number of different getaways/safaris according to your preference, which include trips to various parts of the archipelago (Spice tours, Historical tours, Jozani Forest etc) and even into Mikumi National Park, Ruaha National Park, the famous Serengeti National Park, the unique Ngorongoro Crater and climbing the mighty Kilimanjaro! And much more…!

Available options are typically all-inclusive: transport, transfers, full-board accommodation, services of driver/guide, park entry fees etc. Please contact our Zanzibar office or your Destination Manager should you require more information on any tour/safari that you are considering.

“I really enjoyed this experience, it was unlike anything I have ever taken part in. I have a new perspective on many things. I would like to do something like this again.” Lauren Rencoret, Aged 20 (USA).

“I have had a great time, I’ve enjoyed trying to learn a new language and living within a small, friendly community. I have really enjoyed living and working within a culture that is totally different to the one that I am used to.” Meggie Pearce, Aged 21 (UK).

Visit a quite extraordinary part of Africa and change local people’s lives for the better. Contact us now.