‘Mosi-oa-tunya’ – The Smoke That Thunders… this is how the locals refer to the magnificent spray that is elevated high above the Victoria Falls.

Against this backdrop we find the town of Livingstone, a place of supreme adventure, of friendship, of unlimited challenge, a place to care for and become a part of; a place of initiation, and an unforgettable life-changing experience. Perhaps 10 kilometres away Mosi-oa-tunya makes a dramatic backdrop to a rustic field bordered by subsistence maize.

It’s far from Zidane’s head butt and Beckham’s right foot but a small group of future superstars from Mwandi Primary School are fully alive, honing their skills under the watchful gaze of a volunteer coach. This is one of the locations of African Impact’s Sports Programmes. For the young local children playing it is an opportunity to begin working out their dreams. For the volunteer at the helm, this is their ‘Fever Pitch’, an opportunity to be part of passing their passion onto their boundlessly enthusiastic protégés.

Project Achievements so far:

From April 2008 to May 2009 African Impact volunteers contributed over 35100 hours to community development on our volunteer projects in Livingstone – Medical, Teaching and Sports projects. 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.

Our volunteers are taking Physical Education Lessons at Dambwa Christian Community school which the children are really enjoying.  We have also been assisting with coaching teams at David Livingstone and Mwandi Community School.  With our HIVES project, using games we make it easy to talk about issues like AIDS, HIV, sex and Contraception.  Talking about these subjects, improves the knowledge on both advantages and disadvantages of sex and how someone can protect himself from sexually transmitted diseases like HIV.

Location: Livingstone, Zambia – a stone’s throw away from the Victoria Falls (10km).

Project Age Limit: Minimum 18 years – Maximum 40 years.

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

Project Highlights:

• Coach very excited and often-talented children in sports and games at local schools.
• Be part of new projects to train and teach vulnerable girls in the communities. Use your skills and knowledge to improve the coaching techniques of community sports leaders.
• You may have the opportunity to referee and help with some of the major sporting tournaments in Livingstone- such as ‘Kicking out Aids tournament.’
• You will work with a local sporting charity to give HIV sport workshops to community teams.
• Help build / paint / refurbish schools / clinics / community centres.
• Visit the Victoria Falls and enjoy some of the amazing tourist activities that Livingstone has to offer including Bungee Jumping, White Water Rafting on the Zambezi, Helicopter Flights over the Falls, Zambezi River Cruises, visits to Botswana’s Chobe National Park to experience Africa’s highest density of elephants and weekend excursions across to Zimbabwe and much more.

Further Information on the Sports Development Programme:

Coming to work in the Africa can be a very exciting, but equally daunting or even scary prospect. African Impact provides the ideal opportunity for you to have all the experiences of working in Africa; getting to know the people and their culture whilst providing a helping hand and all with the added protection of the supportive network of the African Impact Team. We will take care of all your accommodation, meals and daily transport needs. There will always be a Project Manager in Livingstone who will be there to support you throughout your placement, as well as an effective orientation program that we have in place for new volunteers which will give you the confidence that you need to get the most out of this experience.

Whilst African Impact aims to ensure that every volunteer has a fulfilling and rewarding placement, we place immense weight on the importance of volunteers being used to benefit and strengthen local systems. We are in close communication with local community care workers, both at grass roots and governmental levels, to ensure that at all times the work of our volunteers is of maximum benefit to the workers and to the community.

Working with the local authorities, African Impact has access to a series of establishments in the Livingstone area, all of which need as much help as possible.

Livingstone Sports and Community Project:

Sports volunteers spend their time training, guiding and working with soccer teams in the Livingstone community as well as physical education in schools which is sorely neglected due to lack of rained teachers.  We believe sport is an essential and effective tool to teach about various subjects such as HIV, Nutrition and Healthy Lifestyle.  You do not need to be qualified for our sports project; you just need the desire to impact!

The Sports Project consists of 3 main areas of work:

Physical education within schools – As an African Impact volunteer, you will spend your mornings based in various community schools offering P.E lessons, not only to the students, but also to their teachers!  As P.E is not featured within Zambian educational curriculum, our role is to offer structured sports education, along with the health awareness and encouraging an active life style.  In order to make this sustainable and continue without the continual assistance of volunteers, we want to “teach the teachers” the necessity of P.E and a healthy life style as a result of it.  P.E is unfamiliar to community schools and attitudes still need changing towards its importance however the children absolutely love it and thoroughly enjoy their time volunteers.

Training the Team – African Impact manages the training of an under 11′s to under 16’s team (U10 to U21) in Livingstone.  This team has been established for a long time and has been trained by African Impact since 2008.  This team is an all boys community team – as we believe sport and soccer should be accessible to all individuals, even those who do not attend school.  Our help within the team ensures regular faces are coaching the team, with international backgrounds for the players to gain a wide range of skills.

HIV Education in sport – As a volunteer you will spend one afternoon a week travelling to different community teams (there are more than 12 connected to African Impact) to hold an HIV in sport workshop. This will involve HIV relay games, team building games, question time and football matches. By using your skills as a sports coach you have the chance to enlighten youths in HIV awareness. Particularly for the young boys; a kinesthetic learning method is a highly effective teaching technique and is something youths rarely receive at school.

Specialist Sports:

Your schedule is set for you by the sports coordinating team, however, if you have any particular interests or skills you would like to use, we would love to accommodate it! The children at the schools are always keen to learn new activities – particularly if they come from overseas!!

We can set up a class for you to teach Tai-kwon-do, athletics, cricket, or whatever your interest is; we have been known to teach gymnastics to 5 year olds and yoga to 50 year olds!  Equipment is very hard to come by so please keep that in mind, if you are able to raise sporting equipment to be donated that you can bring along with you the community will greatly appreciate it. Please Note: We cannot coach swimming in Livingstone.

Involvement in Community Projects:

You will be combining sports coaching with a variety of projects in the local community. This allows you to make a difference in other areas and not just through sport. You will be able to participate in the following projects:

Family Support: Family Support is held at Linda Clinic who allow African Impact to use the ‘back garden’, and during the rainy season we are able to use 2 small rooms that they open for us. The purpose of Family Support is to allow children the opportunity to play in a safe environment and have the chance to play with toys.  This is mainly an outside activity so bring balls and bats etc. Also bear in mind you may want to take some paper, crayons, and colouring books for the children who aren’t ‘into’ sports and ball games.  Many of the children have problems and issues, often medically related, this is our opportunity to monitor these children, as many of their illness’ may otherwise go unnoticed.

Build / paint / refurbish schools and clinics: Schools in Livingstone deal with a great shortage of classrooms, and as a result most children do not receive the full day of class that they need. With the help and guidance of professional builders and the community we are aiming to build new classrooms for as many schools as we can raise funds for. Volunteers will help with mixing cement, making and laying bricks, laying concrete floors, plastering walls, and painting. It is hard, but highly rewarding work! In addition, we refurbish and paint existing classrooms.

Home Based Care / Farming: There are several Home Based Care Projects run by local volunteers in districts of Livingstone such as Maramba, Ngwenya, Libuyu, Linda, Dambwa. The women spend each morning visiting patients within their local community. The patients generally have HIV (and various afflictions due to a low immune system),TB and Malaria.  Patients often cannot afford to go the clinic or hospital, or have carers to help with their condition.  The Home Based Care community volunteers rely on medical supplies given to them by the government health department (which happens rarely) or donations.  However, some have their own land that they use to farm for the purpose of raising money for their initiative, This is obviously the most sustainable way to ensure their project continues independently of aid.  We would like to assist all communities in setting up farming initiatives, as well as helping with actual work on the farm.  As a volunteer you have the opportunity to join the women on their visits to patients and contribute to the help they offer by the means of basic First Aid as well as help teaching a structured in depth First Aid / Health Care course.

HIV Education – Awareness Affects Everyone: Zambia has the HIV highest infection rate of Southern Africa and within its population a minimum of one in six people are living with HIV (statistics are subject to change due to the nature of the disease).  Livingstone has one of the highest populations in Zambia of HIV-infected people.  The HIV Education course is run by African Impact volunteers and aims to significantly reduce the number of new cases of HIV in the community.  It aims to encourage those who have not yet been tested to find out their HIV status and to provide information on available treatment options.

6 Great Reasons to become an African Impact Sports and Development Volunteer:

1. Getting stuck in the community and being involved with those who really need help.
2. Being based in Livingstone ensures there is plenty of relaxation or adventure activities to enjoy at the weekends.
3. Love Sports? Love Soccer? Then teach it, learn it, guide it, use it, play it, ref. it, coach it, and enjoy it with the African Impact Sports and Soccer Project.
4. The variety of activities and community projects, from building and painting to HIV education and reading clubs, there’s something for everyone.
5. The variety of locations!  You will be based within poor communities in various districts of Livingstone. Within clinics, hospices, farms, the old people’s home, and schools ensuring there isn’t an inch of African day-to-day life that you won’t see.
6. The friendly people – the work of a sport volunteer is very much appreciated by the communities. You will meet the friendliest, nicest, craziest, most determined, and zealous African people, who are guaranteed to inspire and motivate you!

Project Typical Day:

• 0700: Its rise and shine, and time for breakfast. The volunteers also spend some time preparing for the day, ensuring they have everything they need for the day.
• 0745: Off to work. The volunteer arrives at their assigned school and class. After saying hello to all the children, its time to get down to some work and prepare them for their morning of P.E.  There are also opportunities to work on our community projects in the mornings.
• 1130: You will be picked up from your project and be taken back to the house for lunch.
• 1200: Lunch.
• 1330: Planning Session – You are given this time to prepare for your afternoon training session. This may mean drawing up training plans, researching new techniques or practising some skills.
• 1500: Depart for your afternoon and its time for team training or coaching sessions. You will have planned your session earlier and will be training the team for the weekend’s match, or running through drills with the other coaches. Have a specialist skill? Why not host a one-off session of your sport with the coaches? If not, listen and learn as they teach you their tips and hints of training a Zambian team, and guide and assist as you exchange ideas and skills. Three afternoons a week you will be helping on one of our community projects such as an art club, HIV education, life skills workshop, reading club, and building, painting or farming.
• 1700: You will arrive back to the house for supper after your projects. Your evening is free, so why not treat yourself to a meal out, or simply sit enjoy a beer in front of the TV whilst planning for the next day.

Please be advised that we endeavor to keep all of our project documents up to date; however, due to the constantly evolving nature of sustainable projects expect amendments within all programmes.  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.

Project Cost:

2 weeks: GB£785 / 4 weeks: GB£1,255 / 6 weeks: GB£1,645 / 8 weeks: GB£2,030 / 10 weeks: GB£2,390 / 12 weeks: GB£2,745

Project Cost Includes:

• Project Fee: This facilitates funding for items such as coaching materials and equipment, building materials, etc.  This also 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 the housing for volunteers to provide for the expansion of the projects.
• All airport transfers from Livingstone International Airport upon your arrival and departure.
• Orientation program.
• All daily transfers to and from your projects during your stay.
• Full board and lodging which includes 3 meals a day at our volunteer house.
• Weekly laundry service during your stay.
• Full support from African Impact and your project managers throughout your time on your Livingstone placement.

Project Cost Excludes:

• Personal travel insurance for the duration of your placement, which must include cover for evacuation and repatriation. We recommend WorldNomads.com.
• All transport by air or bus to Livingstone. We can help you with this if you wish, just let us know.
• All items of a personal nature, such as curios, gifts, clothing (work and other).
• Email/Internet and telephone calls.
• Soft drinks, alcoholic beverages and snacks.
• All visas for border crossings.
• Any excursions over and above your planned volunteer itinerary in Zambia e.g. visit to the Victoria Falls, white water rafting, etc.

Project Orientation:

Upon arrival in Livingstone all volunteers are involved in comprehensive orientation programme, which is included in your fee.  This is facilitated by your project volunteer coordinator and entails an introduction to our projects. Not only will you see where you will be working, you will also see where your fellow volunteers will be spending their days.

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 partner’s African Impact support team, and will provide you with competent 24-hour field support and assistance.

Project Accommodation:

The volunteer house (your home) is a securely fenced complex of 3 separate buildings encompassing; dorm rooms sleeping up to four, TV lounge, resource centre, dining room and bar. Approximately 5 minutes walk away from the town centre, the volunteer house is very comfortable, has a safe for your valuables, TV and DVD and staffed with a cook, laundry and cleaning ladies. “Family Meetings” are held every week. All bedding is provided, however in winter (June – September) you may want to bring a sleeping bag with you, or if you are planning on going on any camping trips.  3 daily meals, laundry and transportation to and from your projects will be provided and organised by your volunteer co-ordinators.  You will need to bring your own towel and mosquito nets.

Please Note: We find that volunteers living together and working closely together with their volunteer co-ordinators is the surest way of guaranteeing their safety and being able to attend to their most pressing needs.  For this reason we expect all volunteers to stay only in the accommodation provided for them and do not allow volunteers to spend nights away in the town or nearby villages, unless they are away on pre-arranged sightseeing excursions.

Project Meals:

You will be provided with three meals a day. Breakfast is on a help-yourself basis and usually consists of cereals/ porridge, toast, tea and coffee. Lunch and dinner are full meals, and will be cooked for you by the chef at your volunteer house. Note: Sometimes on weekends you will need to cook your own meals with ingredients that will be provided, as our staff will need to be given time off. Weekends are usually good times for tourist activities and exploring the surrounding area, so that is the time that a lot of volunteers are out and about anyway.

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.

Please let us know before you depart for Africa of any food allergies or specific requirements.

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

• Lusaka: fly into Zambia’s capital city and then transfer to Livingstone by bus (approx. 8 to 12 hours) or by means of a flight. The bus transfer will cost you approximately US$20.
• Livingstone: Fly to Johannesburg in South Africa and then connect to Livingstone.

WHEN FLYING VIA JOHANNESBURG DO NOT CHECK YOUR LUGGAGE THROUGH TO YOUR FINAL DESTINATION.  ALWAYS COLLECT YOUR LUGGAGE IN JOHANNESBURG AND RE-CHECK ONTO YOUR CONNECTING FLIGHT.  THIS AVOIDS LUGGAGE BEING LOST.

“…it was the most amazing experience of my life and I only wish I was out there for longer!” Stephanie Keatley, UK.

“My time in Livingstone was amazing, so much more than I could have ever experienced. I was 100% happy, in fact 110% happy with my whole experience.” Mandy Beech, Australia.

Project 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. Guideline prices for the most popular activities: (please note these are subject to change, prices given are a guideline only).

• Dinner/Sunset cruise on the Zambezi River: USD 35.00 – 45.00.
• 2 nights on an Island paradise in the Zambezi, inclusive of several activities & meals: USD 120.
• 2 nights staying onboard a boat cruising along the Zambezi River: USD 180.
• 2 nights on safari in Chobe National Park: USD 200.
• The world’s most exciting white water rafting on the Zambezi River. USD 150 half day.
• Bungee jumping and gorge swings over the Batoka Gorge which the water cascades into below the Falls. Bungee Jump: USD 105 per jump. Gorge swing / Zip line: USD 105 per jump.  All 3 activities in one day: USD 125.
• Helicopter Ride over the Falls: USD 150 for 15mins.
• Microlight Flight over the Falls: USD 120 for 15mins.
• Elephant back safaris. USD 120
• Canoeing Safaris on the Zambezi River above the Falls with experienced guides.
• Game drives in Zambia’s Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park or neighbouring Botswana’s Chobe National Park.

Pass on your sporting skills and change people’s lives – it’s much more than having a kick around in the park! Contact us now.