Voluntourism & Eco-Adventure

Why not have some fun working with pre-school kids?

What's being accomplished

Our mission for this project is to see the strong enhancement of local education and skills training as well as literacy, and our dedicated project team look forward to welcoming you to work alongside them.

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

How you can help

There are 4 pre-schools in Jambiani that we work with. Volunteers support the local teachers in educating the local children.

They get involved in:

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

Volunteer Involvement in Primary and Secondary schools

Most village schools have too many pupils to accommodate at one time, and with shortages of staff and facilities, this means that 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 help to provide children with a better education, especially by aiding them in the English Language development.

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

Volunteer involvement in the local Jambiani Tourism Training Institute (JTTI)

(Please note that this project is seasonal and does not run all-year-round)
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. Volunteers assist by teaching the local adults English so that they are able to communicate with the tourists when working in the tourism industry.

As we believe that community work is so closely linked to conservation work, we also focus some of our time on local conservation initiatives, such as tree-planting, beach clean-ups and other exciting interactive activities.


Ramadan: 30 July 2011 - 4 September 2011

"Ramadan is an Islamic religious observance that takes place during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. 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. Ramadaan is a time to fast for the sake of Allah, and to offer more prayer than usual"
(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 structured teaching work in the schools during this month. However, there is still plenty of work to do; volunteers will 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
  
• Making school resources such as posters and lesson plans, etc.
  
• Adult literacy lessons, though these classes can be smaller due to local participants having less energy from their all day 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 a lot slower than usual in Zanzibar as all the locals will be fasting which makes them tired.
  

Stone Town - Teach English - Rural Education & Development, Jambiani

For more information please contact Joanne Trangle.