I want to go to Africa

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TheFly7

The Fly
Joined
Jun 19, 2003
Messages
132
Location
Colorado
Not just to visit, but to help. Volunteer somewhere. Do something. Does anyone know of any/had experience with vounteer groups to Africa? I've looked around and it looks like there's a ton, not sure where to go exactly. I probably won't be able to stay longer than a month this time around...

Gracias.
 
sulawesigirl4 and LivLuvAndBootlegMusic have both volunteered in Africa, and probably several other posters as well. Lurking somewhere in the depths of FYM is a thread called (I think) "Ask the Volunteer in Africa" which is sula's recounting of her experiences. LivLuv posts in here all the time; sula doesn't seem to have been around much lately that I've noticed (?), but she is a forum moderator, so it shouldn't be too hard to track her down. I would suggest getting in contact with one of these folks.
 
I volunteered for 6 weeks in Ghana with a group called Cross Cultural Solutions, a great group you can find on the web. You have to pay too volunteer with them, but they run an excellent program and it is worth every penny. West Africa is an incredible place.
 
I thought LivLuv went as part of a class and not a volunteer mission? She had some really great stories and beautiful pics of her trip. :)

Do you have any expertise in an area? Particularly things like a medical background, nursing, laboratory work (especially bloodwork, routine lab tests, etc)?
 
anitram said:
I thought LivLuv went as part of a class and not a volunteer mission? She had some really great stories and beautiful pics of her trip. :)

Correct, it was a month long 3-credit interdisciplinary course, mainly used because we have to have 3-credits worth of a cross-cultural engagement class to graduate and it's a third world development studies elective, which is my minor. We did not volunteer in the sense that we went with the Red Cross or Oxfam and stayed at one location, but we did visit several programs across the northern part of Tanzania. The title of the trip was the role of the church in development. They don't have seperation of church and state in Tanzania and since the government struggles to manage on it's own, they actually fund a lot of religious programs because the Lutheran and Catholic churches are much more effective at running these programs and distributing aid. We did get to visit places like orphanages, social services, cultural museums (Masaai and Sukuma villages), homes for unwanted street children, and tagged along for home visits of people with HIV/AIDS receiving aid through the church.

I LOVED it there and have been tossing around the idea of going back for a longer period of time (but it's hard to make that decision while planning a wedding, working 4 jobs, and finishing college!). I thought Tanzania was an amazing place because it really has it all. Some places are flat, hot and dusty, others have more rolling hills, red sand, and these great acacia trees. Other places are high in the mountains. We got to walk down Kilimanjaor and also spent a few days in a mountain village called Lushoto. This village has colonized by the Germans, who went there because the climate is the same as Bavaria. It was lovely up there, plenty of plants, and not too hot. The also have the Indian ocean coast and the island of Zanzibar. We stayed along Lake Victoria and I swam in Lake Victoria. Then they have the safari lands like Serengeti, Lake Manyara, Nogorongoro Crater, and the Oldupaai Gorge. There's really an entirely different landscape every hundred miles.

That was the first and only time I've traveled outside the States and still I'm convinced it's the greatest place on earth!

If you want to look through my pictures, I just made a new album with captions:

http://www.dutchbingo.net/TanzaniaJanuary2005/index.html
 
LivLuvAndBootlegMusic said:


If you want to look through my pictures, I just made a new album with captions:

http://www.dutchbingo.net/TanzaniaJanuary2005/index.html

Amazing photos :up:

It seems like Africa has an incredibly diverse and breathtaking landscape. My sister has applied for a position in Nigeria with CUSO, a Canadian volunteer organization. I think it would be a rewarding experience, especially for someone from a quiet part of Canada (it would also get her off of my computer!). It's a definite goal of mine to go eventually, as well. Unfortunately, student loan repayments are getting in the way of that goal at the moment.

This is the CUSO site, if there are other Canadians here who are interested: http://www.cuso.org/home.asp?lang=1&mode=&fold=
 
angelordevil said:


Amazing photos :up:

It seems like Africa has an incredibly diverse and breathtaking landscape. My sister has applied for a position in Nigeria with CUSO, a Canadian volunteer organization. I think it would be a rewarding experience, especially for someone from a quiet part of Canada (it would also get her off of my computer!). It's a definite goal of mine to go eventually, as well. Unfortunately, student loan repayments are getting in the way of that goal at the moment.

Thanks! Sorry they are mostly of animals. I have some amazing ones more of people/culture type things, but they were taken by other people w/ more talent!

I hope that can work out for your sister. Maybe she can apply for deferment of her loan payments? I'm not sure how that works, but I know it's possible in some situations. Honestly, that is the main thing holding me (and my fiance) back as well. We owe about $100,000 in student loans.
 
withashout said:
I volunteered for 6 weeks in Ghana with a group called Cross Cultural Solutions, a great group you can find on the web. You have to pay too volunteer with them, but they run an excellent program and it is worth every penny. West Africa is an incredible place.

yeah i was going to go with cross cultural solutions as well - they looked excellent.
I eventually went with another group but for no other reason then they suited me at the time. if i were to go again (which i really hope i will one day) i'd probably look at CCS again.

be careful of other groups charging you exhorbatent fees for no real reason though - its kinda against the whole spirit of the idea!!
 
here's a list of a few of the organisations i narrowed my search down to... how applicable these are to people not in England i'm not certain but have a look anyway, if only to give yourself a better idea of what you're dealing with.

www.kidsworldwide.org
www.amizade.org
www.globalcrossroad.com
www.crossculturalsolutions.com
www.madventure.com
www.unitedplanet.org/quest
www.volunteer.org.nz
(i did really like volunteer.org and was actually accepted to them before i decided to go to ghana instead of uganda.)

this next guy is the same as the above link but is a direct contact to him so you avoid the middle organisation of volunteer.org and go straight through him which cuts costs slightly.
http://groups.msn.com/africanchildf...onhomepage.msnw




hope thats of some use... if you can go, you MUST... its an incredible experience and something i hope to build on in the future
 
digsy said:

Awesome pics!!! I LOVE the pics of the little kids (the sleeping one at the end :cute: ). I tried to take a ton in Tanzania, but a lot of the kids were offended if you didn't give them a coin for a picture.

What program did you go to Ghana with? Our school has a semester in Ghana program (same price as regular tuition) that I should've done :(
 
went with www.kidsworldwide.org

its a non-profit independent organisation which means you literally pay your costs out there as a "donation". i watched my $250 (for a month) go straight into the hands of the woman who runs the home i was in and for that i got housed, fed, more than looked after and saw the girls get a new mattress and a bookshelf for their growing supplies. far better then seein a couple of hundred dollars disappear into some organisations pocket somewhere.
the down side - the program probably could be slightly better organised - on the way out there i met a group of other people all going out with one organisation, they were all grouped together, doing the exact same project and even had organisation t-shirts they were all wearing.
i went out on my own, on my own accord and timing to fit in wih hoever was here and waited 2 hours at the airport for my pickup which was daunting
:lol:
but really, as it was, it's fine, i had no real problems and actually got to experience the whole thing independently as oppossed to in an organised "school trip" type style.

as for the photos, most of the pictures are of the girls i was looking after who were more than happy to have their picture taken every time they heard the click of the lens cap coming off!
the ones taken on the beach of all the boys were kids from a fishing village next to where we were staying... initially a few of the woman tried to get money from us but we ended up playing with the kids for a couple of hours and randomly took a few pics of them all just messing about.... by that point the adults didn't seem to mind (i think us keeping the kids distracted for a few hours was payment enough!)
 
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