Community Development, Teaching & Home Building

You'll work with Pre-school children for some of the time, you'll teach older children and work with orphans for some of the time, and you'll also participate in a variety of community development and home building projects, depending on what's needed at the time you're there. You'll get lots of different experiences and you'll certainly never be bored!

With a wide variety of tasks involved, this project will be kept you on your feet all the time. Volunteers go to Pre-school every morning Monday to Friday - At the Pre-school each volunteer is given a small class, generating new and exciting ways to interact and teach. Your role is to prepare the children for their next step into Primary school. Some of the work you may be involved in include :

• Singing and dancing
• Fun games
• Basic work at the Pre-school farm
• Basic lessons on colours, numbers letter

Each afternoon varies and you may be doing one of the following activities:

Across 2 afternoons a week you can teach English to a group of about fifty students split into groups depending on ability, ranging in age from young to middle-aged adults. Your role as a volunteer will include:

• Planning fun, interactive, and challenging lessons for the students
• Conducting lessons with the help of a translator in a patient, dynamic, creative, inspirational and passionate manner
• Assigning and correction of homework assignments

Your role as a volunteer will include:

• English and Portuguese lessons with the children with the assistance of visual aids and a translator
• Developmental playtime where the children get to learn new games and play with toys to which they wouldn't normally have access
• Teaching basic lessons about colours, numbers and letters
• Constructive sports games such as frisbee and football
• Giving the children the one on one care and attention that is so critical for their development

Cyclone Favio hit the Mozambican coast in February 2007 and devastated much of the local area. Through local contacts work has continued with rural home-building for those who do not have the means to build for themselves (monetarily or physically). We work in close conjunction with community leaders to assess the most critical housing needs and then act accordingly.

We are currently managing to build 1 home approximately every 2 months (dependent on volunteer numbers!). They are simple and rustic structures typical of construction in the Inhambane Province. The work is sometimes challenging but always rewarding and offers an amazing insight into rural Vilanculos as well as the chance to meet and form working relationships with members of the local community. Other building projects that we undertake include refurbishment at the preschool, such as new classrooms and amenities.

Saturday mornings are spent running and supporting a language club, an informal learning group open to the community surrounding the volunteer camp. The students that attend include young children, young women, and adults, all of whom perhaps have missed out on other formal learning opportunities.

Your accommodation will be at the rural camp in a rustic yet comfortable thatched A frame bungalows, located a stone throw from the beach. Each bungalow sleeps 6 and they are all unisex. They have en suite bathrooms with a toilet and shower. The camp shares a swimming pool with people who stay on a nearby camp but they have a separate communal areas such as a kitchen, lounge dining area and an area where you are able to do your lesson planning!

Talk to us - We're there to help you. Most of our team are ex Travellers volunteers and are ideally qualified to offer advice and guidance because they know what you're looking for. They'll help you find your perfect project - and then make it all happen!

If you’d like to apply for this project. Visit our website and complete the application form. As soon as we receive it, we’ll liaise with you and then start making your travel adventure happen.

It’s as easy as that.