Teaching children in Africa.
June 19, 2013 3:30 PM   Subscribe

Please help me fulfill a promise that I didn't expect to be so challenging.

So someone I know is a wonderful mentor and encourages me a lot. When I moved away from the city we both lived in, instead of giving him a physical gift I gave him a promise. He always talks about wanting to teach in Africa, for a year or so, but that he doesn't think it's possible. He's in his late 40's.

I realized that "teaching children in Africa" is very vague, but it's his dream, not mine, so I can't really impose details onto it.

I encouraged him to start by teaching for a couple weeks, see how he likes it, and that maybe it'll inspire him to do it again for a year, or to make the couple of weeks a yearly ritual (he would be able to afford the yearly airfare, and lives in Europe so it's not as far as the US anyhow). I told him I would send him a list of good quality programs.

I didn't realize how hard it would be to find good programs! Everything seems to have extortionary, unreasonable fees. I quickly realized that the chances of having a program cover expenses except airfare wasn't reasonable, but I'm still hoping to find quality programs at modest, reasonable sums.

He's very educated, and has a great job in international development/economics/banking. He's very well traveled. He can handle rough places. Please help me find programs that are a couple weeks, or even a couple months long. You can even throw in year-long programs for when he's ready for it. I really want to contribute in some small way to him achieving this dream of his because he's helped me in so many ways.

Looking forward to your suggestions!
posted by cacao to Grab Bag (12 answers total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
The problem with short-term teaching is that, regardless of how well educated or prepared one is, teaching children in a foreign country is really HARD. You can't get good at it in a few weeks, and so all the programs that are likely to allow you to do so are unlikely to be very reputable. They are out to make a profit, and that's why they charge so much money. If your friend has altruistic motivations for this dream that go beyond participating in some pre-packaged volunteer tourism, even if he finds a program he can afford, he's unlikely to find it very satisfying. After all, consider it from the opposite perspective - what kind of school would allow complete strangers, who probably don't speak the local language, who have been plunged without preparation into a foreign culture, who are utterly unfamiliar with cultural norms, and who may not have any verifiable qualifications beyond an ability to afford a large fee, to show up and "teach" kids for a couple of weeks? Africa is not so bereft of qualified teachers that any random foreigner willing to show up at a school is necessarily doing the children a service.

I'm sorry to sound harsh, but if your friend wants to do this in any meaningful way, he will simply have to commit more time. If he's American, and ready to commit to two years, he can become a Peace Corps volunteer; if he's British, and can commit to one year, he can look into become a VSO. If he's willing to spend time and money while he works in Europe, he can sign up for a class to get certified as an ESL instructor - once he is qualified to teach English, I think he would be more likely to find a school or a tutoring service willing to open its doors for a shorter period of time. Finally, if he is as educated and qualified as you say, it's not impossible that he could find a position as a lecturer at an African university - this might not as immediately as rewarding as teaching adorable children, but it might contribute more in the long term. Of course, that's a job he would have to apply for, as opposed to an experience he could purchase.

You may find a program that fits your cost requirements; I have no idea whether or not they exist. But I would encourage you to talk a bit more with your friend and figure out what he hopes to gain from this experience - if you do that, I think you will be a hundred times more likely to figure out a solution that will not only satisfy him but will ensure that his good motivations actually accomplish some good in the world.
posted by pretentious illiterate at 3:56 PM on June 19, 2013 [19 favorites]


Everything seems to have extortionary, unreasonable fees.

The fees aren't extortionary.

Generally anytime you're going abroad to "volunteer" for only a few weeks, the volunteering part is really just an interesting vacation. The nonprofit actually doesn't get much benefit from people who want to visit in this way, because they are in a constant cycle of training new teachers. The constant flow of volunteers actually creates work for them. This is especially true if the volunteers expect Western-style living conditions, if there's a language barrier, or if there are other ways in which the nonprofit also has to play host in addition to just facilitating someone to come teach the children. The nonprofit really just wants donations, so they require volunteers to donate to offset the cost of their visit.

You may have better luck finding him a nonprofit that needs a teacher for a year. There may still be fees, but they may either be more proportional to the overall experience or be less daunting since the nonprofit doesn't have to hire an entire staff to see to volunteers.

I've seen interesting stuff on WorkAway. Other WWOOFing style sites might also have things (if nothing else, people often want live-in language tutors for their kids, though I don't know if that's what he has in mind). There's also idealist.org.
posted by Sara C. at 4:09 PM on June 19, 2013 [6 favorites]


Your mentor strikes me as a bit naive. Does he have teaching training and experience? Just because someone is successful and educated doesn't mean that they have the skills that a good teacher requires. Teaching is a profession that takes years of training, it's not just something that a smart person can pick-up on the fly.

Like pretentious illiterate suggested, He might have more luck going to a University setting as a guest lecturer who can give a presentation about his field and experience. Maybe an international business and development program would like to have him come do a series of talks.

Programs teaching poor kids for a few weeks for a bunch of money are generally geared toward rich tourists of the developed world who are on some kind of 'great white savior' kick. They don't actually do much to improve the lives of kids who have little access to resources.
posted by quince at 4:24 PM on June 19, 2013 [2 favorites]


Memail me. I can put you in touch with a few small schools in central zambia that would be happy to have volunteers. "Teaching" is a bit ambiguous (even countries in africa have school systems, and accreditation systems, and where those are established you can't exactly just show up and expect to be shown into a classroom) but less formal things exist.
posted by cmyr at 5:05 PM on June 19, 2013 [2 favorites]


Volunteers for Peace: www.vfp.org

I volunteered for 3 weeks in Asia for $300 + airfare. Room + board was free.
posted by cmcmcm at 7:13 PM on June 19, 2013 [4 favorites]


Check out Cross Cultural Solutions. I've heard good things.

Those who said short-term volunteering isn't ideal certainly have a point. Your friend may have the best intentions but volunteering should be about those he wants to serve, not him. He's certainly entitled to feel like he's not being extorted but that's not the situation.

Assuming that a volunteer needs 100 hours in country to become a productive teacher, someone who can teach for three months will be less valuable to a volunteer organization than someone who can teach for two years.

This is not to discourage you or your friend but I have heard people complain about similar volunteer programs who don't appreciate that a volunteer organization spends time and money to train a volunteer. Organizations frequently ask for a donation from volunteers to defray their start-up costs. In general, they're not looking to profit from volunteers but they don't want to lose money either. Your friend's time and talent are not necessarily as valuable to a volunteer organization as either of you think it is.
posted by kat518 at 7:29 PM on June 19, 2013


What about teaching the children of people from Africa in the US? There are many societies that help refugees and immigrants.
posted by meepmeow at 7:32 PM on June 19, 2013 [7 favorites]


I taught English lessons at a village school in Nepal for about two-and-half-months. I arranged it through a company out of San Francisco run by two brothers called Leap Now. They sent you a survey about your interests and abilities, did a background check, and then gave you a list of possible opportunities. After filling out the survey thing, they let me know about the three most-upcoming openings working with kids: in Ghana, India, or Nepal. I said I'd take the first one that opened up, which happened to be the one in Nepal.

Leap Now set me up with a host family and paid them for my meals and lodging. They also had a local woman in Kathmandu (hello Sajani!) who I could talk to if I needed help or had questions or anything. At the time (back in 2000), the cost for Leap Now's service was $1,000, and I consider it well worth it. Their service was like being taken to a party by a friendly person who introduces you to everyone. Airfare was on me.
posted by blueberry at 10:08 PM on June 19, 2013


A few weeks? That's not teaching, that's tourism. Teaching is about getting to know your kids, academically and personally. It's boots on the ground, where the rubber meets the road, and similar cliches. A Westerner just kind of "showing up" for a few weeks is possibly more disruptive than anything.

Your friend's age and experience mean a whole lot less than his time commitment. That's what's most important. I'd say a year at the very least.
posted by zardoz at 11:26 PM on June 19, 2013 [1 favorite]


He would be so so much more helpful to an organisation in his field. There are plenty of small micro finance and development organisations that would welcome a volunteer consultant who could come in and help them review programs or train staff. All he needs to do is send his CV and a cover letter explaining that he'd be willing to come and volunteer for several months, covering his own airfare and personal expenses, and see who responds with something interesting.

Some of those organisations might also have programs for children, so he could work with staff 4 days a week and help in the classroom once a week for example.

However, if he is absolutely insistent on working with children, he needs to:

1. Get his background clearance sorted out. Any decent organisation will require certification of some sort that he has no criminal charges and has been cleared to work with children. This can take a while to get done or be super fast depending on his own country's rules.

2. Consider language. If he chooses a country where he speaks a language used in schools, he will be able to do much more than if he has to work with a dictionary in one hand.

3. Consider getting an ESL teaching certificate or something similar. A friend of mine is going for an 8-week teaching course which is an intensive night-class that will give her a basic certificate for teaching English that she can use to volunteer or work when she travels for several months. When we get volunteers at the NGO I work for who have teaching certificates, we are much much more likely to consider them. Speaking english is not the same as being able to teach english.

4. Consider volunteering locally at a school or class setting similar to where he wants to work in Africa. Teaching in a classroom setting requires communication, group discipline and creative teaching methods that are very different from tutoring one-on-one, and each age group has different challenges. Any experience he can get in his own country will help him be way more effective when he's there.

Also, the programs are really for nervous first-timers or very busy people who can't organise the trip themselves. You're paying for an extra layer of support and planning. If he wants to work in one particular area or with a specific group of people (teenage landmine survivors, kids rescued from plantation slave labor etc), he is better off directly contacting the NGOs and figuring it out on his own.

A year is great, so so great, but two months can be very good IF he supported those two months with planning and preparation in advance, and got there prepared for culture shock and with a specific achievable goal (I will help set-up the library and reading program so the local staff can continue it) that he can come back to support the next year.
posted by viggorlijah at 5:07 AM on June 20, 2013 [2 favorites]


Does his home city have diverse population? Maybe he could start making contacts in the immigrant-African neighborhoods/communities to start brushing up on culture and language, as he is doing all of this other prep to actually go to Africa.
posted by vignettist at 7:27 AM on June 20, 2013


I wonder if such a well-educated and presumably somewhat-affluent guy (you mentioned that he had a "great job", forgive me if I'm wrong) would be better at organizing others at home to do the same thing he's thinking of doing.

Possible scenarios...

- Through a donation, could a local service organization put together a group trip or exchange between institutions? Perhaps he could help a local high school/community college organize an multi-day/week/month? program with a high school/college/university in Africa somewhere?

- Could local people he knows professionally sponsor a library or school somewhere, and then organize a teacher-to-teacher exchange program?

- Could other professionals in his network of colleagues and contacts create an organization that funds a special cause in somewhere in Africa, like the creation of a library or the funding of something like a new well or canteen at a community school?

- Does his community have a twin town or sister city anywhere in Africa? That might be a place to start.

Imagine if he was able to affect his whole home community as well as the community he'd like to visit or live in in Africa. That would have positive effects long after your friend's visit is over.
posted by mdonley at 8:34 AM on June 20, 2013 [1 favorite]


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