Volunteering in Africa

September 9, 2006 5:22 PM

Where and with whom should I volunteer in Africa?

I'm about the graduate in December and I want to spend several months volunteering abroad doing development work (teaching or working with kids would be great as well), preferably in Africa (looking particularly at Tanzania and Kenya, but I'm open). Even after doing a bunch of research, I'm having trouble figuring how to go about doing it so I was hoping that some of you might have some experience or have friends with experience that might help me sort this all out. I don't know whether I should try to find an individual NGO or go through a placement organization and if the latter how I can figure out which ones are well organized and not trying to rip me off. So, any wisdom you might be able to impart... Also, any suggestions about where to go in Africa would be appreciated.

Just some more details (feel free to skip this): I'm majoring in government with an emphasis on international development. I have a lot of experience working with low-income/homeless children and families in the U.S. and Mexico and I am willing to live in conditions of stark poverty without Western/modern ammenities. I only have the ability to go for 2-5 months, so wonderful programs like the Peace Corps are out. I also am not religious, so programs that require a certain affiliation won't work, although I certainly have no problems working with faith-based organizations. Also, I don't know French, so N. Africa would probably be difficult.

posted by purplevelvet to travel & transportation (9 comments total)

Maybe it's just me, but GeekCorps sounds like a pretty good match. As I understand it, you don't even need to be much of a geek, so long as you have some computer experience and ability to teach.
posted by Kickstart70 at 7:05 PM on September 9, 2006

coupla thoughts:

1) If it were me, I'd be looking to network with people who had been there already, and had good experiences with the communities and organizations they worked in, then find out if there are opportunities for a person like you. If you want to do some of that networking, I can connect you with a few people I know here. Off the top of my head, I know a guy who worked in Tanzania on wheelchair design; a friend who works with a school in rural Kenya - they're interested in people who can teach and who can help them become more technically and economically self-sustaining; and some folks working in Zambia with a wide variety of groups (AIDS hospices, wheelchair manufacturing, etc.). Keep in mind that even though a person may have focused on work with one specific group, they may also have contacts in many other "fields." Feel free to email me if any of those people may be helpful, I'd be glad to put you in touch with them.

2) how are you trying to fund this work? You might be interested in knowing about the Foundation Center, where you can search for grants that support different kinds of work; many are for individuals, a lot of development opportunities, it's worth the search. The online subscription was not-too-much, and using their office (Boston) is free.
posted by whatzit at 8:18 PM on September 9, 2006

I've only heard good things about VSO. I've never been myself though, so take that with a grain of salt.
posted by Popular Ethics at 8:59 PM on September 9, 2006

Also you should carefully examine your expectations. Try to look at it as part of your eductation, rather than humanitarian work. For the amount of money you'll spend in airfare, you could hire a Tanzanian university grad for a long time.
posted by Popular Ethics at 9:05 PM on September 9, 2006

I don't know about specific groups other than Peace Corps. Cautionary note: A couple of friends were in the PC in Africa (in Malawi and another poor-even-for-Africa country I can't think of at the moment). Their postings were so ill-organized and resourced that they spent most of their time just doing their own life-maintenance tasks (travelling long distances on foot to get food for themselves, maintaining domestic animals, cooking in unnecessarily primitive conditions, repairing their own broken equipment, etc). They both were very bitter after a time, and felt that their effort to help had been wasted -- that it had turned into a glorified camping trip, with little actual humanitarian work getting done.

I don't mean to be discouraging, I just mean to underscore how important it is to check out the group you're working with in advance, and talk to other recent volunteers who have been to the same site you would be working at.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:21 PM on September 9, 2006

I have to echo the cautions of LobsterMitten - living in "conditions of stark poverty without Western/modern amenities" means that even if you're in a larger city on a reasonable income, the everyday tasks of life like commuting to work and obtaining food for yourself often means devoting a huge amount of time to things that would take minutes or seconds at home and taking time away from things you'd actually like to do, be it working or something else.

I'm an English teacher in the fourth-largest city in Indonesia and my "morning routine" (from the time I wake up to the time I leave for work) takes five or six times as long as it did in college, which means getting up incredibly early and using my weekends and days off to catch up with grocery shopping and laundry and the like. It's really tiring, and it's really hard to focus on improving my lessons or reading up on teacher development, so I know I'm not doing my best work, and that upsets me.

And do ask yourself: do you view this "experience" like an internship, to help you start working at Oxfam or something, or because you just want to learn and grow and help people? I spent a summer in Ghana in 2003 teaching geography and social studies in a high school in Accra and while the experience was awesome, the "organization" I worked with was two people who housed me with their family in a suburban gated house with five cars and satellite TV, I was shuttled around in taxis the whole time at their insistence "for my safety" (which was a ridiculous notion; nicer people than the Ghanaians I have yet to meet), and my contacts with the local culture outside of school were mostly met with horror by my super-affluent host family: "you want to go where?!"

Keep in mind the social consequences of identifying yourself with people or an organization that is in an advantaged position to help out, too - will you be working with a microfinance institution and collecting on people's collateral if they default on their loans? Will you be riding around in air-conditioned Land Rovers driven by local people who don't share a language with you, blowing past old ladies and kids? Your (perceived) social and economic status will become much more intensified than it is in the States, and it won't always be pleasant.

Even with all those caveats, though, I still think it's worth doing, as long as you don't have some pie-in-the-sky ideas about your work (and it is work) completely changing local cultural ideas and traditions or overcoming grinding poverty. And do stay in touch with the people you work with.

I'm guessing you're in the US. One place to hit up for advice might be local community centers or organizations serving recent immigrants from Africa in places like New York, Washington, Atlanta, Chicago, or Los Angeles. They might know of people going to their home countries to set up businesses, start charities, or create partnerships with local people.

I found the Ghana position through Idealist.org, which is a repository of just the sort of positions you (maybe) are seeking. Good luck.
posted by mdonley at 12:52 AM on September 10, 2006

Here are 30 volunteer jobs in Africa.
posted by mdonley at 12:56 AM on September 10, 2006

"I have a lot of experience working with low-income/homeless children and families in the U.S. and Mexico ..."

If you've already worked with the poor in The US - why not continue? Seems like you've already got a background and you're helping out - why not continue? There definitely is lots to be in done in North America, and given the short time you're available, this seems the most appropriate course of action to me.

"...I am willing to live in conditions of stark poverty without Western/modern ammenities."

I'd be very careful about using the words 'Africa' and 'willing to live in poverty' in a single sentence.

You don't mention if you've ever been outside the US or North America, so I'm not really sure if you know what your letting yourself in for with a statement such as that.

I've spent a lot of time on the ground down in Africa, and while I really l love the place and share / respect your altruistic motives (those folks do the best they can with what they've got), Africa is really, really different than the US. Or Europe.

There are a lot of factors to consider, first of all disease.

You're going to have to get jabs. In this post I detail what I've had. I was prepared to spend lots of time in Urban and semi-Urban environments in Africa. Consider this "entry level" innoculations.

Folks that work further out of cities, more remotely, get a more comprehensive series, another half dozen or so. Lately I've been spending a lot of time outside citiees, so I'm scheduled to get these over the next three months but I don't know yet what they are. I do know that both courses of jabs have to done over a period of several months, and sometimes the cure is worse than the disease (for example, Japanese Encephalitis vaccine actually will cause this fatal disease about 1%-2% of the time, so do you feel lucky?)

Another thing to consider about Africa in general, and working down there are parasites - they happen.

One night in bed something bit me, didn't hurt but I woke up with a hugh red mark on my right leg that got black over time. Cut that trip off early as I was advised against medical care down there, and once back in London I had a rather lengthy series of treatments (at a Centre for Infectious Tropical Diseases no less) that were rather unpleasant; at times I thought I was being killed not the worms. Moral of the story is - shit lives down there that in the US or Europe one never even thinks could be alive, or want to feed on you.

So I guess there are a lot of factors that you've got to look at before seriously taking the plunge. Why not work with the poor in the US, and research this a little further, maybe even to the point of taking a holiday in one of the more benign African nations?

Consider it a gentle introduction. As I said previously, I respect and admire your motives - I have them myself, and really is the only reason I spend so much time down there.

Email me if you'd like to discuss details further. Best of luck and take care!
posted by Mutant at 2:51 AM on September 10, 2006

You might consider this organization, the African Rural Schools Foundation.

Full disclosure, this group was founded by the minister of my church and we are helping them obtain independent non-profit status. The organization is not missionary in any way (we're Unitarian Universalist), though. We're in the process of sending our first volunteer over, so we're still finding our way. The flip side of that, is that there is a huge potential to make a real difference and the experience would be very individualized. The organization was founded because Renee, our minister, like you had a summer sabbatical that she wanted to spend in Africa and went over to help in a school and the project has been snowballing ever since.
posted by DarthDuckie at 4:45 PM on September 12, 2006