The South Africa of today bears the scars of yesteryear when it was ruled under a white apartheid regime and blacks were considered second or even third class citizens. Although it has made a successful
transition to a stable democracy, the years of oppression have left a legacy of cultural violence, lack of education for a generation and widespread poverty, particularly outside the major conurbations. Today South
Africa is ranked in 114th place out of 189 countries and
territories in terms of life expectancy,
literacy, access to knowledge and living standards in 2019 making it, on paper, a better place to live
than in most of Africa, yet it still falls below
median global standards. There are many volunteer
organisations to help face the challenges South Africa
faces including rampant HIV (nearly 20% of the adult population
suffer from the virus), poor education, preventable
health care (50,000 children in South Africa die each
year from curable diseases or malnutrition) decent
housing (one in three children live in inadequate
housing), secure food and water sources (half of all
South Africa's children do not have access to safe water
supplies) to name but a few of these challenges.
The key
though to undertaking volunteer work in South Africa is
to go local. It's a country widely promoted by the big
volunteer organisations who make a small fortune out of
sending volunteers there, but your experience will be so
much more worthwhile if you work in a volunteer project
on the ground run by South Africans rather than geared
towards the volunteer tourist industry.
Please note that many volunteer opportunities in South Africa were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic which led to the permanent closure of some volunteer opportunities and restrictions on others. Hopefully things are now beginning to return to normal. If you run or
know of a volunteer work project in South Africa let us know by
contacting us here. We look forward
to hearing from you!
Volunteer Work South Africa: South African Education and Environment Project
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Volunteer Work South Africa: Free Me Wildlife
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Volunteer Work South Africa: The Centre for Rehabilitation of Wildlife
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Volunteer Work South Africa: Vervet
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Volunteer Work South Africa: Rustic Volunteers
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Details of current volunteer work
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