staff are overworked and do not have enough time to dedicate to each child individually, and we experienced what a great part volunteers play in the lives of all of the children. ...On our first day, we joined just-arrived German, British and Norwegian volunteers on their walking tour of Cape Town and participated in their orientation session at the SASTS office. There, Marina Scheffers and Dale Hendricks of SASTS introduced us to South Africa and the principles of the volunteer program. In the next days we had a fully booked itinerary and visited many projects, among them high schools and elementary schools, creches, and environmental projects. The respective staff gave us a good insight of the institutions and of the important parts that volunteers play. We also had the chance to see some volunteers in action as teaching assistants, playing with and caring for small children. One project that impressed us immensely was Sive Nathi Licensed Home, an institution for mentally and physically disabled children. The two volunteers we met at Sive Nathi had only been there for a few days, yet, and it was touching to see how much the kids enjoyed being with them - someone who has the time to give them attention, take them for a walk or simply hug them. Like in most counties, nurses and staff are overworked and do not have enough time to dedicate to each child individually, and we experienced what a great part volunteers play in the lives of all of the children.
During their working service, volunteers stay with host families, many of which are great ladies who have already welcomed a lot of young people from around the world. We had the chance to meet a host family who opened their heart and home to one of the volunteers. Mama Magadebe was a cheerful and happy lady and hopes to receive many more volunteers in the future. She lives in Kayamandi, the township part of the city of Stellenbosch just outside Cape Town. In Kayamandi we met Vui, a young South African who lives in the township and who just returned from a seven months volunteer service in Sao Paulo, Brazil, sponsored by SASTS. Vui was very inspired and full of the “Volunteer Spirit” and had come back to his country with many new ideas and plans – not only for himself, but also for his community. All of us felt inspired too - EIL Ireland, Experimento Brazil and Experiment Germany are already sending volunteers to South Africa and for Thaqafat Morocco this was a great motivation to consider starting a volunteer program.
Experiment Germany has sent the first AYP exchange students to South Africa last year – an exciting new program for the students and the sending organization alike. We met three of the students – Helena, Isabel and Lukas – and saw how they all embraced the South African way of life. Talking to the students, their teachers and Isabel’s host mother, we got a good impression of what the life of an exchange student in South Africa looks like. Angela gathered a lot of information that she will use in the pre departure workshops this summer to give the 08-09 students and their parents a realistic picture of life in a South African host family.
Besides projects, schools and orientation session, we also had the chance to experience South Africa
– it’s rich and current history on Robben Island, where the Apartheid Regime imprisoned their political enemies, as well as the Cape of Good Hope and the beautiful landscape of the peninsula. We enjoyed the sun at the waterfront and listened to African rhythms at the Mama Africa bar. After a great week of information, questions and experiences, culture, fun and sun we had to say goodbye to Rashid, Marina, Nuri, Kelly, Dale, John, and all the other SASTS staff we met. Goodbye South Africa – Vaarwel Suid-Afrika!
The PARTNERS EDUCATIONAL was a great experience and is already helping us in our daily business with VIP participants and students. Besides getting a better picture of the projects, it was great to meet the people who work with the same kind of projects and programmes as we do in a different part of the world. We learned a lot about SASTS, exchanged many ideas and definitely took some inspiration home with us – how to improve our work and maybe even for new programs. We would like to encourage all EIL members to organize partners meetings in the future; they are a great way to further improve the quality of EIL programmes and to make the Federation so much more tangible for all of us!
Angela, Anton, Margareth and Rachid
Pictured in the photo at the top, Left to right: Margareth, Anton, Angela, Nuri, Kelly, Marina, Rachid
Pictured at right: Dale, John, and Marina of SASTS