Teaching & Orphan Care Volunteer, Mozambique

Overview

The Teaching & Orphan Care project has been designed to offer volunteers the chance to care for and teach disadvantaged children in Mozambique.

Volunteers on this project are needed to work in specialist centres (orphanages and schools in Mozambique) that provide valuable support systems to children. The help provided by these centres ensures that children in Mozambique are given a decent chance in life with ample measures of nurturing and schooling – basic needs that all children should be given no matter where in the world they happen to reside.

With limited access to medical care and education in Mozambique, this project is heavily reliant on the help of its volunteers. As well as providing basic education to the children, the project's orphan centres provide healthy meals for each child - a necessity that sadly many local children in the area do without.

Quite a while has elapsed since Mozambique, an ex-Portuguese colony was gripped by a devastating civil war, and whilst it is still an extremely poor country (with one of the lowest GDP per capita in Africa), it has discovered peace and is enjoying an economic resurgence with particular growth coming from the tourism industry.

Volunteers will be staying in Tofo, a stunning beach location area that has become extremely popular with tourists. In addition to Mozambique's welcoming hospitality, volunteers on this project get to enjoy pristine beaches, diverse marine wildlife and spectacular scenery.

What's included?

• Pre-departure Briefing in London
• Pre-departure information and advice
• In-country assistance and support
• 24-hour emergency contacts
• In-country induction or training
• Transportation: airport pick-up
• Transportation to the project (volunteers are reimbursed at the end of their trip)
• Accommodation: Volunteer house
• Food: included, but self-catered

What's NOT included?

• Flights
• Insurance
• Visas
• Monthly stipend

Location

Out of all our volunteer projects in Africa, this Teaching & Orphan Care volunteer project in Mozambique is undoubtedly located in one of our most spectacular volunteer destinations.

• The projects are based in several locations throughout the Tofo region(Inhambane and the rural areas in-between Tofo and Inhambane).

Tofo (where you will be accommodated), is located by the Indian Ocean, and is a small coastal rural area in the province of Inhambane. The area is famous for its stunning natural beauty and rich marine biodiversity. The surrounding reefs make it a very popular tourist destination, attracting many visitors during the holidays (mainly from South Africa), who come with the anticipation of diving with the large fish - whale sharks and the giant manta ray’s which both frequent the plankton rich seas.

Tofo is an incredible place to volunteer in – there are plenty of cultural and adventure activities to participate in on your days off from the project, or volunteers can simply relax, sunbathe and soak up the incredible beach scenery.

The 'real' Tofo: However beautiful a location it might be, Tofo is surrounded by immense poverty, and whilst the locals are extremely 'chilled out' in their demeanour, like most people in Mozambique they struggle to make ends meet.
Tofo has a stereotypical ‘touristy’ scene, however just a few minutes walk away from these areas will take you to beautiful quintessential villages, local markets and eateries that are untouched by tourists - areas that are definitely worth exploring.

 

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Project life and Photos

This volunteer project is divided into two areas:

1. Teaching at a local village school
2. Volunteering at a local orphanage

Volunteers can choose to work in either area (school or orphanage), or divide their time between the two.

Teaching English in a Mozambique Village School...

Volunteers who choose to teach in Mozambique, will spend their afternoons giving pre-planned English lessons to children from the local Mozambique village. The local schools are fascinating traditional thatched roof buildings and the teachers have extremely limited teaching resourses. The school is a 45 min walk from the volunteer accommodation in Tofo.

• Whilst English may be spoken (in varying degrees) by some of the students, for the most part, the children will be fluent in either Portuguese or different local languages. It will be your role as a volunteer to help create lesson plans that offer structured English classes to the students.

The teaching arm of this project is relatively new, and due to a lack of teachers in the area, children with different abilities are being taught in the same class. Your teaching methods and/or lessons need to accommodate the academic differences of each child in the class. The students in the local schools are very well behaved and eager to learn.  All of them attend school at their own accord, which is a clear sign of their desire to learn. Depending on the school you are placed in, the class will hold between 15 to 30 students. 

Mozambique continues to see an increase in visitor numbers, but (as is the case with most tourist hot spots) most businesses and jobs in Mozambique require English speakers. Locals in Mozambique are losing out on jobs to either South Africans or European ex-pats.

• This unfairness is lessened because of this volunteer Teaching English programme – it enables volunteers to empower future generations in Mozambique, thus increasing their chances of finding employment and creating a sustainable future.

Lesson Plans: Creating structured lesson plans are a necessity of this teaching project, because it ensures that the children’s classes are not disrupted whenever a volunteer has to eventually return home to their own country. As volunteers come and go, structured lesson plans will ensure that the children are able to follow well-ordered English programmes, thus maintaining the momentum generated by past volunteers' class designs.

 

Orphanage Care in Mozambique...

The majority of the children in the orphan care centre come from troubled backgrounds where their families (immediate / extended) are unable to offer them the care required for a healthy and happy upbringing. Working with orphans in Mozambique gives volunteers the opportunity to impact on the lives of disadvantaged children and do their bit to help children reach their full potential in life.

The orphan care centre acts both as a home and a school to the children, offering educational and life skills. Volunteers are required to work alongside local staff and project staff members, caring for and giving basic life skills to orphaned children. It can accommodate up to 150 children, with children aged from nursery to primary school age.

Volunteers will be given the chance to get involved in a number of the following activities:

• Provide support and affection, helping the children feel wanted.
• Interact with and play games with the children. Take them out on educational outings, or trips to the beach.
• Help teach simple English, math and basic life skills
• Take part in feeding programmes – help organise activities such as developing trench gardens, helping to source food donations, helping to feed local children in the community.
• Contribute to house management – help to improve the basic needs of the children in their house-units
• Take part in outreach programmes and identify needs – visit homesteads and help other local vulnerable children.
• Fundraising – take part in organising events that can raise awareness and funds to help meet the specific needs of vulnerable children.
• Help bathe and clean the children, and teach them basic hygiene skills

A typical day on the orphanage project: 07:00 - Breakfast 07:30 - Catch a local taxi/chappa to the orphanage in Inhambane (about 30min) 08:00 - Carry out your morning activities helping to care for orphaned children at the centre. 9:30 - 10:30 - English Lesson 12:30 - Lunch 13:30 - Nap time for the children – help get the children to sleep 14:30 - Afternoon activities - help arrange games or basic chores for the children 16:30 - Finish up and catch a local taxi/chappa back to Tofo

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Flights, transportation and visas

• International flights are not included.
• You should book your flight to Inhambane International Airport, where you will be picked-up and taken to the project location.
• The only airline operating to Inhambane airport is Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM-Mozambican Airlines), and connection flights are available via Johannesburg International Airport (JNB) in South Africa or Maputo International Airport (MPM) in Mozambique.
• A tourist visa is required if you are a UK citizen, please visit the High Commission of the Republic of Mozambique website for more information.
• Volunteers use local buses to get to and from the project. You will need to keep a log of your transport costs and the project will reimburse you at the end of your trip.

 

CIBT Visa advice... For expert visa advice we advise our volunteer, work placement, and internship participants to get in touch with CIBT - a company that we work in partnership with. Our UK, Canadian, and US travellers can use CIBT for visa advice and to get their visa applications processed - with visas returned within a week. UK travellers can contact CIBT for visa advice. Canadian participants can contact CIBT for visa advice or call Toll Free: 888-665-9956 US participants can contact CIBT for visa advice or call Toll Free: 800-577-2428 Canadian citizens should state account number: 57497 US citizens should state account number: 57496

Dates and duration

• The programme starts on the 1st Monday of every month and finish on a Monday determined by the length of your stay.
• Duration: from 4, 6, 8, 10 or 12 weeks
• Programmes can be extended by 4 weeks

Available dates:

Please check availability with a Twin Work & Volunteer travel advisor. Call 0800 80 483 80 or contact us.

Safety and insurance

• All of Twin Work & Volunteer's placements are in partnership with recognised and established local organisations, run by or employing local people. These organisations, depending on the nature of what they do, might be small-scale NGOs, family projects, schools or orphanages, or local initiatives with environmental or social goals.
• We often use local businesses to provide logistical and support services to volunteers such as transfers, pick-ups, accommodation and so on. In this way, we support the local economy through helping independent local businesses to thrive. We take our partnerships very seriously and work extremely closely with all our partners.
• We provide 24-hour emergency support from the UK and our partners provides support locally.
• We have an agreement with the crisis management service Tranquillico, should the very worst situations arise.
• If any wider safety concerns arise in the destination, such as civil disturbances or natural disasters, we seek advice from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO)and implement their recommendations where appropriate.

 

Insurance options... Comprehensive insurance is available for all programmes. You have no obligation to take up insurance with any of these companies, but insurance of a suitable sort is mandatory on all our programmes. For UK participants: Here are the full details of our partnership with Endsleigh. For American and Canadian participants: We offer insurance options with International Volunteer Card (IVC).

Eligibility

• Minimum age 18 yrs. No maximum age.
• There are no specific skills required to participate in this programme, other than being mature, flexible, having a willingness to get involved, and a good sense of humour.
• Good spoken English is required. A little knowledge of Portuguese is appreciated but not essential.
• International volunteers are always welcome.

Accommodation and Food

• Volunteers in Mozambique will be accommodated at a volunteer house. The volunteer house has 6 bedrooms mostly comprising of 2 bunk beds in each room. The house has 4 bathrooms and 2 kitchens and a large sitting/iving room.
• From Monday to Thursday local meals will be prepared for you. You have to make your own breakfast and lunches though but the food will be supplied for you, and also have to prepare dinner for yourself Friday- Sunday.
• The local town has a great selection of local bars and restaurants should you fancy treating yourself to some fresh seafood.

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