Share in the experiences of couple Shelly and Joe (USA) who spent their Christmas week volunteering in our community Lfe Skills Volunteering project. Shelly really has a talent for writing and capturing what life is like in rural South Africa.

Click here to see thier story ...

Some of Joes highlights during his volunteer programme:

  • Teaching the boys how to play baseball and watching how quickly they picked it up after playing only one game (which lasted several hours). It was rewarding when they wanted to play every day thereafter and then to hear from Kabello that the boys continued to play after Shelly and I left the village.
  • Helping Kabello build a CV and cover letter. It seemed to have a positive impact as he was taking more pride in running his restaurant/bar business in the community center.  Additionally, after encouraging him to continue his education, he emailed us to tell us he plans to go back to school.
  • Realizing the importance of conserving basic resources such as water, toilet paper, newspaper, etc that previously we would have consumed/wasted without thinking about it.

Some of Shelly’s highlights during her volunteer programme:

  • Each child is so special and touched my heart.  They are so well behaved and appreciative that we were there.  I loved seeing their smiling faces every morning as they trickled into the center looking for us.
  • Loved teaching the kids math and spelling.  It was so nice that they asked to learn on their holiday break. I helped one of the boys named Sagat to write his multiplication tables and he said he would memorize them.  I know this will help him in all his future math courses.  He wrote us a really sweet card at the end of the week.
  • I enjoyed chatting with Elizabeth and the ladies and the food they cooked was really good!