Are you a natural with children?

Surrounded by children aged five and under, you’ll be dishing out lots of love (as well as the odd tissue) to the children at this home who have had a difficult start in life due to abandonment, abuse or neglect. Working amongst the dedicated but over-stretched staff, you’ll find yourself providing the children with stimulation and care in order to boost their physical and emotional development and enable them to go on to happier and healthier futures. You'll need to possess a genuine love of children and a willingness to get involved in all aspects of the homes daily running, from playing games and organising activities to helping to prepare food and changing nappies.

What does the project do?

Christine Revell Children’s home is registered to provide care for 49 abandoned, abused, orphaned and neglected children, some of whom are HIV infected. Full residential care is given to children from birth until the age of five years at the home.

The home strives to create and maintain a healthy, nurturing environment where children can grow and develop physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially. Our aim is for every child to reach his or her highest potential. At this tender age, the children in care already have to deal with loss of affection, the anxiety of separation and effects of abuse and neglect. With volunteer help, we therefore try our best to give the children the love and care they so desperately crave – together with a good balance of discipline.

Why does the project need volunteers?

At the time of writing there are 50 children in the home but numbers will vary. The children have often had to deal with the stress of loss, abuse or neglect and so need lots of your love and attention. The older children attend an onsite creche where they can learn basic colours, shapes, numbers, etc. The centre is also able to provide specialized attention for any children that show behavioural problems, but local occupational therapy students also spend time here.

Your role as a volunteer

You'll be working alongside the 26 staff members, including the director, welfare worker, admin staff, domestic workers and relief workers. you will be getting involved in all aspects of the running of the home, These local staff work on rotation 24/7. The older children at the home attend Little Star Crèche on the home premises from 8:30am to 11:30am. Under the guidance of two qualified staff members, they learn about shapes, sizes, colours, and are taught rhymes. Students who indicate behavioural problems receive additional specialized attention from Occupational Therapy students. Typical tasks include:

• Providing and playing appropriate games and activities for various age groups
• Bathing
• Preparing food and Feeding
• Changing nappies
• Wiping noses!
• Playing with younger children
• Domestic duties can include - painting/ washing dishes/ cleaning kitchen/ washing walls/ gardening/ clearing out rubble/
  Domestic duties might be put aside for hospital duty/ clinic duty

Accommodation included

You'll be staying at a volunteer house in Fish Hoek, approximately 25 kilometres from Athlone. You'll travel to the project each day by train.

Project resources and advice

You will be provided with all the necessary resources, but you may wish to bring items for any special activities you might want to do.

Food

It's self-catering, so you will be responsible for buying and cooking your own food.

Airport pick-up included

You will be met at the airport if arriving on the scheduled arrival date . Please book your flight to arrive into Cape Town (airport code CPT), we advise you arrive before 16.00 to avoid missing your orientation in the afternoon.

Things that you will need to organize yourself

• Flights
• Insurance
• Visa costs
• In-country transport (except airport pickup on your arrival date)
• Optional cultural add-ons (please contact i-to-i for more details) 
• Return airport transfer
• Food (approximately US$50 per week)

You don’t need to be a specialist or rocket scientist to take part in this experience, but a little love, care, patience, commitment and enthusiasm will go a long way! Keeping an open mind will also help you enjoy the best experience possible. It will also help if you have the following:

• You should be a happy and outgoing character with a "can-do" attitude and a love of children.
• Experience with children will be highly valued but is not essential.
• You’ll need to be patient, understanding and fair, as the children can be very demanding for your attention.
• The centre provides full care for the children under their charge so you must be prepared to get involved in anything and everything.
• A proactive, enthusiastic and flexible approach will help you get the most out of your experience.
• There is a large age range at the centre, so you need to be imaginative and adaptable in order to think of and work with appropriate activities for the various age groups.

Project Log

What exactly do i-to-i provide?

It may seem like a strange concept to pay for your volunteer experience. You'd be right if you think you shouldn't and the truth is you actually don't! Your placement is free; it's the benefits around it that you pay for. It's important to note that i-to-i is a travel company and not a charity. We provide a professional travel service. We are responsible for finding and assessing worthwhile projects across the world, preparing you fora the volunteering experience and supporting you whilst you're there.

Here’s some more information about what your placement fee covers….

Project sourcing and assessment

We work with hundreds of locally run partner projects around the world and are constantly sourcing new opportunities. We visit all projects to check that they are worthwhile and legitimate and we also conduct a thorough safety assessment before we'll send volunteers there. More

Expert help-desk

Almost everyone who works for i-to-i has traveled extensively or worked overseas. This means we're a goldmine of information; we're always available to offer support and guidance before, during and after your trip.

Thorough project briefing materials

Once you book on to a project you'll receive a Welcome Pack that contains loads of general information about volunteering, about your chosen country and how to have fun and stay safe. We'll also give you advice on visas and inoculations.

TEFL training

If you are volunteering on a Teaching project then a 40-hour Online TEFL course is included in your placement fee. This is an internationally recognised and accredited certificate that will help you to make the most of your time overseas. More

Airport pickup

It can be pretty daunting arriving in a different country for the first time - especially after a long flight! If you arrive on your project start date, there'll be a welcoming face at the airport to pick you up and take you to your accommodation.

Arrival orientation

Soon after you arrive you will attend a thorough orientation with our in-country team. This is to cover important safety and security information. You'll also get some tips about sight-seeing options for your time off and maybe even learn some of the local lingo!

Accommodation and meals

Accommodation is included with all projects and meals are even included with some. We only use locally-owned and operated accommodation so that part of your placement fee is filtering back into the local economy. Most projects offer homestay, guesthouse or shared volunteer houses as standard accommodation, but some offer the chance to upgrade to a more comfortable living standard. More

Local in-country coordinators

Your in-country team will arrange a pick-up for you at the airport and will conduct your orientation upon arrival. All coordination teams are English speaking and are locals of your destination country. They won't be at your project every day, but will be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week if you need them. More

24/7 emergency support

Aside from the local support from your in-country team you'll be given access to a 24/7 emergency phone line manned by our response team in case any problem should arise while you're overseas. We also hire crisis management professionals to be on hand in case of a situation that requires additional expert support. More

Ongoing training

The safety and security of our volunteers is paramount. For this reason we provide ongoing crisis management and emergency response training to our local teams around the world. We also fly in our in-country coordinators to the UK regularly for thorough training to help them offer the best safety to the thousands of volunteers they support each year. More

Supporting our projects

We don't fund our projects directly from the project fee that you pay us. Instead we choose to support a number of projects every year through a grant scheme for tangible long-term initiatives. In the last 3 years we have distributed over US$250,000 to our most needy projects to help them in the great work they do. 

Recruiting people like you

We make no secrets of the fact that part of your placement fee is reinvested in to recruiting volunteers just like you! The volunteers recruited in one week will typically deliver over 2000 man-days of service. The difference this makes to projects overseas is immeasurable. Many of our overseas projects rely on assistance from international volunteers, so it's necessary for us to put together brochures and websites to find the people who can support them. This recruitment process is vital to ensure programs have a constant stream of reliable volunteers.

The intangible benefits

Volunteering through a company like i-to-i has a lot of intangible benefits to developing overseas communities and the individual projects that we work with. To find out more about our placements. click here

What we will do after you've booked:

Orientation Information

Insurance

It's important that you get adequate travel insurance for your i-to-i experience and as many of you will be working this often means standard policies won’t work. The good news is that no matter where your coming from we have already found a policy to suit you.

The best time to get your insurance is when you book your project as this means you can get a fully tailored policy exclusive to i-to-i, just ask your consultant for further details at the time of booking.

EU Customers – find out more here >>

Australian customers - find out more here >>

All other customers - find out more here >>

Flights

As with insurance we advise you get these booked as early as possible to avoid high prices and to make sure you arrive on the right day. The i-to-i team is right up to date with the best deals no matter where you’re flying from; their insider knowledge could save you some time and money.