Childcare And Development Worker

The program

This program makes a truly positive impact on impoverished children and their families. Volunteers are desperately sought to help this program implement a comprehensive approach to pre-school educational policies and programs for children from birth to six years of age (school entry age) with the active participation of their parents and caregivers. Within the local community, home-based crèches are established by unemployed women. Some of these women have never received any kind of formal training in Early Childhood Development, and their establishments' resources are generally very limited. Volunteer help is essential to the viability of these projects and greatly appreciated. Duties for volunteers therefore vary and a love for working with children and lots of patience are very important. Volunteers need to be flexible and willing to help wherever help is needed. It is also important that they understand the local community situations and the local challenges associated with these types of placements.

Goals of this Project:

• Provide quality child care to underprivileged children in Cape Town
• Improve the future prospects of children through providing a solid early childhood education, improving their educational prospects for the future
• Boosting the confidence and aspirations of marginalized children and their families
• Enable inter-cultural exchange which benefits both students and international volunteers alike

How you can help

Volunteers play an essential role in supporting impoverished children on this program. Their participation allows the program to continue to operate without funding. Volunteers will spend time assisting with daily activities, teaching and playing with the children. Volunteers must be able to take initiative in assessing the needs at the crèche. In the areas where Xhosa or Afrikaans is mostly spoken the volunteer would need even more patience as most of the children cannot speak English. This is usually not an issue as children are very eager to learn and one just needs extra patience with them. Volunteers usually work 4-6 hours per day, starting at around 8.30 am.  A willingness to help in other areas of the project would also add value e.g. upgrades to the facility, finding creative ways to make learning aids/material.

Volunteers on this program will contribute in a number of ways and can expect to undertake the following tasks:

• Helping to teach children
• Attending to and interacting with the children
• Creating activities and toys and entertaining the children with games and songs
• Help with preparing meals, feeding children and other duties where required

A volunteer’s work day on this project will generally last between 4 and 6 hours and while we ask all volunteers to be flexible in this regard, a typical daily schedule is likely to go something like this:

7:00am Breakfast at the volunteer house

7:30am Walk or bus to your project site

8:30am Pre-start meeting with project supervisor

9:00am VOLUNTEERING DUTIES START

A tea break and lunch break will be fitted in during the day, but often the timing of breaks will change based on the needs of the local staff and number of volunteers on hand.

1:00pm VOLUNTEERING DUTIES END

1:15pm Debrief with project supervisor

1:30pm Walk or bus back to the accommodation

Evenings Volunteers are free to explore the local area, check out the multitude of local restaurants, bars and cafes, or relax with the other volunteers.