Early Childhood Education Assistant

The program

This essential program working with children in Tanzania supports the under resourced, yet fundamental, area of early childhood education. The program is available in pre and primary schools in the gateway city of Arusha. 

Early childhood education is sadly often neglected in Tanzania's education system, lacking guidelines, funding, resources and quality staffing. This program provides volunteers with the opportunity to share their support, knowledge and skills with those children in need, helping to shape lives and ensure children get the best start. It is essential that volunteers are enthusiastic and flexible as this program needs motivated volunteers who love caring for children and are willing to dedicate themselves to a number of tasks to enable the successful running of the pre/primary schools. 

Goals of this Project:

• Provide education and support to preschool and primary school children in Arusha
• Improve the future prospects of the children of Tanzania
• Expose non-English speakers to native English speakers in order to improve pronunciation and conversational skills
• Enable inter-cultural exchange which benefits both children, staff and international volunteers alike.

Volunteers play an integral role in achieving the goals of this project, proving teaching assistance and quality care to help these wonderful children grow and thrive! The program gives volunteers a wonderful opportunity to associate with children from different backgrounds and ethnic communities.

Volunteers will support the children in a multitude of ways, including educating the children about personal hygiene, assisting at meal times, playing games and developing the children’s physical health through active movement as well as assisting local teachers with basic learning such as English, numeracy, literacy and fundamental science. As the program supports several pre/primary schools in the local community, volunteers are welcome to note a preference for working with preschoolers, primary students or across these age groups in a combined pre/primary school setting. Our fantastic local team will assign volunteers based on the best fit.

This a wonderful opportunity to boost children's chances of staying in education for longer and improving their overall wellbeing and future prospects!

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

• Arranging games, art, sports and other activities 
• Interacting with the children as positive role models
• Assisting with mealtime preparation and clean-up
• Helping local teachers with delivering lessons and assisting children with their homework
• Teaching the students basic English, the alphabet and numeracy

A volunteer’s work day on this project will generally last between 4 and 6 hours, Monday through Friday.  We ask that volunteers are flexible around the specific schedule according to the needs of the centres at the time of the placement and their own skills and background. 

Situated in northern Tanzania, Arusha is the capital of the Arusha Region and is surrounded by some of Africa’s most famous landscapes and national parks. Situated below Mount Meru on the eastern edge of the eastern branch of the Great Rift Valley, it has a mild climate and is close to Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, Olduvai Gorge, Tarangire National Park, and Mount Kilimanjaro, as well as having its own Arusha National Park on Mount Meru.

Arusha balances well the ‘city life’ with the ‘small town’ feel and that makes it even more attractive in the eyes of tourists and travelers from all parts of the world. The city is surrounded by farm estates growing coffee, wheat and maize. These farm estates are being maintained by the Arusha and Meru tribes since the 18th century. Arusha is commonly referred to as the safari capital of East Africa. This is because it is the main starting point for safaris into Tanzania. It is a vibrant town renowned for its streets filled with tourist vehicles, the Maasai warriors and the famous Central Market. Awesome!