Environment & Community Outreach

The program

This is an amazing grassroots project that anyone can participate in and makes a real difference to those who need it most. Volunteers on this project can become involved in tree planting, sustainable gardening, water hygiene and recycling projects, and many other amazing community-based initiatives.  A lot of this work occurs in schools where the program works to make them as self-sufficient as possible. The sustainable gardens are designed to contribute to school lunches for the students, the water tanks mean the schools can store water during the dry season to maintain their crops, and clean drinking water and toilets improves the health and wellbeing of students and teachers. The program also has strong links with the local Maasai tribe in the region and where possible, time is spent in remote villages, teaching about the environment, healthy eating and basic hygiene which is often a highlight for volunteers. These communities suffer great hardships, from low education rates to high disease and poor health rates. Volunteer work within these communities and schools is hugely rewarding and makes a true difference to the lives of those less fortunate.

Goals of this Project:

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

8:45am 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.

3:00pm VOLUNTEERING DUTIES END

3:15pm Debrief with project supervisor

3:30pm 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.

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!