Outreach Manager
Highlights
DAKTARI is a registered non-profit company located in South Africa close to the Kruger National Park. The program site is situated in a 600 hectares private game reserve. Our mission is to educate and inspire local children to value their environment and stimulate community development.
About the Program
The program is based in the middle of the bush. There is no electricity in the camp but we have solar power and Internet for computers. You will live in a family atmosphere and a beautiful area. You must be able to adapt to group life and to be away from the city.
Every Monday DAKTARI welcomes a new group of 8 local under-privileged children for a week and gives them the opportunity to discover, learn and become passionate about wildlife, conservation and their environmental heritage. The organization also supplements their school curriculum in English, math’s, sciences, geography, life skills and social issues.
The goal is to enable today’s local underprivileged children to eventually be able to secure good employment in nature reserves, thereby improving their future and quality of life.
Some of the children who attended to DAKTARI have created Eco Clubs in the villages where they come from. This gave us the idea to start a new program called the Outreach Program.
These two clubs are run once a week at the local high school where environmental and life skill lessons are taught to the students. The students can join voluntary and are of all ages. The lessons are after school from 2.30 until 4.00. The main reason to have these clubs is to give the students who have been to DAKTARI a chance to continue learning about the environment and keep developing themselves as independent people.
We have two eco-clubs at the moment, Rakgolokwane on Monday afternoon and Maahlamele on Tuesday afternoon. The rest of the week is used for community development, business creation, administration, social media, fundraising and preparing the lesson for next week.
The outreach manager is also visiting two crèches in the village of the Oaks (near Maahlamele school) on Tuesday mornings. We alternate every second week with the two crèches.
The idea is to let the program grow, not by taking on more eco-clubs but to improve the lives of the students by finding opportunities for their future. For example by assisting with bursaries to study or get employed in the Eco-Tourism field and/or to help the community toward development in green environment and/or eco-tourism access. This takes up a lot of time but the reward to guide students and/or the community is amazing.
Volunteers will be interacting with:
- Directors
- Long-term volunteers
- Short-term volunteers
- Children
- Students
- Community members
Purpose
Volunteers should manage the
outreach programs including the twice-weekly Eco-Clubs, planning, teaching
lessons and daily administration tasks, providing career guidance to students, organizing bookings for the home-stay families and
supporting business creation in the local area.
Task 1: The Eco-Club
- Plan,
prepare and teach lessons to students at two local schools twice a week,
educating them about environmental issues and nature conservation.
- Preparing
fresh activities to reinforce the lessons.
- Administrative
tasks including keeping attendance records and fundraising.
- Budgeting
tasks, recording all donations, in- and out-going costs including transport,
printing and stationary supply costs.
Task 2: Outreach Campaining
- Plan, prepare and teach the introductory lessons to primary school students to widen our impact.
- Invite and organise presentation days with parents.
- Administrative tasks including keeping attendance records and fundraising>
Task 3: Community Programs – Home-Stay Family
- Continue
to manage the Home-stay family program.
- Organize
and arrange bookings for volunteers to stay with the family (Maakosha Shai).
- Maintain
regular contact with the host families, to nurture the existing relationship we
have with them.
- Ensure
all guests complete charter and feedback forms for future improvements. Offer
guidance and inform the host families of any necessary improvements.
- Search
for and screen potential new families for the program. Conduct interviews with
them and view their home to assess whether they are right for the program.
- Stay
one night with the family to experience a day in their life so that you are
able to provide other potential guests with all the required information.
Task 4: Community Programs (waste management – Eco Business Creation)
- Work
with the community and local leaders to develop a sustainable waste management
- Connect
with the community to select people who have great ideas and help them to
create their own business.
- Create
enthusiasm toward the development of our neighboring village into an Eco
Friendly Touristic Village.
- Meeting
with the chief of the village to negotiate, present and inform him and the
council about the progress and development plans
Task 5: PR
- Write
and submit press releases to local newspapers covering new programs,
achievements and events.
Task 6: Multimedia
- Take
photographs of new programs, the eco-club, and student achievements.
- Collect
photographs from volunteers who visit the eco-club with you or who experience
the home-stay program, select the best ones to use for the Facebook page and
newspaper articles.
- Manage
all photography with iPhoto and export the selected pictures into the PHOTOS
folder.
Typical day
Working Conditions
Many challenges will occur, as the days are never the same. On many occasions, you will be in contact with underprivileged children who have not the same culture as you have. You must be an understanding and adaptable person.
The outreach manager is usually accompanied by some of our short-term volunteers so they can also get to see how is the community living and the impact we are making in it. It is very rewarding for the outreach manager to share his work and the relationship he/she has built with the local community.
You will work from Monday until Friday, 8 hours a day, as the Outreach Manager; you should be able to organize your hours and be flexible. Every Saturday, any volunteer can go to town to do shopping, enjoy a lunch in a restaurant or do an excursion. DAKTARI also proposes extra-mural trips as visiting the famous Kruger National Park, the Blyde River Canyon etc.
Free-time activities
If you want to go out you, will have to rent a car. We also have a list of excursions that can be arranged. Please ask the volunteer coordinator, as the DAKTARI cars are not available for personal use.
Please remember when going out that you are an ambassador for DAKTARI.
Interesting things to do in Limpopo Province:
Visit Kruger Park. DAKTARI is situated between two gates, Phalaborwa and Orpen. Time to Kruger is about 90 minutes. The entrance fee at the time of writing is ± R220 per day.
Moholoholo is a rehabilitation centre roughly an hour from DAKTARI. You can see raptors, honey badgers, cheetahs, lions, wild dogs, a hippo and other animals. The entrance fee is ± R 100 per person. Tours start at 9.30 am and 3 pm that last for 2 1/2 hours. Tours are the only way to visit this facility. It’s not necessary to book ahead.
Khamai Reptile Park has snakes, iguana, crocodiles and terrapins.
The Blyde River Canyon is also nearby, nestled in the Drakensberg Mountains. There is a panorama route, which takes in the Three Rondavels (mountains that look like huts), waterfalls, great viewpoints and some picturesque villages.
The air force base has a game reserve and it is free of charge.
White water rafting is available on the Blyde River or on the Olifants River.
Other more expensive activities include micro lighting; private game reserve walks/drives, hot air balloon trips and the elephant sanctuary in Hazyview, which is fantastic.
Hoedspruit has shopping, an Internet café, and many bars and restaurants with pool tables.
Sundowners (drinks) at “The Leopard Rock” (an outcrop at DAKTARI with great views of the Lowveld and Drakensberg mountains) are another popular evening activity. If you want to go to the “rock”, discuss with Ian and/or Michèle. Obviously this activity takes place after the children have left!
Zoo
Requirements
Knowledge of inter-cultural relations.
Knowledge of social media.
To be confident with the use of Apple computers.
You must have your driving license.
Experience managing and developing new businesses a plus.
Experience in business creation or career guidance a plus.
What's Included
Once you have booked your flight to Johannesburg, you have two options to get to Hoedspruit where we will pick you up:
- Book a flight to Hoedspruit Airport
- It takes about an hour to get from JHB to Hoedspruit
- From Hoedspruit Airport it will take about an hour and a half to get to camp
- Book a shuttle with Safari Links if your international flight arrives early enough (before 6 am) in Johannesburg airport. We have negotiated a special rate for our volunteers per transfer between JHB airport and Hoedspruit Kamogelo Center
- This trip takes about 5-6 hours from JHB to Hoedspruit
You will be
accommodated in a chalet or in a private room. The accommodations are based at the project site, on
a 600 hectares private game reserve. There is no electricity on the farm but we
have solar power in the office and in the central camp for the need of the
computers, refrigerators, lights, laundry etc. There is solar lighting in the rooms, if you leave it on too long, you will not have light for the whole evening.
The
rooms/chalets are basic but very comfortable. We try to give as much privacy as
possible to long-term volunteers but you might have to share a room with other
volunteers. Your toilet, room and laundry is done daily and you will have Internet access. The rooms have toilets with either a gas geyser or a “donkey” for hot water. If you have a donkey, a fire will usually be lit for you by 5 pm.
There are animal camps around the camp and you must be prepared to be in contact with them. There are also wild animals in the private game reserve.
We have employed enough staff to make your stay comfortable so you can focus on your work, however, you are more than welcome to help. On weekends there is usually only one lady working in the kitchen and you will be asked by the volunteer coordinator to help out.
If you have any special requirements, e.g. vegetarian, vegan, kosher, halal or intolerance to certain foods, please speak to your volunteer coordinator or office manager.
Food, tea, coffee and orange juice are included.
DAKTARI’s local staff eat in a separate area. Please note that we have tried to include them with us during meal times but it hasn’t been successful. It is important for them to be able to communicate in their own language during meals and teatime, and they prefer to eat separately for this reason.
Dates & Fees
Details on arrival
Start date is on the 7th of January 2024. You will get picked up at Hoedspruit airport or town.
This program is paused due to COVID-19 and reopens July 2023. Apply Now!
Why book with Volunteer World
What are people saying about Volunteer World?
Outreach Manager
Manage the outreach projects including the twice-weekly Eco-Clubs, planning, teaching lessons and daily administration tasks, provide career guidance.
Free of charge
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