Primary School Teaching Assistant

You can teach in a classroom setting (nursery up to class 5) to supplement the huge lack of teachers (only two employed). You can also provide extra one-one tuition for especially needy children. Most children are far behind the country average, e.g.class 2 have no idea how to write even 3-letter words, average exam marks below 40%. Besides you can organize extra-curricular activities e.g. sports, and play with the children.

Come and volunteer within one of the rare volunteering projects based in Northern Kenya where cultural beliefs and practices are still very much alive compared to other parts of Kenya, within a pastoral community of Rendille tribe. You will get to live within, experience and see people wearing a lot of beadwork all around the clock. You get to attend traditional weddings to see morans dancing, try camel milk etc. On top, the project is located just around a Game Reserve with lots of animals like lions, elephants, antelopes etc.

More information about the programme:

The aims of this “School Programme” are to increase attendance and performance of pupils, as well shifting parents’ negative attitude towards education. Many children who are registered at school attend very irregularly for no proper reason. They decide to stay at home to take a day off, and no pressure comes from parents to make them go to school. This bad attendance is indirectly also a reason for the bad performance of most pupils which is far below country average. For example, a class 3 pupil has no idea how to read or write and needs to be read out exam papers in order to answer, or a class 2 pupil is not able to write numbers 1 to 10.  This low standard is mostly due to extremely lack of teachers. Currently 2 employed teachers are supposed to cater for 5 classes, plus additionally the smaller nursery children. This leads to a lot of idling and improper supervision. Some children in the lower classes come to school in the morning and leave in the afternoon without having been taught even one lesson. How can you blame them for bad performance or tell them to come to school if no sufficient teachers are present to attend to them. That is where the volunteer comes in. Many other organizations recruit international volunteers on top of completely sufficient paid teachers, there is not much opportunity for those volunteers to actually help out, and the only importance they play for the organization is the fee they pay. Come and volunteer with us and you will be guaranteed to make a big difference!

Apart from lack of teaching staff, insufficient classrooms also gravitate the problems the school faces. Sharing of rooms distracts from learning, especially as not always a teacher can be present considering the circumstances.

On top there are almost no resources like stationary or textbooks, which makes efficient teaching and learning even more hard. If you have, please come with such items, even old toys and clothes the children will be very happy about as they have nothing like toys and some come to school half naked.

As our fee is relatively low, we always welcome donations, be it in form of money or items (optional).

Typically volunteers get up at around 7am, take breakfast and walk (ca. 15min) to the school. After assembly they start teaching one of the 5 classes, or optionally nursery, as there are by far not enough teachers to provide lessons for every class. Be assured that there is always a class waiting for you.During break time you get time to play with the children. At 1pm volunteers take lunch, and then continue with lessons until 4pm. Afterwards if you want you can provide extra one-one tuition for those lacking far behind to help them catch up. This can also be done during lunch break or as an alternative to afternoon teaching. Volunteers can also organize sports coaching/ games for the children.
In the evening walks to spot wildlife or just to enjoy hiking in the rocky environment can be organized, before dinner is taken to round up the day.
On weekends volunteers are free to engage in free choice activities, including visits to nearby villages or a close game reserve (8km) free of charge.
Wherever you are, be it at the school, on the way to school, in town or at the accommodation site, you will be surrounded by locals in traditional attire, manyattas etc. (see pictures).
Trips further afield to a volcano crater (2h away), famous Samburu Game Park (2h away) or even Lake Turkana can be organized.

- walk/hike around the beautiful versatile rocky environment, with good chances to spot wildlife like monkeys, antelopes or even elephants
- attend traditional weddings where morans dance (see picture)
- taste milk, open-fire roasted goat meat
- be surrounded by warriors/ elders, women, bush-grazing children in their respective traditional attires including beadwork
- be surrounded by traditional houses i.e. manyattas everywhere
- experience a busy market day in town or at famous "Merille lifestock market" which attracts traders from far away.
- visit a very close (8km) Game Reserve to see many elephants etc FREE of charge (only transport)
- walk to nearby villages
- walk to the "fora" (places in the bush where local pastoralists stay while grazing animals)