Special Needs and Disabilities Assistant

Most special need schools in Tanzania have few qualified teachers and lack enough learning equipment. Volunteers need to understand that special needs children’s centers are a very new concept in Tanzania. There are very few special needs children’s centers in Tanzania and most of them are without qualified caretakers. The children do not stay in these special needs centers; they arrive in the morning and return home in the evening.

The centers lack the skilled personnel and relevant equipment to deliver the special care and attention needed to provide these children with a stimulating environment. They need volunteers to help with education and providing one on one stimulus and motivation. Volunteers may also be required to help with motion, lifting and handling, personal hygiene and other day to day tasks that the children simply cannot perform on their own.

We place volunteers at Kinyerezi Special need school located at Kinyerezi in Dar Es Salam. The school has 40 students and 7 staff. The children range from age 5 to 8. Kinyerezi is an area with about 100,000 residents, about 30 minutes from Dar Es Salaam City center. The project is located about 3KM from accommodation, volunteers would use DALADALA (Public Buses) to and from the Center. The bus fare is 0.2$ hence 0.4$ go and return. It will take around 15 minutes to reach the center from the accommodation.

Roles of Volunteers and Interns

·         Education and providing one on one stimulus and motivation.

·         Volunteers may also be required to help with motion, lifting and handling, personal hygiene.

·         Other day to day tasks that the children simply cannot perform on their own.

What to Bring

Clothes that are decent and those that you wouldn’t mind them getting dirty. volunteers would be needed to dress a respectable and decent manner.

Your Stay

This could very much be your first time in Tanzania, hence we will send you Swahili learning information prior arrival to help you with basic swahili. Once in country, you are picked up at the airport and taken to your accommodation. You receive three meals a day whilst on the project, and your accommodation is included too- either in group lodgings or you can choose to homestay with a Tanzanian family, which is a great way to really immerse yourself in the culture. The local KiVolEx team, including graduates with degrees in social work, medical  and project management, are on hand 24/7 to help you get the most out of your project. From tours of the city, to being constantly on call to answer your questions, to helping you book onward travel, we will look after you in country, because you will be a valued part of our team whilst working with us

About Tanzania

With such a perfect location, perched on the edge of the African continent, and facing the Indian Ocean, Tanzania’s weather and climate leaves nothing to be desired. Warm and sunny days are followed by cool and balmy nights, and whether you’re on safari on the Serengeti plains or enjoying the tropical beaches of Zanzibar, the temperatures are always welcoming and gentle.

Location: Situated in East Africa just south of the equator, mainland Tanzania lies between the area of the great lakes—Victoria, Tanganyika, and Malawi (Niassa)—and the Indian Ocean. It contains a total area of 945,087 sq km (364,900 sq mi), including 59,050 sq km (22,799 sq mi) of inland water. Comparatively, the area occupied by Tanzania is slightly larger than twice the size of the state of California. It is bounded on the North by Uganda and Kenya, on the East by the Indian Ocean, on the South by Mozambique and Malawi, on the South West by Zambia, and on the West by Zaire, Burundi, and Rwanda, with a total boundary length of 4,826 km (2,999 mi), of which 1,424 km (885 mi) is coastline. Tanzania claims part of Lake Malawi, although its internationally recognized boundary is the eastern shore.

Population: 50,483,923 inhabitants

Capital city: Located in the heartland of Tanzania, Dodoma is the nation’s new official political capital and the seat of government in the country. Today Dar es Salaam remains the principal commercial city of Tanzania and the de-facto seat of most government institutions. It is the major seaport for the country and its landlocked neighbours.

Ethnic Groups: Mainland-native Africans constitute 99% of the total population. About 120 peoples have been categorized into 5 ethnic groups distinguishable by their physical characteristics and languages. Approximately 95% of Tanzanians may be roughly classified as Bantu, a comparatively recent blend mainly of Hamitic and Negroid stocks. Tribes range in membership from only a few thousand to the Sukuma tribe, which numbers more than 2 million. Other major tribes include the Nyamwezi, Makonde, Haya, and Chagga. The Luo, east of Lake Victoria, are the only people of Nilotic origin; the Masai of the northern highlands are Nilo-Hamites. A very small number of Bushmen-like people are scattered throughout northern Tanzania, where small tribes of Cushitic origin also live. The inhabitants of Zanzibar and Pemba are chiefly descendants of mainland Africans or are of mixed African and Arab extraction. The remaining 1% of the populace is made up of non-Africans, including Arabs, Asians, and Europeans.

Languages: The official languages of Tanzania are English and Kiswahili. However, some 120 languages are spoken within the borders of Tanzania. The large majority of these (ca. 100) are Bantu languages. The others belong to the language families Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan and (controversially) also Khoesan. A small number are unclassified. Immigrant languages from Europe and Asia can also be found.

 Religion: Christianity and Islam are the predominant religions of Tanzania. About 40-45% of the population practice Christianity, about 35-40% practice Islam. The rest of the population adheres to traditional beliefs, most of which centre around ancestor worship and nature-based animism. Most Christians live on the mainland, where missionary stations and schools reach deep into the continent. Islam is the major religion of the coastal areas but is also practiced further inland along the old caravan routes.

Transportation within

We will provide you with reliable Taxi drivers phone number,which you could use in case you want to move around. However you could also use Daladala these are buses, public transport that most people use to travel locally on daily basis.  There is also an option of using bodaboda these are motorcycles that are used as taxis. Other volunteers choose to walk whoever if you also choose to do so like any other new environment we encourage you to be very careful with thieves and pick pocketing   

Visa and Permit

A volunteer is required by the government to pay for a Visa and a permit to be allowed to volunteer in Tanzania. Kindly contact us for more information regarding this.