Surf & Adventure

The program

This program plays a very positive role in the lives of some of Cape Town’s most impoverished children and youth. The program takes underprivileged children out of the townships and off the streets and teaches them valuable life lessons in the form of sports, adventure activities, team work and educational classes. The program is run as a weekly extramural activity for a disadvantaged school with the main focus on surfing, adventure activities and sport such as sand boarding, mountain hikes, swimming, soccer, team building, computer classes, workshops and beach clean ups. Unsurprisingly this is a very popular program for local children, who would otherwise never have the chance to participate in most of these activities. The children in the program range from 12 – 14yrs and are split into four groups of 5- 20 children that will be part of the program every week. International volunteer help is essential to help facilitate the program and offer these children the chance to achieve goals and ultimately improve their lives.

Goals of this Project:

• Alleviate health and social issues for the youth of Cape Town by engaging them in sports and outdoor activities, and developing a life-long love of sport and physical activity
• Improve the future prospects of some of Cape Town’s most vulnerable youth
• Provide educational classes, increase participant confidence and teach team work and other skills that will benefit them into the future
• Create inter-cultural understanding which benefits both residents and international volunteers alike

How you can help

Volunteers play an integral role in engaging at-rick youth in physical activity and improving their future prospects. Sports-based youth programs improve the leadership, teamwork and self-governance skills of at-risk teens. By participating in this program volunteers are supporting and empowering youth, keeping them off the streets and from participating in anti-social behavior, while inspiring them to become active. By teaching youth sporting skills, it gives students a free or low cost social option to participate in sports alongside their friends, to meet new people with similar interests and to engage in positive social activity outside of school hours. Students will also benefit from a greater cultural understanding from working alongside international volunteers. Volunteers will work 5 days a week with the children.  Some days will be a full 8 hours, while others may only be 4-5 hours, depending on the needs of the project.  Mornings are spent either learning to surf, helping in a school or relaxing on the beach and the afternoons are spent with the kids teaching them to surf, swim or skate. Every Saturday is a full day of activities with the children. Most of the children can speak English yet their home language may be Afrikaans or Xhosa. Volunteers will also have a chance to learn how to surf with an instructor and have one lesson per week, extra surf lessons can be booked for an additional price.  Volunteers will have use of the boards on their off days.

Volunteers on this program will participate in a variety of tasks and can expect to;

• Teach kids how to swim, skate and surf.
• Assist with facilitating the lessons and sports/activities
• Assist in preschools
• Run fun days and sports programs

Typical Day
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

Volunteers are free to explore the local area, check out the multitude of local restaurants, bars and cafes, or relax with the other volunteers! The program is based in Table View, a west coast suburb of Cape Town.  Beautiful Cape Town is the tourism hotspot of South Africa, boasting a wonderful hospitality scene, gorgeous beaches, scenic landscapes and the iconic Table Mountain. Volunteers will also have a chance to learn how to surf with an instructor and have one lesson per week, extra surf lessons can be booked for an additional price.  Volunteers will have use of the boards on their off days.