a partire da 1.280€

Eccellente 4.8rating (12)

Indigenous Community Conservationist

location
2 - 8 settimane  ·  Età 18 - 50+

rating  Eccellente 4.8  · 
  Verificato da Volunteer World
  Tasso di risposta inferiore alla media

Punti Salienti

  • Indigenous Knowlegde - Live and work with the San people and learn from their deep connection and wisdom of nature.
  • Uplift Communities - Protect the indigenous knowledge that remains and help to transfer and preserve it for the next generations.
  • Combat Climate Change - Learn about using natural resources and how to implement them in housing structures.
  • Ancient landscape - Experience one of the last unfenced, wild corners of Africa, the birthplace of unique flora, fauna, geomorphology and local culture.
  • Detach from the buzz - Slow down and tune in to a more natural rhythm.

Particolarmente adatto per

Età 18+
Singoli
Coppie
Famiglie
Gruppi
50+

Sul programma

You will works hand in hand with the Ju/'hoansi San. Together we strive for a balance between conservation and development.

Volunteer at the indigenous village of Nhoma and assist the local community to build a bridge between development and conservation.

A major challenge for the Ju/'hoansi San (also known as Bushmen) nowadays is to find the balance between development and conservation.
This volunteering program is based ...

Sul programma

Volunteer at the indigenous village of Nhoma and assist the local community to build a bridge between development and conservation.

A major challenge for the Ju/'hoansi San (also known as Bushmen) nowadays is to find the balance between development and conservation.
This volunteering program is based on an eco-tourism approach, whereby social and material well-being of people is raised, without sacrificing the environment or viability of the socio-economic cultural system. 

Our volunteer program is designed in collaboration with the village and invites people to stay for a longer period of time, resulting in a more lasting, deep-going experience and  mutual exchange for volunteers and the local community. Your stay will give you extensive insights into their history, current and past struggles through participating in activities including harvesting and preparing local foods, gatherine medicinal plants, ostrich eggshell bead making, traditional games and lores, and generally taking part in their daily lives.
A journey of multiple weeks at Nhoma has the potential for a life changing experience. The community is very welcoming, eager to exchange and learn from your knowledge as well.

The Challenge

The Ju/'hoansi San in North-Eastern Namibia lived a hunter-gatherer way of life for over hundred thousands years in the Kalahari. Only in the 1950s, they encountered the first white people, which was the start of a rapid change of their lifestyle. With the government forcing them to stop their mobile movement, setting hunting restrictions and reducing the lines of their lands significantly, the traditional way of living and culture of the bush is under threat. Specifically Nhoma (N//oq’ma) village, which falls out of the protecting Nyae Nyae conservancy, needs to rely on other sources of income and food supply.

(Be) Part of the Solution. 

At Nhoma, we believe that part of the solution lies in creating diverse work opportunities, based on traditional skills, but also offer jobs that enable the community to live partly from foraging and allow them to stay on their ancestral lands. Thereby, they are enabled to pass on traditional knowledge to the younger generations. For the past 18 years, the camp has created work opportunities for trackers, hunters, jewelry makers, wood sculptures, traditional sandal makers, nature guides, chefs, waiters and many more.

Nhoma Safari Camp is deeply interwoven with the local Ju/'hoansi and the intention is to come up with new solutions based on traditional skills and share modern approaches whilst considering the social and cultural impact.  We see volunteers part of the solution to create alternative ways of safeguarding and respecting the profound knowledge and connection to nature.   

Through income generated, the village nearby is able to stay on their ancestral land and partly continue their traditional hunter-gatherer way of life. We see this collaboration as healthy symbiosis and are interested to deepen this relation for the mutual benefits.

A journey of multiple weeks here is a potentially life changing experience, if you are looking for such an adventure. The community is very welcoming, and eager to exchange and learn from you as well.

The voluntourism program is structured in a 2 week rotation and you can repeat for a maximum of 8 weeks. The idea is to participate half of your time at Nhoma Safari Camp, being part of our route to self-reliance and sustainability. Our working ethics and visions are based on permaculture. We try to work as much as possible with local natural resources, grow our own food, build a food forest, .. and include the villagers in these projects. Building an off-grid permaculture paradise is challenging and demanding work. All projects are a hands-on experience bringing you in closer touch with nature and enable you to consider nature's energies and synergies.  The other half of your time is spent with the villagers next door. The community will take you along in their daily activities within the village as well as in the wild and not fenced and untouched bush wilderness around, where wildlife such as elephants, lions and leopards are still roaming freely. 

WEEK 1:

The first week’s activities are all centred around the camp. The camp is an experience-oriented accommodation for volunteers and tourism, and collaborates with the indigenous village of Ju/'hoan San people, who live about 300 meters away. Profit generated through tourism sustains both the lodge and the village nearby. Ideally, in a pre and post-corona era, it creates an income for the village of about 120 people to stay on their ancestral land, and continue to live remotely and self-sustaining by means of a partly hunter-gatherer way of life. 

We will take you on an informative journey and show you insights on natural building with local resources, using simple permaculture principles and tools in order to live a sustainable off-grid life. 

The week starts with a tour around the different accommodations and facilities. We will give you an insight of the principles we have used whilst building up the camp. Moritz will give you an introduction into the different resources we use from the area and how we put them to best use. 

A building week is depending on current stages, but usually this week is built up by the following core tasks: 

  • COLLECT: Driving around in the area to collect materials we need: Gathering, chopping or digging and bringing it to the building site. 

  • PROTECT: Making fire stop corridors or elephant ditches to protect the camp, village and food forest from unwelcome visitors. 

  • ERECT: Exploring methods of natural building, preparing the right mix and contributing to one of our building projects with cob, mud brick, earth bag or rammed earth,… 

  • GROW: Our growing food forest and big garden plots need watering, seeding, mulching, weeding, composting, trelling. We make a strong, wild compost from biochar, elephant dung if available and greens from the kitchen and the garden. Our vermicompost will show you how worms can make composting so much fun!!

WEEK 2:

The second week is centred around the "n!ore", meaning living territory of the community and the space around it to forage. You will get the first two days an insight into the daily lives of the Ju/'hoansi and their traditions. You can join in on small excursions to gather bush food or grasses for hut making. The program is not fixed and depends on the seasons and availability of resources. 

Other activities may be preparation of veld foods, cooking, jewellery making, traditional sandal making, tool making, ... 

You will learn to use whatever nature has to offer and things that are around you.

The next 2 days you join a group of villagers to go out in the bush. On your paths might be interesting findings such as wild honey or other veld food. You will leave the comfort of our camp and set up a mobile camp together with some community members for one night. During the day you will learn to differentiate the tracks and read signs of nature. You will be sharing food and campfires together accompanied with great storytelling. Early mornings you will go out checking the traffic of wildlife that passed in the area that night. 

During this week you will also learn about conservation in many ways, and ancient techniques of living hand in hand with nature. 

Spending time with this community can be a life-changing experience. You will go home enriched with the wisdom from another culture.

In addition, you hopefully put some of your gained knowledge into action in your individual path in life. 


Giornata tipica

You live with the cycles of the day and in tune with the seasons. A typical day at Nhoma starts at sunrise with a cup of coffee. 

During the first week we start the briefing of the day at 8AM and work until 5PM, with a tea break around 10. Around the hottest time of the day, between 1-3 PM we try to ...

Giornata tipica

You live with the cycles of the day and in tune with the seasons. A typical day at Nhoma starts at sunrise with a cup of coffee. 

During the first week we start the briefing of the day at 8AM and work until 5PM, with a tea break around 10. Around the hottest time of the day, between 1-3 PM we try to minimise intensive activity and rest in the shade for lunch and siesta. 

The second week is less regulated in terms of a strict hourly schedule. You will forget about the time and will learn to own time.


Attività del tempo libero

If you love nature you will have plenty of ideas to spend your free time. The week days are already intensively packed with outdoor and nature focussed activities, so you might prefer to rest, read or spend some calm time at the camp in your off time. 
We are very remote, so please note that there ...

Attività del tempo libero

If you love nature you will have plenty of ideas to spend your free time. The week days are already intensively packed with outdoor and nature focussed activities, so you might prefer to rest, read or spend some calm time at the camp in your off time. 
We are very remote, so please note that there is no possibility to go to any "town" or shop. 

In the weekends the local village plays football and you will be very welcome to join in!


Requisiti

Requisiti

Età minima: 18 anni

Per partecipare al programma è necessario avere almeno 18 anni alla data di inizio del programma. Potrebbero esserci delle esenzioni se si è in grado di fornire il permesso del proprio tutore legale o se si è accompagnati dai propri genitori.

Competenze linguistiche

È necessario parlare di Inglese (livello base)

Restrizioni sulla nazionalità

Nessuna restrizione. Gli aiuti da tutto il mondo sono benvenuti.

Impegno di tempo

Il vostro aiuto sarà richiesto lunedì, martedì, mercoledì, giovedì, venerdì e sabato da 07:00 - 17:00

Servizi inclusi

Servizi inclusi

Servizi per Nhoma Safari Camp

Including in the fee is 
- Accommodation in dome tents with stetcher bed and duvets. Shared bathroom facilities
- All meals 
- Shuttle from Windhoek City - Nhoma and back, only on the start and finish day. 



Alloggio

You will be staying on the campsite, in dome tents with stretcher beds and proper made beds. 

Each participant has a private tent, unless you join as a couple or friends and specifically ask us to share tents. Toilets and bathroom facilities are at the campsites. During your stay there might be a camp out were the group sets up mobile camp with bed rolls or tents (as you are most comfortable with) in the wild for one or two nights.

Cibo e Bevande

Breakfast is usually porridge, muesli, tea and coffee. 

Lunch is freshly baked bread and a salad

Dinner is a warm filling meal, we can cater for specific dietary requests if you let us know beforehand.

Alcoholic beverages, soft drinks and snacks can be bought at the camp. 

Accesso a Internet

Accesso limitato al sito del progetto

Cosa NON è incluso?

Cosa NON è incluso?

Prelievo dall'aeroporto a Hosea Kutako International Airport

Neanche il prelievo dall'aeroporto è incluso nel costo del programma.

Biglietti aerei

L'aeroporto più vicino è Hosea Kutako International Airport (WDH) a Windhoek. Vi aiutiamo a trovare voli economici per Namibia. TROVARE VOLI ECONOMICI

Assicurazione di viaggio

Andare all'estero è un'avventura ed è sempre meglio essere preparati. Malattia o infortunio improvviso, annullamento o furto: un'assicurazione di viaggio per Namibia offre sicurezza ed è un vantaggio da avere. OTTENERE UN PREZZO

Vaccini

Se avete intenzione di fare volontariato a Namibia dovete chiedere un parere medico prima di iniziare il vostro viaggio sociale. Controllare le vaccinazioni richieste per Namibia. CHECKER PER I VACCINI

Dettagli all'arrivo

We will run the voluntourism program only on the specific timeslots, limiting it to 3 months per year.

If you want to join this unique opportunity, you can apply for the dates below:

Join us for a two, four or six  - week stay in 2024 on the following options:

1 June - 15 June

15 June - 29 June

29 June - 13 July

13 July - 27 July



17 Aug - 31 Aug

31 Aug - 14 sept

14 Sept - 28 Sept

28 Sept - 12 Oct


Pick up and return on the above dates from Windhoek to Nhoma and visa versa are included.


A general starting day will look like this: 

6.00 - 7.00 AM Pick up by the shuttle in Windhoek from your accommodation, reaching Grootfontein roughly 12.00 AM. Breakfast not included.

12.00 AM - 1.00 PM Lunch and stretch in Grootfontein, meeting together with one of the coordinators. 

1.00 PM / 2.00 PM Boarding the 4x4 vehicle and heading to Nhoma (3.5 h drive)

ETA in Nhoma 5 PM.



Disponibilità
gen feb mar apr mag giu lug ago set ott nov dic

Tariffe del programma

2 settimane (soggiorno min.) 1.280€
4 settimane 2.432€
6 settimane 3.456€
8 settimane (soggiorno max.) 4.352€
Tariffe medie 592€/settimana

Tariffe del programma

592€ tariffe settimanali 2 - 8 settimane Età 18 - 50+

Modalità di pagamento

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NESSUNA COMMISSIONE PER LA CARTA DI CREDITO


Durata

2 - 8 settimane

Deposito

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Pagamento Finale

Il pagamento finale sarà concordato con Nhoma Safari Camp durante il processo di candidatura. Le soluzioni più comuni sono il bonifico bancario o il pagamento in contanti presso la sede del progetto.


Incontra il tuo ospite

Nhoma Safari Camp

Eccellente 4.8 rating (12 recensioni)

Agenzia - fondata nel 2007

Verificato da Volunteer World

  Tasso di risposta inferiore alla media

Ospitato da

Flora

Lingue parlate: Afrikaans, Inglese, Olandese

Sul progetto

Eco tourism camp collaborating with the indigenous San village, creating sustainable work opportunities linking traditional knowledge with permaculture principles.

Incontra il tuo ospite

Nhoma Safari Camp is a tourism accommodation in the wild, unfenced North-East corner of Namibia.
The camp is 
experience-oriented, and collaborates for these with the indigenous village of Ju/'hoan San people, who live about 300 meters away. Profit generated through tourism sustains both the lodge and the village nearby. Ideally, in a pre and post corona era, it creates an income for the village of 150 people to stay on their ancestral land, and continue to live remotely and self sustaining by means of a partly hunter-gatherer way of life. 

This symbiosis allows them to stay remote on their ancestral land and continue a partly hunter-gatherer way of life.

The camp was set up in 2007, first for small overnight excursions with tourists and grow over the years in to a permanent tented camp. 

In 2020, after a 3-year long bureaucratic struggle, the camp was sold and changed ownership. 

We, Flora, Moritz and our one-year-old daughter Indigo, are a young family who just took over the camp, as the previous owner wished to retire.
Moritz has experience as a sustainability manager on other lodges and had a course for permaculture designer. He happily can put these 2 skills now in practise at the camp here. He was involved in a permaculture project in the Caprivi region with San people in 2012. 
Flora has a background in Fine Arts. Through a collaboration project with the San people regarding their indigenous footwear, she ended up in Namibia and spend the past 6 years on and off working together with them to revive their traditional sandals into a small scale production set up. 
The happiest here of all is Indigo, our little toddler who spends her time free-roaming around the camp or playing with the other kids in the local village. 

The set up of the camp

The camp is build on a dune, overlooking the dry riverbed. It is a sandy area but tree savanna with many bushes, high grasses and big trees. The camp is close to a national park which has little visitors due to its wildness and remoteness. Because of that, elephants are often around, as well as kudu's, wildebeest, the endangered wild dogs, hyenas,... 
The buildings are quick-fix built with corrugated iron or canvas sheets on wooden decks. Water is provided by a borehole. The piping and plumbing has to be partly renewed and repaired.
The off-grid camp itself has been build by the previous owner without a coherent plan, although it has tremendous potential to be a magical place. It exists of 10 canvas safari tents on wooden decks for guests, 4 basic campsites, a corrugated iron manager house, a central thatched roof open lounge, a kitchen and some corrugated iron store rooms and tool sheds. 
Water is provided by a borehole, piping and plumbing is in the process to be partly repaired and upgraded. The electricity is mostly provided by solar panels and batteries, but it is not strong enough for us to be fully operational without the generator, that is why our first big investment was a bigger, stronger solar system to run everything on. 

Our mission 

Generally, we aim to redesign our 7 hectare area based on permaculture principles, and build with vernacular architectural vision. We see huge possibilities, because our camp is build on a fossil sand dune, and below is a dry riverbed (named Omuramba in Namibia); which is an amazing source of clay for building. Namibia is normally very low on clay, so this is a very valuable resource! Sand and clay combined gives us ample opportunities to build in a natural way with what is at hand and avoid transporting resources to the remote camp. It is our aim to create a big variety of employment opportunities for the local community. Given that we are located extremely remote, in the last remaining wilderness of Namibia, and 300 km away from the first real town, we want to become more self-sufficient. 
Furthermore, the structures need to be improved: our tented houses, recycle our wastewater, get rid of the corrugated iron sheds and replace them with natural buildings, setting up a permaculture garden/ food forrest, sandbag buildings, building a sunset and a tree top deck, improving our carbon footprint and find creative solutions for the daily challenges.
Enough work for the next years to come!

The region

The region here in North East Namibia is called "Bushmanland", it's in contrast to the rest of Namibia very wild and unfenced. Vegetation wise it is very bushy though sandy, with big trees; much greener than people anticipate when they think of Namibia. 
Wildlife is roaming around freely and we are regularly visited by elephants, wild dogs, many type of antelopes, porcupines, ... and very rarely but occasionally by lions or leopards. The birdlife is also great, with parrots, the beautiful lilac breasted roller and bee eaters.The camp is situated on a dune and is protected by a deep elephant ditch. Bigger wildlife does not come over this natural barrier, but we do have visits from genets, African wild cats and snakes, also dangerous ones to be aware of.
Between December and April there can be very heavy rains here, up to 1000 mm a year. During that season there are also mosquito's. Although it is a possible malaria area,  there have not been any cases reported in years. Probably due to the very scarce populated region. 

Your contribution

We need strong-hearted and individuals who want to get their hands dirty. Not a must at all, but any experience with eg. permaculture/ landscaping/ clay building (earth bag, adobe, rammed earth) / carpenter / plumber / electrical engineer is always more than welcome!
You will experience a once in a lifetime stay, off the beaten track within a real, still wild corner of Africa.
You should be able to work as team player, but manage a project and find creative solutions for our manifold challenges. Straightforward, we offer hard and earnest work combined with good food and drinks with African wildlife surrounding you and amazing starlight nights. You will be part of our community, therefore an openminded, social and proactive attitude would be appreciated.
The team is always enforced with skilled workers from the village.

The community is naturally very open and welcoming. We demand from our visitors utmost respect towards them as well. 

12 recensioni · rating4.8

Stefaan Loeys rating4.6

2021 at Indigenous Community Conservationist

Excellent combination of Being usefull and feeling local community. The basic idea of helping people and avoid extra footprint on this earth is inspiring in all the activities. Taking time for contact with local people make you feel important and ...
Elze Lambrecht rating5

2021 at Indigenous Community Conservationist

I stayed at Nhoma Safari camp for about 1 month. Upon arrival I was greeted by Flora and Mauritz and little Indigo. I worked on building the camp and contributing to the local community. It was a truly life changing experience to live in and work in such a remote place side by side with the local ...
Ine Keppens rating5

2021 at Indigenous Community Conservationist

Flora and Mortis, together with their daughter Indigo, are very honest, open and pleasant to stay with. We felt part of the family and had the opportunity to work on several projects. We were allowed to work out our own ideas and so we could learn a lot from each other. There is a lot of work, but ...
Tibor Quinodoz rating5

2021 at Indigenous Community Conservationist

I had an excellent feeling while working at Nhoma’s. A great social experiment in the camp and at the Nhoma village. I felt very welcomed. I can only recommend this volunteering for people who want to benefit of a longer stay in an amazing place in eastern ...
Ralf Meichtry rating5

2021 at Indigenous Community Conservationist

Nhoma, where the expression "remote" has to be redefined :) My girlfriend an I stayed for a bit more than a month in this very welcoming place. We helped Flora and Moritz during a period, when they just took over the place, in many different tasks (such as planting seeds, repairing bungalows and ...
Izzy Sasada rating5

2021 at Indigenous Community Conservationist

I visited Nhoma camp when I was conducting fieldwork among the San people in Bushmanland. Flora and Mauritz show a real empathy and understanding for the people they work with. They work incredibly hard to provide income and employment for the nearby group- who receive little aid otherwise as Nhoma ...

Posizione

Africa > Africa del Sud > Namibia > Tsumkwe

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