My experience as a volunteer in Cape Town

Cape Town is a city with a lot to experience. Climbing the Table Mountain and Lion's Head, the beaches with clear blue water, the wine lands and the vibrant nightlife. The city has a lot to offer for everyone. My trip to Cape Town was mainly for volunteering. Over four weeks, I volunteered with children and teenagers living in one of the townships in Cape Town. It was a great experience to do this. You can read what I exactly did during these four weeks in this story.

In the four weeks, I volunteered in the sport & adventureclub program from Save Foundation. The days I volunteered were from Monday to Friday. In the morning, I helped at a kindergarten with children from one to six years old. The kindergartens are established in Du'noon, this is one of the townships in Cape Town. The children who go to this school live in poverty and the school gives them daily care and education. In this way, these children still get a chance for education, good nutrition and they develop their social skills. In the afternoon, an activity is organized for teenagers who do well at school. These activities encourage the children to continue to do well at school. Every afternoon they do a sport activity with volunteers such as swimming, football, skating or surfing.

The school I went to in the morning is called 'Zusakhe', which means 'to build' in Xhosa. Xhosa is with Afrikaans and English the spoken language at Zusakhe. The school is the furthest developed compared to the other kindergartens where Save volunteers are helping. About a hundred children go to this school, who are divided into classes by their age. Shipping containers are converted to classrooms. On the walls hang posters with the alphabets and numbers, names of the children and decorations. These mornings I helped the teachers. The main themes that were discussed are speaking, writing, playing, and sports. This includes naming the alphabet, writing numbers, playing with blocks, making puzzles and playing in the courtyard.

In the afternoon, teenagers also from Du'Noon will do a sport activity with the volunteers. In the morning they go to school and when they perform well they can join the so called 'Adventure club'. Their performance is about finishing homework, getting high grades and showing good behavior. Only then they are allowed to go to the Adventure Club. The teenagers will be picked up in Du'Noon and brought to the location where they meet the volunteers. With the volunteers, they will do a sport activity. It could happen that the teens do multiple activities in this afternoon. As a volunteer myself, I gave swimming lessons, taught them how to surf, play football, do boxing, skate with them and do a few other sports. Eventually, the most important during the afternoon is to have fun and give the teenagers a safe place. Thus, the odds are higher that they stay away from criminal activities and insecurity.

In the evening and the weekends, I had spare time. Every week I got one or two surf lessons and I spent a lot of time surfing with the other volunteers. I climbed the iconic Table Mountain and enjoyed sunsets at Lion's head. We partied a lot in the many pubs and clubs that are in the center of Cape Town. But I also got to know more about the rich culture of South-Africa in the District Six Museum, Bo-Kaap, Robben Island and the local restaurants. Cape Town has so much to offer that you don't have to be bored for a day.

The experience was so amazing, I can barely describe it. The feeling is so good to make the children and teenagers happy every day. They receive you with a smile on their face and start to jump and scream 'teacher, teacher, teacher' out of pure excitement when they see me. Even though they don't know me, when they saw me or another volunteer, they knew it was equal to a time of fun. Giving sport lessons to the teens is giving them more self-confidence, that they are able to do so much more than they think. They also trust me and the other volunteers more after we spend more time with them. The bond with the kids from kindergarten and the teens grew during these four weeks. This was really beautiful to experience. Not only the children and the teenagers learn every day more and more, also I learned so much during this experience.

I know one thing for sure, this will not be the last time I visit Cape Town. I highly recommend it you to visit Cape Town and especially do this volunteer work. You will get an amazing time with the children, teenagers, and the other volunteers.