Volunteering in Eswatini

My journey through Southern Africa is all about volunteering. In Eswatini, I volunteered for four weeks at NCPs. These are pre-schools for disadvantaged children. The children are three to six years old. In these four weeks I participated in the sports project and I also gave homework help to children from eight to twelve years old. During these four weeks I experienced a lot, made trips and stayed in a beautiful location. I also really recommend doing volunteer work.

Doing the sports project is not about sports, but it is about making sure that the children can play together. In this way they develop their social skills and also have a nice morning. During the lessons, the children dance, play games with each other, pass balls to each other, complete a course in teams and are also allowed to play freely. The sports coach All Out Africa is in charge of the class and me as a volunteer will support him during this class. I do this by preparing the sports equipment, helping the children, moving along and playing with the children. Also, on some days I took the lead of the lesson. Swimming lessons are also given to the children once a week. The number of people who can swim in from the population of Eswatini is low. These swimming lessons are a solution for this. My job was to guide the children into the pool while they are floating, help them practice the strokes and reduce the fear of going underwater. The best thing about this is that I saw progress in some children after just a few weeks, which gave me great satisfaction. The children welcome you every day with a smile, and they all come to hug you. That immediately gives me a smile on my face, and that's how I start my day very well.

In the area I stayed are multiple NCP's, every day I went to a different NCP with the other volunteers. This way, every child gets an opportunity to have sports at least once a week. The enthusiasm of the children shows off when they know they will get a sports lesson that day. The schools where these children are different developed from each other. Some of these schools have electricity and good equipment, while others don't even have proper toilets or equipment. To reduce these gaps between the NCP's, my group and I started a funding to raise money for these schools. The gratitude shown by the teachers of the NCP's and the staff of All Out Africa was beautiful to see. The amount that we raised is a relatively small amount for us, but for these NCP's it is a huge amount. Most of the population in Eswatini need to work at least two years to get this amount of money. It is therefore of great value that they get to receive this donation. This allows the NCP's to develop even further in order to provide the children with better education.

The last four weeks have given me a lot of gratitude for my own living situation. How good the facilities are that I have, and the fact that I can do almost everything without thinking about it. This compared to most of the children and people living in Eswatini. They live with fewer and less good facilities, but they are grateful with what they have. I will certainly take this thought with me further in my life.

The experiences you gain during volunteering, travelling, and discovering new destinations, it will give you an unforgettable time. I highly recommend it to do volunteering during a gap year or after your graduation. It helps me give more clarity to know what I want to do when I come back home after this trip. For the next four weeks I will do a sports and education project with Save Volunteering in Cape Town.