We have received a gratitude letter from Bongekile Matisa, a former NCP graduate, homework club member and this year she started her High school.

My name is Bongekile Matisa. I started homework club in 2016, by then I was doing my 4th grade and I have been producing outstanding results. Homework Club has helped me a lot with my studies, I am now doing my first year in high school and all thanks to homework club.

I want to thank All Out Africa for starting this afternoon activity (Homework Club) and it has been so helpful to me. I know that some of the homework club members will agree with me. Lastly I want to thank the volunteers who have been helping us with our studies and not forgetting Uncle Tjengisa. I will miss Homework Club. Thank you so much All Out Africa, love you so much and I wish you all the best.  

Written by Bongekile Matisa

If you would like to be an All Out Africa volunteer, email bookings@alloutafrica.com

Where are you from?

Germany

What project did you sign up for?

Childcare, Wavecrest Educare and Ikhaya le Themba

What do you do for a living?

Working in a little shop (sells tea/coffee), I want to study when I’m back home

What does volunteering mean to you?

It means to help people in their work and to try your best to support them.

Reason for choosing All Out Africa?

AIFS placed me at ALL Out Africa

Your experience as a volunteer, did it had any positive impact in your life?

Yes, first I thought I’m just going to help them but they ended up helping me. I learnt so many things about kids and teaching. I also learnt that you get a lot more back than what you expect because those children love you the way you are. I am very thankful for that.

Click here if you would like to know more about our Childcare (South Africa)

In a nutshell, Trip For A Trip is an adventurous trip sponsored by Responsible Travel, for NCPs, that takes unprivileged children to Nature Reserves like; Mlilwane Game Reserve- where children get the opportunity to physically witness some of the wild animals. Many of these children have never experienced such a privilege and this has helped them taste full happiness just for a day; an experience that is not available to millions of less-privileged children all out Africa. Besides learning about how wild animals co-exist, it lifts their spirits as children that still are to learn more, and as they still need motivation in life.

How does Trip for a trip benefit the children?. Many of these unfortunate children have never had a wildlife experience up close, where they can get to see their favourite animals and other unknown species. The children get an unusual and rare opportunity to be happy for a day. Since this trip is sponsored by Responsible Travel, these children feel loved and appreciated and this sparks some kind of hope to the children. To the children, this is a great honour because they are not exposed to this kind of adventures. As children grow in an unfortunate environment or community, such adventures mean the world to them.

Not only have they had the chance to physically witness these animals, but they have also learnt the importance of conserving nature as a whole for the future generation, including endangered species. The children have learnt this through understanding the animal’s habitat, and how they coexist with other species, so they can have a better judgement of the environment. The aim was to teach them that animals matter as well, because they also form part of the ecosystem, so their existence massively contributes to the balance of nature.

Trip for a trip goes beyond than just giving these children a wildlife experience, they also get to eat a delicious lunch for the day. A majority of these kids do not have access to a decent meal, better yet a meal for the day. For them, it has become normal to go the whole day without anything to eat, because of their unfortunate situation, so a trip for a trip gives the children a well cooked and healthy meal so they can taste happiness just for one day. This is the utmost objective for the trip for a trip; to put a smile on the children’s faces, and to give them an experience they have never encountered in their lives.

If you have never witnessed a genuine smile from a genuinely happy child, one should see their faces glow when they are taken to a specific nature reserve where they get to see wildlife in its physical state. It is plain to see that these kids get to be themselves on this day. They get to forget about all the worries, the unfortunate situations they face each and every day and indulge in a joyful moment of bliss.

Many thanks to Responsible Travel for making the trip for a trip experience come to life for these children. Every time a person books a trip with Responsible Travel, 1% of the earnings are donated to the Neighborhood Care Points (NCPs) supported by All Out Africa. These trips seek to bring hope to despaired children, and this gives them more reason to smile.

Written by Desmond Mlambo and Phiwukuthula Mamba (Marketing Interns 2019)

Nhatofo Salva Vidas is a local lifesaving association based in Tofo, Inhambane province Mozambique. It is a voluntary non-profit association.  Tofo Lifesavers was established after concerned citizens decided Tofo beach needed lifeguards in order to maintain a safe environment for all people to enjoy the beach and water.

The goal is to advise people against dangerous beach activity and provide a safe, life-guarded area in which to swim to reduce the drownings on Tofo Beach each year.  The vast majority of people in Mozambique cannot swim and are not comfortable in the water resulting in a high number of drowning cases each year with peaks occurring on weekends and during holiday seasons when beach-use increases.  These drownings could often be avoided if someone were present on the beach to warn swimmers of dangerous conditions, point out rip currents and advise safer swim locations or could affect an on-water rescue.

All establishment, training, and fundraising for Nhatofo Salva Vidas have been the tireless work of a very small team of dedicated volunteers.  In order to make sure this initiative is sustainable, durable and ongoing into the future, the lifeguards trained were all from the local area and these lifeguards are now the solely paid workforce of Nhatofo Salva Vidas.

However despite this, running costs each month greatly exceed current monthly donations, currently, without financial support from the Mozambican government, Tofo Lifesavers is struggling to achieve the baseline monthly running costs.  We also seek contributions towards completion of the establishment of the association, which will make Nhatofo Salva Vidas a secure, registered and licensed part if Mozambican life, a key step in our mission to ensure this association exists not just to save lives today but into the future.

Lifesavers

If you would like to contribute and assist Katie in getting the lifesavers program firmly off the ground, you will directly result in more lives being saved and more people learning to safely enjoy their ocean.

Check out their go fund me page here.