We’re delighted that you’re interested in volunteering for Durban Children’s Welfare this year.
Please read this information carefully and also read the FAQ’s on the website. If you have any
other questions email us at volunteering@leedsmet.ac.uk and if you decide to apply, please
download the application form and the guidance notes from the website or email us so we can
send them to you. Application deadline: 1st March 2014, 4pm.
Project summary
There is the opportunity for a team of volunteers to travel to South Africa for four weeks on the 2nd
August. Volunteers will be assigned to one of three amazing projects including Durban Children’s
Welfare (DCW).
DCW is a centre for young people who have been victims of abuse, or have been abandoned or
orphaned due to HIV and Aids. It’s two homes, the Edith Benson baby’s home and William Clarke
children’s home are based in the Sherwood district of Durban. Unfortunately many of the young
people have had a very difficult start to life and are HIV positive and DCW aims to give them the
medical attention, education and care that they need. Volunteers stay in a near by backpackers
hostel and will travel to the DCW to work from 9 to 5 every day. There is the option to stay on for
some (self-funded) free time at the end of the four weeks.
Durban Children’s Welfare and the volunteer work
Durban Children's Welfare was constituted on the 1st October 1999 as a result of the merger
between Durban Child and Family Welfare Society, Child Family and Community Care Centre,
and Umlazi and District Child Welfare Society. The former Durban Child and Family Welfare
Society and Child, Family and Community Care Centre had 81, 73 and 75 years of service
respectively
William Clark Gardens/Edith Benson’s Children's
Home, situated in Sherwood is registered for 200 children
and accepts children from birth to 18 years of age. Edith
Benson Babies Home is a section of WCG/OCH that is
reserved for babies and toddlers. Within this structure is the
Special Care Unit that provides for the special needs of HIV
positive and terminally ill children and children who are
mentally or physically challenged. The majority of children
are abandoned or orphaned with an ever increasing
number of HIV infected sick children placed. Since many of
the children are young (under five years) there is much
movement and focus on finding family care placements
with foster or adoptive parents.
In the morning volunteers will help the childcare workers (called auntie’s) looking after baby’s and
children aged from 1 day to 5 years. Work will include playing, taking part in excursions to the park
and zoo and helping the aunties with their daily routine of changing, washing and caring for the
young people.
In the afternoon volunteers go to William Clarke Garden’s children’s home for young people aged
from 6 to 18 years. At William Clarke the young people live in six cottages, looked after by their
house auntie. Each volunteer is assigned to a cottage and will spend time with the young people in
the afternoon once they get home from school, helping with homework, chores, organising
afternoon activities, playing games and generally becoming a friend to everyone in the cottage.
www.cwdd.org.za
Project details
Dates - the exact dates have not yet been confirmed but the group will depart on approx 2nd
August and return after four weeks volunteering on approx 30th August 2014 or if you would like a
week free time you would return on 7th September 2014.
Travel - The team will meet up at Leeds Met and travel together by minibus to the airport. The
flights haven’t yet been finalised but volunteers will normally fly to Durban. Volunteers will then be
collected from Durban and taken to the accommodation. You will have to pay for taxi’s to and
from the children’s homes every day.
Support for volunteers – Alex will be travelling as part of the group as Team Leader and will be
there to support the volunteers. In addition the accommodation and Durban Children’s Welfare
staff will make you feel welcomed, supported and well equipped to do your work. The staff in the
volunteering office at Leeds Met will also be on hand and there will be someone on call 24/7 for
the duration of your trip.
Accommodation – volunteers will stay in dormitories at The Happy Hippo Backpackers Hostel,
which is close to the beach area of Durban. The Sports Coaching Project volunteers will also be
based there.
Free time – the working hours will be set most days and you will have some planning and other
preparation but it won’t be all work though and there will be some free time during the four weeks
to relax on the beaches, hang out with your new friends or take part in some of the many cultural
activities that are easy to organise. After the project work has finished, volunteers are free to
explore and travel if they wish for the rest of the time. Please note that you will need to plan and
fund this part of the trip yourself. Don’t worry; we can give you ideas of things to do depending on
your budget.
The costs
The overall cost for each volunteer is about £1500 (including return flights to South Africa,
transfers in the UK and accommodation). However all students are eligible for £200 off this cost on
their first Leeds Met international Volunteering project. The costs and payment deadlines are as
follows:
Fees
7th April
Deposit due
First time volunteers
£1200
2nd June
Second payment
Returning volunteers
£1400
21st July
Third payment
What isn’t included:
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Spending money – we recommend £10-£15 per day.
The cost of the free time in week five
Vaccinations
Pre-departure activities and commitments
There’s quite a lot for volunteers to do before departure. If you are interested in applying
you must make sure that you will have enough time to prepare for the trip in between your
studies and your work. As well as fundraising activities there will be a compulsory team
briefing. In addition to this you will need to do fundraising some of which will be as a group
and some you will probably do on your own. There will be other compulsory meetings to
help you get prepared for the experience and talks about essential health information and
environmental issues. Although it’s not spread evenly, we’d recommend allowing and
average of 3 hours a week from when you find out you get a place to departure.
Don’t forget that the preparation for the trip will add to your personal development!
Below is a list of key dates. Dates for the sessions that are not listed below will be sent out
to the team or agreed in the first team meeting.
1st March 4pm
4th March 4pm
7th March
24th March
8th April (tbc)
2nd June
21st July
3rd August (approx)
31st August or 7th
September 2013
Autumn 2013
Application deadline
Find out if you’ve been short-listed
Interviews/ selection process
Find out if you have got a place
All paper work to be completed and returned
Deposit due
Team briefing (from 4.30 – 7.00)
Second payment due
Third and final payment due
Group departs
Group returns
Team reunion and evaluation meeting
Please note that in addition to this volunteers will need to arrange for vaccinations.
Insurance
As part of your accepted place on the volunteering project; you can apply to be covered by
our University’s comprehensive travel insurance policy. This free policy will cover you in the
event of any medical problems, lost baggage, lost passport, flight cancellations and many
other incidents. We are able to extend this cover if you stay on for a holiday in the same
country so long as the holiday period is no longer than the volunteer trip period and up to a
maximum of 4 weeks. If longer, you must arrange your own cover for the holiday period.
University Insurance will email you a form to apply for the free cover and send the
insurance documents and travel security website access when received. Please note that
there are limitations of claims for personal possession losses/ failure and we advise you not
to take expensive items with you or items that are irreplaceable.
Fundraising
Fundraising for the charity that you will be working with is
a requirement to being accepted on the trip. As well as
providing much needed funds for the organisation you will
be visiting, we think it’ll be a great way for you to get to
know your team. Lots of our previous volunteers have had
great success fundraising and some have continued
raising money after they got back (after being so inspired
by the work of the organisation). We’ll help you with your
fundraising and encourage you to work as a group.
Previous examples include cake sales, abseils, sponsored walks and even approaching
companies for donations. Don’t forget, volunteering and fundraising look wonderful on your
CV!
Minimum fundraising target: £100
Helping the team when you return
Have you heard of “paying it forward”? – it’s the idea that if someone does you a favour and
you can’t necessarily pay it back, you pay it forward by doing a favour for someone else.
With international volunteering it’s slightly different but along the same lines. We love it
when volunteers help out after they have returned from abroad, this includes helping to
prepare the next team, being interviewed for the website or publications, helping us with
important research, coming to awareness raising events (e.g. stands and open days),
helping us to do talks, helping with more fundraising and providing quotes for marketing etc
We’ll ask you to do at least three of these things when you get back.
Special volunteer roles
The overall project coordination is carried out by the project manager who is usually
someone from the Volunteering team. In addition there are several special volunteer roles.
Team leader: this is a member of staff from Leeds Met who works with the project manager
to organise the trip and who helps to select the rest of the team. The team leader then plays
a massive part in preparing the team for going away, fundraising and making sure things
run smoothly during the trip.
Big brother/big sister: this is usually someone who has been on the project before. They
are there to support the team leader on projects where we feel it's necessary. This could be
because the teams in split into groups who aren't based near each other or perhaps
because it's a very large group. Big brothers and sisters are usually recruited before the
main team are recruited so that they can help with planning, selection and anything else
they would like to.
Social coordinator: bonding with rest of the team is crucial so this is an important role for a
volunteer with good communication skills. Whether its meeting for coffee or going to a big
night out, we want to the team to spend as much time getting to know each other as
possible. The social coordinator will organise a variety of activities for the team.
Fundraising coordinator: this role is ideal for someone who is confident at group
fundraising activities and can encourage the rest of the group to get fundraising by
researching and sharing ideas. Again it needs to be someone with good communication
skills who can also liaise closely with us to keep us informed of the team's progress.
‘Help the team when you return’ coordinator: When volunteers come back they are full
of enthusiasm, ideas and tips and we like to harness this to "pay it forward" to future teams
and prospective volunteers. Returning volunteers often help us by collecting photos, writing
profiles, doing talks, coming to team briefings and generally being wonderful and the pay it
forward coordinator helps us by encouraging the rest of the team to get involved in this way.
Environmental impact
Air travel is one of the most polluting means of transport. For this reason we ask volunteers
to off-set the environmental damaged caused by the travel by taking a pledge to minimise
their negative environmental impact in other ways (recycling more, being more energy
efficient etc).
Volunteer blog
We love to hear how our volunteers are getting on and it's useful for prospective volunteers
to read about the experiences of their predecessors. For this reason we ask volunteers to
contribute to our volunteer’s blog which means writing and sending a few words every now
and again from abroad. To find out more about the experience of volunteers on our trips,
read entries from last year’s blogs: http://www.leedsmetsa2013.blogspot.co.uk/
How to apply
Application forms can be downloaded from the South Africa section our website:
www.leedsmet.ac.uk/volunteering. Suitable applicants will then be invited to attend a
selection event on the. Selection will be based on your suitability for the role and the
potential for personal development.
More information
If you have any questions please feel free to contact us on k.firth@leedsmet.ac.uk or the
team at volunteering@leedsmet.ac.uk and we will endeavour to get back to you as soon as
we can. Don’t forget to read the FAQs on the website.