Environmental Education for Young People

Highlights

  • Make a real, lasting difference in young people's lives through your participation in our conservation education projects.
  • Build new knowledge around conservation issues faced in Africa from a local perspective
  • Gain real world experience in hands on projects aimed at environmental responsibility
  • Visit Kruger National Park and get the chance to see an elusive leopard or experience the gentleness of an elephant.
  • Enjoy an authentic South African experience in food, culture and wildlife together with staff, locals and other volunteers from around the globe!

Overview

Our Green Kidz programme is our Environmental Education focus, where kids from the local village come to learn about conservation and sustainability.

An after school club that runs each day and welcomes around 70 kids each day from the local village and aims to grow wildly passionate young people. The program is designed around a holistic approach towards environmental stewardship that encompasses looking after yourself, your environment and your heritage. The program uses many strategies for teaching from physical activities, computer based learning and creative development to cater to many forms of learning development.

Each day has a different learning focus; Monday is handson environmental work, Tuesday is computer based learning, Wednesday is Scouts, Thursday is creative learning and Friday is personal development through yoga and animal kindness workshops.Each subject is focusing on conservation and sustainability. Each month the kids are also immersed in either a field trip, a guest organisation visit or involved in bush camps.

You will be immersed into the project as one of the team members to engage in the planning and running of the programs, from 8am to 4pm, spending the full morning to prepare everything before the kids arrive (around 2:30pm).

A Nourish Internship is divided between an individual project you will complete based on your chosen field, and immersing yourself into the day to day operations and running of the programme associated with your chosen field. You will also be studying a course in the UN Sustainable Development Goals and completing worksheets and a report as to how our program and your project contributes towards sustainable development.

This opportunity is like no other, as you are based at the Eco Village itself and will experience Africa like you never have before.

Volunteers & Interns will stay at Shik Shack Backpackers situated on the same property as the Nourish Eco Village. You will spend your day working with the team, learning from them and having an amazing experience! The work is very hand-on, so expect to be busy but remember to have fun!

We work daily with children in primary schools teaching environmental education and taking these learners on conservation-based field trips, to give them an understanding of nature and their role in protecting it. Poaching/illegal killing of wildlife has become a daily threat to conservation, with rhino poaching (as well as lion, elephant, pangolin, and vulture) threatening on a daily basis. Animals are being killed for their horns, hide, bones or skins. Nourish works to connect conservation issues and community issues, believing that we can fight poaching through fighting poverty.

We believe that conservation and communities cannot exist in isolation of each other - hence our goals through all our projects to interlink, grow, conserve and uplift. The holism of Nourish is important as it works with the community as a whole to see the problems in a bigger picture.

At our Green Kidz program, you will be immersed into the project as one of the team members to engage in the planning and running of the programs, from 8am to 4pm, spending the full morning to prepare everything before the kids arrive (around 2:30pm) with
* Helping our staff to be ready for the day
* Creating content for the Green Kidz programs (Environmental Lessons, workshop, presentation etc..)
* Supervising the activities with the kids
* Helping the kids with projects
* Supervising kids on field trips, camps when they happen and external activities.

At Nourish Eco Village our goal is to create sustainable change - and have long-term impact in the spheres of sustainability, conservation and community resilience. We believe that by working to grow resilient wildlife communities that are healthy, educated, and have access to employment opportunities, we can break the poverty cycle and thus impact the poaching coming out of rural areas.

The community of Sigagule and the surrounding rural villages in the Acornhoek area of Mpumalanga struggle daily with even the most basic elements of life. Access to running water, and electricity is a difficulty most face daily. There is a high unemployment rate, many children have access to schooling, but education levels are extremely low at schools, and the biggest economic contributor to the area - tourism - is out of reach for many. It is in this context that Nourish works.

Our projects are all interlinked and holistic, in order to help a community grow in all aspects. Our programming focuses are Education, Enterprise and Tourism.

  • Accomodation
  • 3 Meals per Day (7 days per week)
  • A personal project developed by you that adds value and content to our programmes
  • Weekly one-to-one meetings with supervisor and project manager
  • Project and logistical support
  • Immersive field training and programme activities
  • UN SDG course completion certificate
  • Project report completion certificate
  • A professional recommendation letter on completion of the internship
  • Wifi access, SIM Card if needed, Nourish T-shirt
  • Cultural Village walking tour
  • Optional language workshops can usually be arranged
  • Pick up & Drop off at our local Airport/Town Hoedspruit
  • Airfare
  • Domestic Airfare
  • Travel Insurance
  • Visa
  • Weekend Activities

Important Information

We welcome volunteers all year around.

We ask volunteers to arrive on Sunday, where we can pick them up in Hoedspruit, in town or at Eastgate Airport.

Volunteers can start directly the next day with an introduction, then they will be shown around the property of Nourish Eco Village before starting directly from one of our programs.

Our programs run from Monday to Friday, from 8am to 4pm with 1h lunch break, volunteers will follow the same schedule.

During the weekend volunteers can choose to chill and enjoy the pool with a cold drink as we do have a bar on site or exploring the area!

Write a Review
  • Charlotte Brown recommends this program
    |
    Jan 28, 2024

    Nourish Volunteer!!

    Fantastic experience - travelling from Australia to South Africa was well worth it purely for Nourish. Staff were great - professional and fun. Shout out Donald, the volunteer supervisor - our time would not have been the same without you. Meeting volunteers from diverse backgrounds was awesome, and the activities Nourish provided/organised (such as horse ride safari, weekly town trips, and a weekend at Kruger) were unforgettable (and stress free!). Our volunteering time was spent with the green kids afterschool program, on-site crèche, local outreach, and harvesting/planting chilies on the farm. Our stay at Shik Shack (Nourish backpackers) was wayyy too short - will be back in the future and hopefully for a longer time :)

  • Dorien Stoop recommends this program
    |
    Jan 18, 2024

    Had an amazing time

    As a volunteer I really had a great time at nourish. I felt very welcome and I am grateful for this time. I really enjoyed working on the Green Kidz program. Working with the children was very rewarding work. Also all the other projects were amazing. The work nourish does is really important for the community and it was great being a part of that. Also i found it very interesting to see how the people live in the villages.

    The people at Nourish and shik shack play a big part in this positive experience, everyone was very lovely.