Nourish Eco Village

It’s a NPO near Kruger National Park that provides educational and professional development activities for the communities around Kruger.

Both social and environmental angles are aimed by Nourish, as providing opportunities and education to the local community helps to minimise poaching of endangered species, and improve social conditions. Traffickers of rhino horns come to poor communities to incite poachers, and at the current level of poaching, rhinos are bound to extinction in SA.

Activities developed by Nourish are quite broad, from sustainable farming, recycling and upcycling, professional development activities for adults and over 100 kids come to their after school program and crèche.

I’ve helped out in some of these activities and in Green Kidz, the Environmental educational program. They make real environmental and social impact!

As an Australian, coming to South Africa was a bit of an outlandish idea. I came to South Africa on exchange during school and ever since wanted to come back for another trip to volunteer more. I did my research and found a few places to volunteer at around Africa but Nourish stood out to me. From the first phone call with Loren to being greeted on arrival by all the staff, I felt very welcomed and safe. My experience at Nourish will be one I can never forget and am extremely grateful for all the staff at Nourish for making this opportunity come true for me. Highly recommend volunteering at Nourish, it was awesome!

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 :)

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.

I spent two months at Nourish as a Volunteer from the US. It was an amazing experience! The staff is so welcoming and friendly. They are passionate about their work and love sharing their culture. Nourish has so many ongoing projects within their space. This Eco Village is practicing what they preach. My background is in wildlife conservation and it is refreshing to see an NGO staying true to their mission of community based conservation. They hire local and serve the local community. This is one of the more affordable programs in South Africa and you are able to see where the money is going. They are able to accommodate various dietary needs and provide weekly trips to town. Nourish is located right next to Kruger Park. You can hear and see some wildlife. They are able to set up excursions to fill your weekends. I felt extremely safe and cared for during my time here. My only regret is not signing up for 3 months. Of all my visits to South Africa, this has been the best trip yet. I will definitely be back in the near future!

This stay at Nourish eco village allowed me to discover a new and extremely rich culture as well as great people who shared their experiences and knowledge with me. the location of the organization is very advantageous and convenient to discover the South African culture as well as the fauna and flora within the various parks such as the Kruger

I really enjoyed my internship with Nourish Eco Village. The staff was very nice and welcoming, I had a lot of fun during my internship and I learnt a lot ! During the day, I worked at the farm and in the evening I spent time with other volunteers. I also visited Kruger National Park which was amazing. I discovered a new culture, a new landscape and I enjoyed tasting typical meals. Nourish Eco Village is a place of Ubuntu, “I am because you are”. People learn about themselves and share their experience with local people, volunteers and guests coming from all over the world.