Below is a list of touch Africa listings that we send volunteers to; place them and supervise as they stay in the host families in the nearby communities;
Stages of the Touch Africa volunteer process
1. General volunteers giving a hand of help to the work placements; donations are not a requirement. Volunteer’s participation in highly appreciated. Volunteers take note of the various needs of the work placement.
2. Volunteer goes back home and
· Either comes back after some years with more people.
· Donate towards a course at the center e.g renovations
· Sends a few basic donation e.g a computer.
3. Network of past volunteers writes a proposal after some years to assist in various initiatives at the placement. General involvement in other touch Africa initiatives.
1 Gede special school
This school was started on 26th of September 2006, it has 8 employed teachers from the government and 11 Aide Teachers, employed by a local sponsor called Kupenda. The number of occupational therapists is 2 employed by Kupenda.
The number of children in this school is 115: boys, 67 and girls, 47.
Hearing impaired kids is: 65 deaf
physically challenged kids: 50 physically handicapped and with cerebral palsy.
Activities:
- Teaching in class
- Imparting skills in tailoring
- Drama
- Games and Sports
- Offering exercise to children with cerebral palsy.
This is open to anyone who is a professional or intern or general volunteer who has a heart for the kids. It requires you to have tolerance and patience while handling the students. The students are the most friendly people and very entertaining.
2.Gede Health Center
This is a Health Center located on the upper part of northern coastal region where curative services are offered to the community. It is headed by a Clinical Officer called Mr Mwaniki who over sees the center's operation and its main referral hospital is Malindi General District Hospital. It has outreach programs which are done by Afya 11 - a community NGO in Kenya.
Services offered are the following:
* ANC offers curative services
* Out-patients offers pharmaceuticals
* Family planning offers maternity, wards and in-patients
* Pediatrics offers children examination and immunizations
The health center has 6 nurses and 2 clinical officers. All are invited to come experience, join and help in treat the tropical diseases that are examined here.
Volunteers' main duty is to help out in all areas as possible, it's mainly based on a rotational basis and it's really busy at the center, so a lot is learned and achieved at the same.
3.Tsunza community conservation project
The community touch group was founded by Mr. Juma Mwashanga who is community resource personnel and has a broad knowledge on matters of environmental conservation. It was founded in 2008 and is still running up to date.
This is a community project which is situated in the heart of an island north of Mombasa. The community project was established by the local youth of that area, where they felt the need to conserve the environment by coming up with a research on the importance of the mangrove ecosystem and ways in which it is conserved.
The project has maximum personnel of around 20 youth who are dedicated on environmental issues and the areas of concern of the community. They train them on how to conserve the mangrove and also come up with substitute programs where the community can be able to benefit from the mangrove.
All volunteers are welcome. The program is open to all interested to do environmental conservation work and also to learn the challenges that the community faces.
Volunteers are encouraged to come with an open mind and should be ready to work and integrate with the community. Tsunza Island is a very needy community where the local people depend mainly on fishing of prawns that they sell to the neighboring city, Mombasa, across the shore.
4.Hope educational center – kaloleni
Hope center is a non profit making day- care which takes care of the poor, orphans HIV positive and vulnerable children with different religious background.
The school was started by pastor and his wife Beatrice who also are the founder of the deliverance church in the year 2000, they started with 7 children who were orphaned and now the number has risen to 187 children some orphaned and some are not.
The main reason why the school was started was because most of the facilities, services we have to offer are unique compared to other public school.
We have:
* a feeding program (two meals) a day that caters for the nutritional nourishment of the children
* a variety of playing facilities for the children
* a learning environment that is conducive for the children i.e (small sized class room with only 25 pupils)
* a computer lab that benefits the children and the community around.
We offer:
Quality education through competent teachers who are able to offer close learning supervision to a manageable number of pupils
Guidance and counseling is offered why emotional, physical and spiritual needs are provided.
5.Environmental conservation project Gede
This programme aims at tackling the coastal environmental issues in a very integrated and holistic manner. It is both for learning and experiencing environmental issues in the coastal region of Kenya. The programme will engage several stakeholders as environmental issues are very complex and interrelated so it cuts across sectors, communities, programme, ecosystems, and nations. We believe we have the best environment package that will make the Developed North interact more positively with the Developing South and embrace environmental practices that will lead to a better and more habitable environment for the present and future generation.
Arabuko sokoke forest, hosts the forest research institute offices and some other environmental conservation NGOS.The forest covers is 400km2 and surrounded by over 600 community groups. The forest is a habitat of some endangered bird species like the sokoke scolp owl.
At the forest you shall learn about the different types of forests around the coastal belt mainly the mangrove forest, mixed forest, branchystegia woodland and the cynometra thicket. You will also learn more about the value of different tree species and the some other modern uses of trees that include the eucalyptus tree plantation using bio technology to supply the main electricity distribution company.
In the past the communities around the forest used to use the forest resources in ways that were not self sustaining, hence destroying the Eco-system, so the forest came up with a number of projects that were initiated by conservation groups to preserve the forest like the aloe-vera farming, beekeeping among others. Volunteers will work both at the office; tree center and always go out with forest maintenance teams.
Children home volunteers;
We work with a number of children homes across the country of whom welcome both professional and general volunteers , both young and old . Each children home has a permanent onsite member of staff of helps in supervising the volunteers and planning for their day to day work;
Volunteers are involved in a number of things;
- Recreational programs e.g. playing with the kids during school designated play hours.
- Teaching in the classrooms; subjects English and mathematics.
- Helping the kids organize their books and schoolwork
- Invigilating of exams.
- One on one mentoring of the kids who for example do not have specific interest in education.
- Helping out in the kitchen,
- Assisting in giving food during the lunch feeding programme.
- Giving a comparison in the education system and giving ideas on how things at the center can be improved.
- Community challenges eg. Clean-ups, building toilets etc.
What kind of volunteer are we looking for? Any kind of volunteer who can read, speak and write English. Professional volunteers who can help in the running of the home
List of children homes and their short profiles;
6. Gatanga children center
The current population at the center is 18 children ranging from age 3-13.
The children are an exciting lot to spend time with and have come around so well since admission to the center one and a half years back. We are at the peripheries of Thika Town.
7. Destiny children center –Malindi
This children home is located in mtangani area of Malindi; its one of the neediest that we have worked with since the children live in an abandoned house; they have 18 girls of school going age whom purely rely on well wishers for their daily existence.
The lady who runs it is called Ann.
8. St pauls children center – Ngong
This is a children home located at on the slopes of Ngong hills 30 km from in Nairobi, Kenya. The Home was started by Mama Mary in 1983 when it opened its doors to abandoned and orphaned children of all ages. These children all have their own incredible stories of their hardships they have lived through The Home initially started with 200 street children though the effort of Mama Mary and her daughter out of the love for streets boys and girls and the friendship they had established at the time the kids would be housed at Pangani, Nairobi. Later the home to Ngong Bul Bul where they were able to build semi permanent buildings where the children now sleep, eat and learn. Mama Mary started of the home by first sharing the word of God to all these less fortunate children and offering light lunch. This continued until they developed a rapport and later into a parent-child sponsorship. However this was not enough as at night the same children were still exposed to hardships most of them became wiling and followed her at home although it s not possible to accommodate all of them the government donated land to her. The children who have passed nursery school age attend a nearby primary school and come back at home for the evening.
Currently the children come from all over the country namely places like Loitoktok, Kiambu, Kikuyu, Meru, Kakamega, Magadi, Machakos, Muranga, Nyeri and Machakos. They are normally referred to the home by the Kenyan social service department and provincial adminstration. Many children are not hosted by the home due to limited accommodation space. The home caters for children aged between 2- 18 years.
9.Hope for orphans center – Ruai Nairobi ;
Hope For Orphans Center(HOREC) is a home started in 2005 by initiative group of community field health workers who are involved in providing home based care for HIV/AIDS infected, affected and vulnerable children.
The main idea of starting HOREC for the orphans and vulnerable children was mooted in their cause of duty, as they were touched by the plight and the extent of suffering which was being experienced by the HIV/AIDS orphans, so they felt a strong urge to come up with a rescue center for the very desperate cases of orphaned girl child because they are vulnerable in order provide a safe haven for them.
Currently the home hosts around 25 girls aged between 1-13years of age and the younger kids go to a nearby school as the older girls go to boarding schools. The home caters for both girls and boys, but the boys don’t stay in that home because it’s small, so they are left in the company of their relatives and guardians but they are supported by the home. They come to visit during the weekends and live in the evening for their homes.
The current situation of the home is that its a rental house just enough for the 25kids and lately they have acquired a piece of land where they are planning to build soon when funds are available. But its a really nice place to volunteer and understand their way better.
10. Pendo children home
Located in Narok town in Maasai land and 120 km from Nairobi and founded in 1995 by the A.I.C church together with the child welfare worldwide, Pendo Children's Home has one dormitory that hosts 52 children (all orphaned and 3 disabled) from a radius of 100 km, 5 staff and the home parents Mr and Mrs John Muyendi. The children attend school in the local schools located around the area. The focus of the home is education, health and religion (Christianity). Volunteers are needed to support the centre and to work with the field officer in identifying and collecting needy children from the area. Other activities volunteers can participate in are:
* Recreational programs e.g. playing with the kids during school designated play hours
* Teaching in the classrooms; subjects English and mathematics
* Helping the kids organize their books and schoolwork
* Invigilating of exams
* One on one mentoring of the kids who for example do not have specific interest in education
* Helping out in the kitchen
* Giving a comparison in the education system and giving ideas on how things at the center can be improved.
* Community challenges e.g. Clean-ups, building toilets etc.
What kind of volunteer are we looking for? Any kind of volunteer who can read, speak and write English. Teachers, and community development officers.
11. Children of the Rising Sun
This home was originally founded by a man named Cosmas Maina in 1994 and Leila Soila later joined him later. The original location was in a rented house in malindi situated near Casaurina road, then later in january 1997 the home moved to its present situation 300meters off the Malindi/Mombasa highway in msabaha between Watamu and Malindi town. A generous German Hotelier donated the 12 acre land Mrs Elizabeth Von Menyhart. It's a charitable organization housing orphans and children of destitute families.