Volunteers' principal role is to teach English and Maths to pre-school and primary school children.   Although the older children attend Gedeli primary school, about a 20 minute walk from the orphanages, there are insufficient classrooms and teachers and children can only be taught for half the school day.   Volunteers teach at the orphanages for the other half of the day and throughout the school holidays.

Few volunteers are trained teachers or intend to become them.   Lessons are prepared from school books which follow the government syllabus.    Each volunteer teaches one class in the morning for about an hour and another in the afternoon.   This leaves plenty of time for lesson preparation.    Classes are taught in English although the language of the children is Kiswahili.   They will be happy to teach you their language in return for what you have taught them.

Maintaining class discipline is not a problem, unlike in many western schools.   The children are very keen to learn.   Volunteers teach in both orphanages in accordance with need.   Helping the children to become fluent in English. not only in formal lessons but through engaging them in conversation, provides them with a skill which will benefit them greatly when they begin their secondary education.

Some volunteers help with a physically and mentally disabled child.   Marwa lives at the Hisani orphanage.   His muscles have failed to develop, he cannot walk and he has cerebral palsy.   The hospital has prescribed various exercises and a special protein-rich diet.  Since coming to the orphanage his social skills have slowly begun to develop and he is encouraged to join in with what the other children are doing.

On Sundays volunteers can help with the children when they go to church in Gedeli.   The Catholic Church has a fine series of frescoes on all its walls which depict scenes from the New Testament with all the characters being African.   These have appeared in the National Geographic Magazine. 

Recreational and sporting activities are organised in the early evening and at weekends.   These have included card and singing games, football, cricket, volleyball, ten-pin bowling and even a cut-down Olympic games with sports such as the 3-legged sprint and the stone and spoon race (eggs are too precious for an egg and spoon race!)

Volunteers have also undertaken repairs and maintenance tasks including repainting rooms and building bunk beds, benches and tables for the classes.

From this ...............To this

"Friday was a wicked day!   We took the kids on a trip to the beach.   It was fabulous!   We hired two dala dalas and went to this beach on the shore of Lake Victoria.   The kids had an  absolute ball.   They were hardly off the dala dala and clothes were being shed left, right and centre as they rushed to get in the water.   There were many squeals of excitement as they were splashing around and it was great to see them having such a great time.   Then we got them all a soda - 56 bottles of sprite/coke/fanta - and they all just loved it.   A really lovely day"  

"My last few weeks of teaching were wonderful, especially with my standard 3/4 boys.   I taught this group of boys more than any other group and they have shown themselves to be exceptional children, in spite of all the difficulties of living in an orphanage.     My last week of teaching I received many letters from the kids, all thanking me and promising they would never forget me.   I had quite a few weepy days my last week; I want to just pile the kids in a plane and take them home with me"

"Wini, who is at secondary school, is now able to use Word, perform basic operations in Excel and send emails.   Though she probably will not have occasion to use those skills much right now, I am sure they will greatly help her find a better job in the future.   Other kids, who mainly just tried Word, loved the experience too.   It would be great if the computer lessons could be kept going"

I noticed kids often have little idea of how long 1 cm is, or how heavy 1 kg etc.   They cannot estimate at all.   I found some measuring tape and we measured all of their heights, objects, buildings and so on.   They really enjoyed it."

"The kids are so great at dancing.   They have so much rhythm in them you can't help but dance along with them - although my attempts were not as great as theirs!   I had little January on my lap (2 1/2 years old) but I was paying so much attention to the dancing that I didn't notice he had fallen fast asleep on me"