Why are we going?

November 9th, 2009

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Rather than lie on a beach for 6 months we decided to do something useful with our gap year. So, next year we  are taking a Gap Year, and have volunteered for a total of 5 months (20 weeks) in Southern Africa. We will be helping at an orphanage in Swaziland, where many of the children may not live far into adulthood due to the high numbers of Aids victims in the country. Unfortunately, to make a serious difference to the lives of these children we have to raise over £4000 each, which is not only needed to fund our stay, food accommodation etc, but also helps to improve the standard of living for the community.

Swaziland is a relatively small country, in Southern Africa and despite being a peaceful and beautiful country, it has major problems with poverty and HIV/AIDS causing many children to be ill themselves or to have lost both parents, and for who subsequently rely on the orphanages for education, food and safety.

A few Statistics about Swaziland:

  • Around 50% of Swazi nationals are out of work
  • 60% of children in Swaziland cannot afford to go to school
  • In 2005, 40% of the population were HIV positive
  • National Life Expectancy in 2005 was 33, and is decreasing due to the AIDS epidemic

Swazi Children

Our role as volunteers will be to help look after these children, aged between 2 and 16, and to provide care. We would also teach simple skills such as English and Maths as well as helping on an important feeding scheme bringing food to children who have very little at home. We would love to be able to help support these orphanages and help them continue to provide the care they currently do, and without volunteers they would have little chance of doing this.

Thank You for supporting us, we are very grateful for any contribution towards our goal of raising £4000 each, to cover the project, insurance, flights and help support the orphanage itself.Swaziland parent

Please donate now and you will receive an email of thanks and will automatically be signed up to receive our newsletters from the country when we are there and beforehand and you can follow our work on our blog and through twitter.

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