Long-term Education Volunteer in South Africa (Project Mgmt, Teaching, Non-profit mgmt)

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Do you believe education is the best way to change the world? Join us in a life-changing, immersive opportunity to create impact on South Africa's children and youth by working directly in the communities of Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

This opportunity is on the ground, hands-on, and in the townships of Port Elizabeth. You will directly change lives of our students and in the process learn a ton about the culture, poverty, education, non-profit management, and the people in our communities. You will also learn about the incredible power you have to provide opportunities to the disadvantaged while working with a team that is dedicated to using their talents to do the same.

You'll have the chance to do a lot of things, wear a lot of hats from project work in our schools, to project management, and marketing/communications. The experience will be tailored to your interests and strengths.

Real Impact: Our volunteers have helped shape Masinyusane into what it is today. We have had 8 long-term volunteers from Germany, Canada, and the United States. Here are two examples of the impact that our volunteers have created:

• Program Development: One of our volunteers built what is now our flagship primary school literacy program. She was there everyday implementing the project, training new hires, and overseeing execution, while our organization built the necessary partnership and raised financing. Her program is reaching hundreds of students in Grades K-3.
  
  
• Teaching/Tutoring: Another volunteer spent everyday with students teaching them a variety of high school subjects including physics and chemistry. Two of the students who received this tutoring ultimately graduated from university, the first in their families. They were among the first 5 graduates in our program. Currently, one is a lawyer and the other as an industrial engineer. Their success is directly attributed to our volunteer who left South Africa knowing he directly changed lives.

Structure: 70% of your time will be spent helping run projects that benefit the organization (70%). 30% of your time will be spend building a program or project of your own.

-Mornings and early afternoons would be spent working on projects in our primary schools (pre-school through Grade 7), including running projects in libraries, computer labs, and literacy programs as well as taking part in our sports, art, and extra-curricular programs such as chess, drama, traditional dancing, and green projects. Late afternoons would be spent in our Masinyusane office helping managing social media, our creative design team, marketing, etc.

-You will work closely with our Executive Director, Jim McKeown, an American who attended Columbia University and moved to South Africa in 2008 to found Masinyusane.

Minimum Duration: We believe that a long-term commitment is necessary to achieve the type of impact that will benefit both the volunteer and the organization. We are looking for a volunteer who can commit a minimum of 6 months but ideally 1 year or longer. We've had volunteers stay as long as 2 years. They have become part of our family and are sorely missed by our students and our organization when they leave.

Start date: January 2018 or after, although could be earlier.

Expected Expenses: Volunteers would need to sponsor their own trip including transportation to Port Elizabeth. We will arrange housing in an apartment in Port Elizabeth which will cost you $250/month, food will generally cost $300/month. Most volunteers also travel while in South Africa to see safaris, Cape Town, etc so you'd likely want to have a travel budget which is up to your discretion.

We will provide volunteers access to a car.

How to learn more: We will connect you to Jim McKeown, founder and Executive Director as well as former volunteers to learn about their experience. We can arrange telephone or skype conversations to connect with them. You can begin by learning more about our organization at masinyusane.org

We look forward to working together to build an incredible and rewarding experience for you!