RIPPLE Africa
Focus: Community and Education.
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Project Description
RIPPLE Africa is a charity that has been working within local communities in northern rural Malawi for 10 years. We are based on the beach, on the shore of beautiful Lake Malawi.
Our mission statement –
To improve the standard of education and healthcare
To preserve and sustainably develop the environment
To create opportunities for the local communities in the Nhkata Bay district of Malawi
We operate at grassroots level involving the community in all aspects of our activities. We are different to most charities working in Africa. RIPPLE Africa believes in empowering local people to manage the projects which affect their own community and the charity only employs Malawian nationals in Malawi.
RIPPLE directly employs around 150 local Malawians, has over 2000 local people working on the ground, and our projects serve up to 30 000 local people.
On every single project we work with the local communities-providing a hand UP, not a hand out! Everyone involved in RIPPLE Africa is hugely passionate about what the charity is doing, and it is this great enthusiasm and enjoyment that makes RIPPLE Africa the charity it is.
We welcome volunteers to come and work on any number of projects, including the pre-schools, the fuel efficient stove project, rehabilitation projects, conservation projects, health clinics, primary schools, the local secondary school, tree planting and the community library.
Volunteer Information
Costs & Benefits
Requirements
Contact information
Project Summary
Volunteers can teach in the pre-schools, primary schools or the local secondary school. They can work on tree planting or the cook stove project-anything from making bricks to helping with educating the communities. Qualified healthcare volunteers such as nurses, physios, doctors and OTs can work in the local clinics, on the new disabilities project and at the local hospital.
There are no set hours. Volunteers tend to work Monday to Friday and have weekends off.
RIPPLE Africa volunteers are typically passionate, self motivated, hard working and proactive. The volunteers who get the most out of their experience are able to work under their own initiative and see where they fit in best once they get to Malawi. They are also realists; they know they won’t change Africa but they hope they’ll make a difference to the lives of some local people.
Volunteers pay their own costs to travel to and from Mwaya beach where RIPPLE is based. Costs to volunteer are as follows;
4 weeks - £600 8 weeks - £900 3 months - £1200 6 months- £1800
There is a £300 nonrefundable deposit in addition to the costs above. The longer the placement the less it costs per week. Volunteers operate a kitty system to pay for food. It costs between £2.50 and £4 per day on average for 3 meals a day.
RIPPLE Africa provides volunteer chalets, treated mosquito nets, staff to hand wash the volunteers clothes, watchmen during the day and overnight, cooks who make the evening meal, staff who clean the bathrooms & all communal areas daily, induction on arrival, a laptop for volunteers to share and a bike per volunteer for the duration of their placement.
Minimum age to volunteer is 21.
A placement of 2-3 months is preferred. Minimum length of placement is 4 weeks.
Please note the volunteer program is not rigidly structured the way most other programs are. The more resourceful, imaginative and flexible a volunteer is, the more they will get out of volunteering with RIPPLE Africa.
RIPPLE Africa
18 Eden Way,
Pages Industrial Park, Leighton Buzzard,
Bedfordshire, LU7 4TZ,
England
Tel: +44 (0)1525 216346
Email: volunteer@rippleafrica.org
Website: www.rippleafrica.org
Location: Nhkata Bay, Malawi
Average cost per day: £20
Focus: Education and Community
Skills needed: Volunteers must be at least 21 years old
