Jana and Luise
We just passed our high school exams, are 20 and 19 years old and do our voluntary service for one year at Leka Gape.
We got to know about Leka Gape through ICJA and also applied for it through ICJA. ICJA is an organization that is specialized in the coordination of volunteer exchange in the world.
Therefore, ICJA supervised us during our stay in South Africa and also organized our accommodation. ICJA has also organized an introduction workshop before our arrival and we will have another workshop when we return to Germany.
We have met each other at the introduction workshop. This workshop has been really helpful, because they provide us with important information about the cultural differences and therefore we did not have to suffer of a „cultural shock“ after our arrival.
We both wanted to do a voluntary service, because we did not want to start to study right after school and also wanted to go to a foreign country. A journey to the African continent convinced us to do our volunteership in South Africa.
We have worked in different areas including an external HIV project and the tourism project. At the tourism project we sell souvenirs to tourists and give the money to the Leka Gape Shelter. We also organized a holiday program for the children of the Shelter and the Day Care.
Mostly we enjoy to work with the children in the Shelter and to see their development and successes. This stay enriched us in many points, e.g. the chance to meet many interesting people among volunteers as well as locals.
Besides that we really like the possibility to do many trips, e.g. at the World Aids Day all the volunteers made a trip to the „46664 concert“ in Johannesburg and could meet Nelson Mandela live. This was a really exciting trip!