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Volunteer Africa 2009
See things like you've never seen them before - volunteer in East Africa with GAPS this year, make a difference and see the real Africa
with projects in partnership with UNICEF Kenya, the Aga Khan Foundation, the University of Melbourne and others
Teaching the Street Youth of Rwanda
Location: Kigali, Rwanda
Suitable for: anyone
Date constraints: nil (Commencing end of 2009)
With over 7000 street youth living in Kigali alone, Rwanda with a history of war and genocide has the most street children per capita in the world. This number is growing as more children lose their parents to HIV. While there are already over 200,000 child headed households, many children are left on the streets to fend for themselves. These children are shunned from society and viewed as invisible by the local population. In the midst of hardship is the weekly encouragement offered to 75 street youth who meet to play soccer and are provided a meal by a local church. While it may not appear much, this program gives them enough hope and encouragement to avoid drugs, crime and danger on the streets. Every year volunteers come to spend more time with the street youth teaching them English, playing different games, counselling HIV victims and acting as a mentor simply by spending time with them. GAPS is giving you the opportunity to do this too.
Simply spending time with the youth, provides them with encouragement, hope and motivation to strive for something more. Furthermore, teaching the youth English in a country which is making a swift shift towards English opens up opportunities and doors never previously available. While the benefits of volunteering with the street youth are endless this program also gives you a chance to explore the beautiful and lush mountainous country of Rwanda. Within a days reaches you can trek to see the mountain gorillas in the mist, the chimpanzees buried deep into the forest or try to understand the tragic and horrific genocide that once touched this country through exploring its many memorial sights. This experience allows you to make life long friends while impacting on one of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups in Rwanda.
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