Location
  • South Africa
    • Limpopo
Length
1 to 48 weeks

Program Details

Language
English
Age Min.
18
Age Max
80
Timeframe
Year Round
Housing
Hostel
Groups
Medium Group (16-30)

Pricing

Starting Price
23
Price Details
23 USD, 22 Euro.
What does it include?
Accommodation. Transport from volunteer house to TCM base. Wi-fi. Hot water / Purified drinking water.
Housekeeping staff will regularly clean rooms and living areas.
Laundry Machine.
Daily MiniMarket -Shop stops. A town trip into Tzaneen once a week.
Dinner is provided and cooked for you from Monday to Friday.
What’s NOT included:
Flights. Insurance, tourist visa, and needed vaccinations.
Personal expenses (e.g. medical).
Linen - bring a sleeping bag. We will provide you with a clean bedsheet, pillow &
pillowcase.
Excursions and your transportation to, and from excursions.
On weekends you have to provide for and cook your own dinner.
Breakfast and lunch: Provide and prepare yourself.
What's Included
Accommodation Some Meals Wifi
What's Not Included
Some Activities Airfare Domestic Airfare Equipment Some Meals SIM cards Transportation Travel Insurance Visa
Aug 18, 2022
Aug 21, 2021
6 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

Early mornings bring to Tshega, vibrant voices, as dust dances around people`s feet as they disembark from their taxis. The painted African sky allows the sun`s rays to tickle my shoulders. I hear the uncontained laughter of children. Today the TCM family, (staff, volunteers, missionaries, and children), has an opportunity to share love, bringing hope and joy. I know this is going to be another fabulous day!
Tshega (TCM), established in 2004, transforms the surrounding villages, by offering quality education, skills development, and outreach programs. The surrounding villages have a staggering unemployment rate of 95 %. Women and Children are left alone for months when fathers and husbands migrate to look for work. Some never return, burdening the unemployed mother to support and feed her children. In these villages, nestled in the mountains of Bolubedu in South Africa, YOU as a volunteer can make a difference!
Help us Transform lives!

Consider your impact: Volunteering abroad can be a rewarding experience for both volunteers and local communities, and at Go Overseas, we believe all volunteers should have the resources to make informed decisions about the type of volunteer project they want to partake in. However, despite best intentions, some organizations offering placements in orphanages may unknowingly place children in danger. You can read about the potential dangers of orphanage volunteering here.

Video and Photos

Program Highlights

  • * Share laughter, and love with children while you assist them in the classroom or on the sports field.
  • * Comfortable Accommodation on a citrus farm. Enjoy our swimming pool and African Sunsets. (Wi-Fi & purified water incl.)
  • * Our weekend excursions are next level from visiting the Kruger National Park, Zipline down waterfalls, Visiting a Hippo, Game drives, or going on the Olifantsriver in a boat.
  • * Lifetime Friends - Making incredible friends with the base workers as well as people from all over the world who also come to volunteer.
  • * Basadi Skills Development Program - Empowering women to become strong independent entrepreneurs. You are welcome to share skills and teachings with the ladies.

Program Impact

Transforming Lives - Social Impact:
Our support is holistically in the following categories:
Mentally: Education
Emotionally: Counselling
Socially: Extra Mural Activities
Physically: Sports, Feeding scheme (basic needs)
Spiritual: Christian basis
OUR MILLENNIUM GOALS
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality rate
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
We have great programs to make your volunteering experience with us unforgettable!

Related Programs

Program Reviews

5.00 Rating
based on 6 reviews
  • 5 rating 100%
  • 4 rating 0%
  • 3 rating 0%
  • 2 rating 0%
  • 1 rating 0%
  • Impact 4.85
  • Support 5
  • Fun 4.85
  • Value 5
  • Safety 5
Showing 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Default avatar
Marcel
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Tshega Christian Mission

Wonderful people in a wonderful and very important program. I realy loved to work with this guys and enjoyed to be a blessing for them. The program works only with volunteers, so you need to go there. It was so nice to see the children smiling and making fun with them. Education for them is a solution for the hole situation in the village and worthy to support with money or your precens. It is also very cool to have so many different ways to help and be a part of TCM. I will go there again in the future.

What was your funniest moment?
It was very funny to drive in the mornings with the children to the school.
66 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Fabienne
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Tshega Christian Mission

I absolutely loved how free we could be to really expand ourselves.
Everyone is so kind and encouraging , open to suggestions and ideas.
Working with the Team at Tshega gave me a sense of belonging and I do plan to return and give more of my time to the children of our future South Africa.

As a woman in a male dominated world myself, getting to know the Basadi ladies and their vision to become independant women has touched me deeply.
I will be assisting wherever I can as Tshega has touched me I would like to extend my hand to reach further and together we can create a brighter future for all to blossom

75 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Amelia
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Wonderful volunteer opportunity

The entire team at Tshega Missions were incredibly helpful, and made settling in as a volunteer so easy. Their excellent integration of the volunteer program into their projects made sure that as a volunteer I felt both useful and valued, and I'm really pleased to say that I feel like I have helped them in making a great contribution to this community, as this is a community where even the smallest change can make a profound impact.
Marina, the volunteer coordinator, and Ellanie, the project founder, made sure that the volunteer's experiences were always positive, right from the moment we were welcomed to the project by the lovely children of the Lighthouse Academy.
They also ensured we had a wonderful time during our time off, as we enjoyed the swimming pool at the volunteer house, weekly evening trips to town in Tzaneen, as well as incredible weekend trips, including an amazing day at a local wildlife conservation centre with some young lions, as well as a truly incredible safari in Kruger National Park.

79 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Sabine
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

What a great experience!

Tshega South Africa is an excellent programm which is supporting the community of Fobeni Village in a way of partnership to improve sustainable development.
The focus of the Programm consits of education,health and income for disadvantaged families and children.
The staff is using resourrces and skills which are already there.
As a Volunteer I could bring my own thoughts and ideas in and was feeling part of the Tshega family.
Because of the different programms I could have an input in several fields.
(School, social work, health prevention, youth work, handcraft...)
The support from the staff members to help me settle in was awsem, they really became friends.
The work with the children made my stay very special because I could see and hear from them the real African culture.
If you want to look inside Africa and outside of the tourism picture?
Than you are right at Tshega Christian Mission South Africa!
Cant wait to be there again :)

82 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Anna
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Six weeks of wonderful new impressions

I did the volunteering program of Tshega Christian Missions during August and September 2014. From Monday to Tueasday we went to the the Lighthouse Acadamy and Lamb's Haven Kindergarten, what is the "main" project of Tshega. There we supported the children from Grade R up to Grade 3 during the classes and helped the weaker ones in reading and writing.
There are also 3 Outreaches in which the vonunteers are included. The first one ist Sara's Pirmary,a public School. At Sara's we had to teach the children of grade 1,2 and 3, because they don't learn that much from their teachers. So all the children were always really happy, when we learned with them!
The second outreach program is the disability centre. There we played, danced, painted, read... with the disabled children.
The last Outreach is the feeding scheme. The children can go there after School to get a warm meal by two ladies who cook for them. After lunch we volunteers did homework with them or played with them outside.
I really had fun with the children and all the members of Tshega. Everyone is so friendly, that you always feel very welcome and also "needed". And the most amazing thing is, that you really can recognize that your help is worth it. You can see an improvement and the children are really willing to learn something.

On the Weekends we always did great excursions. Marina, the volunteer manager, always brought us to very nice places. We did a Panorama tour in the mountains, visited Baby lions and tigers, went to the Kruger Nationalpark and so much more.

For me the volunteer project of Tshega Christian Missions was a really, really good decision. I learned so much about their culture, their way of living and I got so many new impressions. I really felt like beeing a part of a family with the other volunteers, because I got along very well with all the others.

What would you improve about this program?
When I had to change something about the program it would be the garden. I would like to plant a bigger garden nearby the school, to start planting vegetebles there. It would be a good improvement, because then thay didn't had do buy all the food for disability centre and feeding scheme.
81 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Sabine
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Incredible Teamwork

I was overwhelmed by the work of the whole Tshega Team under the leadership of Ellanie van Royen. Everyone does a great job in the kindergarten and school and cares about the people in the villages. Tshega offers a much better education than the government school system to help children to escapes the circle of later unemployment and poverty.

What would you improve about this program?
For me it was perfect. Maybe one small thing: If the volunteers could have samples of the schoolbooks that are used, they could get a better impression of the lessons in which they assist.
88 people found this review helpful.

Questions & Answers

Yes there is a pickup and dropoff service at an additional affordable cost.