Overview
Kenya Community Development Internship

As part of this internship you will alongside a dedicated staff supervisor, gain an internationally recognized qualification in Team Leading and local volunteer teachers in Mombasa’s Bombolulu area. You will typically be working with children aged between 3 and 13 and will be working on basic education and literacy projects as well as childcare. The children’s centre aims to combat social pressures that lead to substance abuse and crime. You will also work at a home for HIV / AIDS orphans, helping the dedicated staff care for the children. This internship will allow you to make real differences in the lives of the children most in need, and gain invaluable hands on practical experience in a variety of fields, including project management.. Paid and unpaid positions may be available to qualifying candidates after their internship.

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A GVI project gives you more of an experience of the country and community than a holiday or backpacking trip, and you feel as though you're contributing positively to the community rather than just observing it as an outsider.

Kieran Aldred, GVI Intern

What Difference Does This Internship Make?

The children's centre aims to provide under-privileged children with free education, and critically, lunch - hunger is one of the most common reasons children fail to attend government schools. In a holistic approach the centre offers counselling to children from broken or abusive homes or who are orphaned, as well as to parents. Entirely reliant on independent donors to rent small, basic classrooms, and volunteer teachers, the centre achieves remarkable results - children sponsored to go onto private mainstream education are typically within the top 10% of their class. The orphanage was set up as a charity to care for HIV / AIDS orphans, often abandoned as young babies. Children receive a secure homelife, education and medical care. This project delivers opportunities to children from disrupted homelives, supporting health and social awareness in an area with high HIV prevalence, prostitution and drug abuse, and limited access to healthcare. Volunteers not only make a direct contribution caring for and educating the children but increase the capacity of the centres to improve facilities, programmes and funding.

Highlights

A life changing experience caring for orphaned and vulnerable children; support primary education and receive training in communicative teaching; develop health, social and environmental awareness programmes through arts and sports; guide children on trips to Haller Park to view giraffe, hippo & crocodile. Gain an internationally recognised certificate in team leading. Put your skills and experience to use improving facilities and resources or fund-raising. Live amongst, learn from and support Kenya's urban impoverished communities; learn Swahili. Explore Mombasa's history, culture, beaches and nightlife.

Skills And Qualifications Received

• Internationally recognised qualification in Team Leading


• Teacher training


• Classroom management


• Lesson Planning


• Teaching experience


• Risk assessments


• Emergency evacuation plans


• Program logistics


• Cultural knowledge

See Requirements And Training page for more information

Location

Mombasa sits on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast. Bombolulu is the city's largest slum area, adjacent to the wealthy suburb of Nyali, north of Mombasa island. The area includes the marine park and Mombasa's finest beaches, bars, restaurants and nightlife.

See Life on the internship page for more information

Field Conditions

The accommodation will consist of group living in a basic house with access to electricity and running water. Volunteers will be in mixed-sex dormitories and share cooking and cleaning duties. Food will be simple and nutritious, cooked on rotation, with fresh fruit and vegetables daily, and meat or fish a couple of times a week.

See Life on the internship page for more information