Home Volunteer in South Africa

VOLUNTEER IN SOUTH AFRICA

Boasting 11 official languages, 8 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and 70% of the Cape Floral Kingdom’s plant species found nowhere else in the world, volunteering in South Africa offers an amazing opportunity to get up close and personal with the “Rainbow Nation” and make a lasting impact.

The major cities in South Africa have developed rapidly over the last 20 years, however, there are still many conservation, social and community development issues that plague the country.

Volunteering with GVI during your gap year, career break or volunteer holiday, will allow you to make a sustainable difference in a variety of different focuses, such as Wildlife Conservation, Childcare, Teaching or Public Health. Our projects in South Africa are just a few of many fantastic volunteer in Africa options.

Where Does GVI Work in South Africa?

Travel abroad to volunteer in Africa - we offer great trips to both Seychelles and South Africa to contribute to important conservation and community development projects.

In South Africa GVI operates two bases - we run our community operations in a picturesque coastal village called Gordon's Bay, located 45 minutes from Cape Town where our volunteers in Cape Town volunteer in a township at an educare centre and the volunteer work ranges from teaching to public health or construction.

GVI does not support orphanage volunteering. For more information see our stance on orphanage volunteering. We also support ChildSafe, a global child protection initiative, and regularly review our comprehensive Child and Vulnerable Adult Protection policy. All our staff and participants are required to complete a police background check before arrival on the program, and on-site child protection training is provided once they arrive in the host country. We also protect children from cyber and real-world threats by ensuring that our marketing follows child protection best practices.

You can get involved in our wildlife conservation projects is situated in Limpopo, an area that is home to some of the most remarkable wildlife (including the Big 5: lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo), landscapes and conservation opportunities South Africa has to offer.

Meet the team - Senior Field Management

Leah Brown

Program Manager

Meet Leah! Leah is the Program Manager at GVI’s Limpopo base, South Africa. She has been with GVI for three and a half years now. In the past she has studied Animal Technology.

Sian

Program Manager

This is Sian, the Program Manager in Gordon’s Bay. Before joining us in Gordon’s Bay Sian previously worked as a Social Worker back in the UK and now has since traveled to 33 countries!

Trevor

General Manager at Bushwise

Trevor is our General Manager at Bushwise. He was born in Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe but grew up in South Africa. After spending most of his life in the corporate world, he realised that being outdoors was his true calling!

Meet the team - In-Country Staff

Charlotte Goodwin

Assistant Program Manager

Meet Charlotte, who is the Assistant Program Manager at GVI’s base in Gordons Bay, Cape Town. In 2012 she took part in a GVI Community Development and Conservation Project in Kenya. After this, she went on to study Cultural Studies and Social Anthropology at the University of Kent in the UK. Charlotte has lived most of her life in Africa and is also lucky enough to have visited an array of other countries.

Charmaine

Community Officer

Introducing you to Charmaine. Charmaine is one of the Community Officers who works at GVI’s Limpopo base, near the Kruger National Park in South Africa.

Charmaine was originally part of GVI’s National Scholarship Program back in 2016. She enjoys working in the village, in which she was born!

Gerhard

Trainer at Bushwise

Gerhard is South African with a professional Lead Guide and Field Guide qualification, and a Diploma in Zoology. He is our trainer at Bushwise and our resident singer and songwriter. His songs have been aired on a local radio station and used in a religious stage production.

Kayla

Science Officer

Introducing Kayla, who is the is Science Officer at our base in Limpopo. Kayla studied Biodiversity and Ecology at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. She continued her studies completing a Masters in conservation where she got the chance to to work with African Parks in Malawi, which was a dream come true.

Kim

Sales Manager at Bushwise

Kim handles all the sales for Bushwise and is also involved in the social media marketing. She first stepped onto a game reserve working in hospitality and found that that was the place for her! She loves snakes but is terrified of spiders.

Leighton

Assistant Program Manager

Meet Leighton, who is originally from South Africa. He is our Assistant Program Manager and Internship Coordinator over in Limpopo. Leighton has plenty of qualifications under his belt and loves the beautiful landscape that South Africa has to offer.

Sharin

Admin Manager

Sharin is from South Africa and is our Admin Manager at Bushwise. She joined Bushwise after having been in the corporate world and lodge industry and has now been here for four years. She has a love-hate relationship with scorpions and has been stung twenty-four times in three years.

Vaughan

Trainer at Bushwise

Vaughan is one of our Trainers at Bushwise and has a special interest in entomology, the study of insects and their relationship with humans. He is from the local area, having grown up in the South African bush. He has a background in scientific research but feels that guiding is a perfect platform from which to preach conservation.

Zoe

Volunteer Coordinator

Pleased to introduce you to Zoe, who is the Volunteer Coordinator at our base in Limpopo. Her journey started out with a six month internship with GVI back in 2016. Prior to this Zoe studied zoology in Australia for three years before coming over to Limpopo, South Africa.

Apply Now

Enquire Now

Call Back Request

Download our program brochures

Download Now

Our Programs in South Africa

Filter By

VOLUNTEER IN SOUTH AFRICA