What Will I Do as a Volunteer
You will help orphans and empower women of Tanzania
About Volunteering
OMAWA is a small grass-roots organization so we rely heavily on the assistance and input of volunteers to help us drive new initiatives and grow the organization and our impact. We welcome volunteers as both teams and individuals so whatever your background or position please do contact us if you would like to explore volunteer opportunities with us.
Project Highlights:
- You will be teaching in our six partners’ primary and secondary schools which are located in Moshi rural district
- You will be teaching Vocational Skills to youth in our centre
- You will be teaching Sexual reproductive Health to a group of youth in the rural areas.
- You will gain lots of hands-on experience as our project is run by volunteers
- You will participate in Home Visits on Saturdays. We visit one of our students, meet their family, share a meal, chat, and get to know more about our individual students and the local culture.
- You will visit our women’s income generating activities, mainly in Shimbwe. You will watch the women participating in feeding pigs and chicks and help them to improve their income.
- You will take part in our Children’s Program twice a week, teaching and playing with local children
- You will truly participate in, learn about, and appreciate the Tanzanian culture
- You will conduct psychosocial support to Orphans and vulnerable children supported by OMAWA
- Various training to staff
- Computer work (Helping editing proposal, website update)
- Training rural women about entrepreneurship skills that will help them start small business that will improve their living standard
- Fundraising
Our programs are available throughout the year and our volunteers can stay for any length of time. Commonly, volunteers visit for 3 weeks, however, many stay for 3 months and some even longer. The longer you stay, the richer your experience will be. It is also better for our students when volunteers stay longer as it means they have fewer teachers and teaching styles to get accustomed to.
As a volunteer, you will find that having at least 3 weeks to work with a group of children and women will be helpful in getting to know them, gain their trust, and to learn and appreciate their individual needs and strengths. Our program is 1 year long and you can time your volunteering to help us choose a new group of students or attend a graduation. New semester starts every january and graduation is the last Saturday in November.
How Your Week Is Structured:
Monday & Friday
9 a.m. to 12 p.m.: Teach schools, Vocational Skills, or entrepreneurship skills
1 p.m. to 3 p.m.: Teach and play in our Children’s Program
Tuesday & Wednesday
9 a.m. to 12 p.m.: Teach schools, Vocational Skills, or entrepreneurship skills
12 p.m. to 1 p.m.: Teach extra help classes
2 p.m. to 4 p.m.: Help out in one of our centre, or help with other OMAWA tasks. Tasks will be assigned based on our needs at the time you are volunteering and based on volunteer professional
Saturdays
Approximately 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (time varies each week): We do a Home Visit with one of our students in their home (if agreed upon by the student).
Further Detail:
Teaching in our partner schools – A curriculum and lesson plans are provided. This ensures teaching consistency as well as making teaching easier for volunteers who do not have prior experience in this area. There is also a Kiswahili teacher/translator in class each day. You will teach up to 20 students at a time in this class.
Teaching Vocational Skills – Volunteers teach various hands on skills based on their experience, skills and interest
Teaching Business – Volunteers teach basic business concepts and a curriculum and lesson plans are provided. The curriculum has been developed specifically for Tanzania, in both English and Kiswahili. A Kiswahili teacher/translator helps to teach the classes. Our business classes are very basic and easy for volunteers to understand and teach without prior business knowledge or experience the program is mainly for women who are engaged in income generating activities.
Home Visits – We do home visits to better understand our students’ lives, dreams, struggles, hopes, and family situations. This allows us to analyze the best ways to help our students in the future. Our students truly look forward to these visits. They are very hospitable, eager to share their lives with us, and to introduce us to their family members and neighbours. We always bring a gift with us, such as a kilo of rice or sugar, to express our appreciation for their hospitality. Home visits offer a wonderful cultural exchange for both our students and our volunteers.
Children’s Program – Twice a week we host a program for local children. Volunteers organize and play games, teach the children how to read and count, sing songs, dance, draw, and more! The children of Tanzania will warm your heart beyond words. The number of children participating varies from 10 to 30.
Graduation Ceremony – Those volunteers who are present at the end of a semester have the unique opportunity to organize and participate in a graduation ceremony for our students. It is a very joyous occasion for our students, their families, and our volunteers and gives you a special glimpse into a different aspect of Tanzanian culture.
Experience in the above subjects is not necessary because we have a curriculum that our volunteers can follow and use as a teaching guideline. This ensures teaching consistency and continuity in the classroom and will enable you to be a prepared and confident teacher. If you have a specific area of expertise or interest, in addition to the aforementioned ones, please let us know in advance so that we may be able to integrate your talent and/or interest in our program.
If any of your questions have not been answered here, please email Joseph Maro at josephmaro@omawatanzania.org
