Helena from the Kareiga Game Reserve sent us over this blog post and some fantastic pictures. It looks like the volunteers have been extremely busy carrying out community development work with a difference. Here’s Helena’s blog post on the subject:

We are very proud to report that our conservation volunteers at Kariega Game Reserve have done FANTASTIC work at a nearby rural school. Kariega Game Reserve started a charity trust fund, called the Kariega Foundation. With funds sponsored by Kariega Game Reserve, we renovated the pre-primary classroom at our local, rural school. The school is very under funded and some of the classrooms in a terrible state. We decided enough-is-enough, and our volunteers pulled up their sleeves, and started the enormous job of completely renovating an entire classroom. Floorboards needed to be pulled up, the ceiling was fixed, and many hours of painting were done. Our end result was amazing and the little ones at the school can now look forward to many hours of happy learning in their new classroom (have a look at our “before” and “after” photos!). Thank you to all our conservation volunteers who helped with this project.

Nadia, sent us the August monthly update from the Shamwari Game Reserve, and it certainly looks like our volunteers have been busy. Here’s a brief look at what they got up to in August: Veterinary Students were involved with the darting and loading of buffalo, white rhino and black rhino at Amanzi. Game Capture Students were still involved with Game Capture this month. They were able to observe the darting of a Black Rhino as well as the mass capture of Waterbuck, Zebra, Black Wildebeest, Kudu, Ostrich, Blesbuck and Impala. Students also got involved in the preparation of the mass …

If you’re looking for another reason to go off and work on gap year projects – here it is! A university study’s finding’s have just been which suggest that those people who take a gap year are not only happier in their future life, but also richer! When it comes to hiring staff, 67 per cent of 3000 employers surveyed said they would be much more likely to employ a person who had taken a gap year, than those who had come straight out of university. Whether on animal conservation gap year projects in Africa, or teaching English to children …

Firstly, we’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone that took the time to vote in our Voice of Conservation competition. Without your votes this wouldn’t have been possible, so thank you so much if you took the time the vote. The three finalists we had this year were all excellent candidates and we were so touched with the amount of effort that the other two girls put in, that we’ve decided to offer them both a free one month placement at the Shamwari Game Reserve. However, there can only be one winner and here’s who you guys …

The World Cup may have brought the Rainbow Nation into the lime-light, but it appears that volunteers on gap year projects have known about the benefits of South Africa for ages. In July, the Year Out Group named South Africa as the most popular destination for structured gap year projects – a prize the country has now won for the last three years running. This year, Kenya also returned to the top three – up 12 places from last year’s position, which is great news for the continent and of course for us at Worldwide Experience who run structured placements …