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 in both Kenya and South Africa.

Richard Olivier, chief executive of the Year Out Group, believes that South Africa is so successful because “it offers such a wide variety of worthwhile projects, ranging from conservation work in game parks, volunteering in health centres and orphanages including HIV/AIDS awareness programmes, and a variety of teaching programmes”.

At Worldwide Experience, we’re lucky enough to offer all these projects in South Africa. We benefit from the fact that our popular conservation gap year projects also combine work in community projects, and that our teaching projects also contain a hint of conservation work, so students can really make the most from their South African experience.

Whether you’re on your way to South Africa on your gap year or to watch the World Cup that everyone’s talking about, it seems that the sharks are eagerly awaiting your arrival so they can put on a show of their own. During the months of April to September, we see about 64,000 cape fur seals arrive on Seal Island near False Bay.  This gives the great white sharks in the area the ideal opportunity to flex their fins and perfect their hunting skills. Anyone visiting Cape Town during their gap year, or perhaps heading to the Green Point Stadium …

I’ve been talking a lot about shark conservation lately and with the UN wildlife trade meeting looming it looked like something was finally being done. The implications of this wildlife trade meeting had implications for all sectors of wildlife conservation and the staff at Shamwari were pleased to see the UN turn down Tanzania’s and Zambia’s request to sell ivory, amid concerns about poaching. However, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, brought nothing but bad news for our students involved in shark conservation or marine biology. The students were listening intently as news came in from …

In Hawaii, shark conservation isn’t so much of a problem. This is because tiger sharks are considered sacred on America’s 50th State. The name ‘aumakua’ is given to them and they are believed to be the ancestral spirits of native Hawaiians. You wouldn’t treat your ancestors the way that sharks are treated in some other cultures, but the sacred status that sharks have been given in Hawaii ensures that they remain largely ignored by the public.

People with an interest in shark conservation have known for years just how important it is to protect sharks. However, with this week’s news that great white sharks are now more endangered than tigers it is hoped that more people will pick up on the need for shark conservation projects, such as those offered by Worldwide Experience. I love sharks and I love tigers, but I especially love tiger sharks so I decided that I’d fly over to Kwa-Zulu-Natal and see what our tiger shark volunteers made of the news. The volunteers had already heard the news and although they …