We have looked around to see what other companies charge and the fact is that we charge about half the amount of money for a 3 month trip to South Africa than any of the big and well known companies (Swedish, British, American) do. And if you ask us it is not the working part you pay for. It is all the other things.
What are "the other things?" you may think now. Let us explain what we do, and how & why:
We are a very small company, with only 3 people running it all year around. We do sometimes get help from former students, volunteers and friends at the most hectic periods. We want the feeling, when you come here, to be "Family". You are a part of African Sunrise the minute you land in South Africa. We never want to just place a volunteer or student in a house and at an organisation and then you do not see us again. If you book with us, you will spend time with us and join our every day lives here, as much as you like.
We charge an amount that is doable for most people in Europe/US to pay. An amount that anyone with a job would be able to save up for. We do not want it to be impossible for anyone to come just because you do not have financial support from family or friends or an extremely well paid job. We want this experience to be available for as many as possible, wherever you are from or how you grew up.
Yes, we are making money from your payment. But what you pay for is really nothing more than if you would book for example an adventure tour, a hiking trip, a culture tour, or a tan and swimming trip trough a travel agency to any place in the world.
We will organize your trip for you, so that you know that you will get picked up at airport, that you stay somewhere safe, that the organisation you will work at is serious and fits your requests, that you know how to get around and that you will experience South Africa in a fun and great way. You will have a lot of free time and we will make sure to help you to book and experience the things and places in the best and most affordable way. If anything happens to you while you are here, we are around 24/7 just a phone call away and 10 minutes away from where you stay.
South Africa is not an easy country to travel to alone, there is a lot of safety issues, and the culture is very different from western culture, we are here to make these things easier for you and to make you feel more comfortable quicker. Our staff is a mix of South Africans and Swedes which gives a broad view and understanding for your experiences the first days/weeks here.
We donate about 10% of our profit to the organisations. Most of the organisations we work with are NPO's and NGO's - they are depending on donations and funding from people and companies. We think that it is very important that they get this money to be able to run the great projects they do.
We also work all year around with all the different organisations, helping them to fundraise, hosting events plus make sure they get volunteers and interns to help out on a regularly basis. They are all very under staffed and any help given is very appreciated as the government only fund about 40% of their costs (for a children's home for example). We have build up close relationships with the organisations and they trust us and we trust them. This will make your time with them so much more comfortable as you are "one of African Sunrise's friends".
If you pay us for your trip to South Africa, be sure that the money is very carefully and well spent on the right things. We do need salaries to be able to do this 100% all year around, of course. But no one is getting rich from you coming here and help out. No one is spending your money on luxuries or saving up a crazy profit. We simply charge what we need to, to cover our costs.
Let's say this: You pay to us, for us to be able to run this so that more organisations can get more help and develop. If we can keep running African Sunrise, more volunteers and skilled Interns can come and help out, and also; it will give You a lot as a person. You will learn about another culture, meet so much people, you will learn new things about yourself, you will experience a wonderful country and You will come back. Everyone (basically) comes back!
You can check our prices and what's included for Volunteering, Internships and Field Studies by clicking on the tagged words.
To compare with other companies simply google "volunteer south africa" and go to different companies pages and have a look. You will be shocked how some companies charges about ZAR 80000 for a 3 months stay in South Africa (excl flight and insurance)! Someone is obviously getting very wealthy from your willingness of helping out. This is the last thing we want to do. It is simply not right.
Please comment below. We are interested in hearing your thoughts around this!
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| Some of our volunteers playing soccer with kids in Khayelitsha |
