What does your FSJ look like in Namibia?
What does your FSJ look like in Namibia? We asked this question to the two volunteers from Rehoboth, who came to Namibia together in August 2022 and started to do their voluntary service at steps for children. They describe what their daily tasks are, what they show the children in preschool and how they work with them.
Hello, I'm Hannah!
Hanna and the children in the afternoon care at our partner project Bridge of Hope. The two volunteers provide support primarily in English.
I am doing my international FSJ at the Bridge of Hope outreach center in Rehoboth, Namibia. There are children between the ages of 2 and 6 in the mornings and older children, from the first to the ninth grade, come in the afternoon. With the younger children, I try to support the teacher as much as possible and to help the children with coloring, gluing, or handicrafts. They are also taught the numbers, days of the week, colors and months in Afrikaans and English. While I still have to learn Afrikaans myself, I can of course provide better support and advice with the English terms.
In between, I also help in the kitchen to prepare the food for the children. In the afternoons I help the older children with their homework and especially with reading in English. We (Liz and I) set up a small library for this and sorted the books by different grade levels. The children then choose a book – according to their age and level of reading – and then have to read it aloud to us. I feel very comfortable at Bridge of Hope, the facility is very well organized and the employees are super nice and friendly.
Hello, I'm Liz!
Liz and the afterschool kids at the afterschool care in Rehoboth, Namibia at our partner project Bridge of Hope.
Hanna and I live in Rehoboth with two other volunteers who are doing an FSJ at Volunta (Volunta gGmbh, weltwärts sending organization), in the Block A neighborhood in an apartment which is on our landlords' property. The social facility with kindergarten and preschool Bridge of Hope is in Block D - that's a bit further away, so we have to walk about 35-40 minutes to the project every morning. At 8 o'clock the lesson starts for us. I am assigned to a class in which 13 children are currently studying. The children are between 4 and 5 years old and we take them to pre-school classes – that means we teach them numbers and letters, do handicrafts or paint together. In the beginning I assisted a lot in class. In the meantime, I often give lessons independently and supervise a small group. Sometimes this is a bit difficult because not all children can speak English. But I have found solutions that everyone still understands what needs to be done. We also have Afrikaans lessons once a week now, so hopefully communication will be easier soon.
We have a lunch break from 12:14 p.m. to 14:16 p.m. But we also help more often in the soup kitchen. The afterschool kids come from 4-16 p.m. We do homework with them and often read English books, since many children really can only read English poorly or not at all. We also write English words with them so that they don't have such big problems in school in the XNUMXth grade when everything is taught in English. Our day at Bridge of Hope ends at XNUMX p.m. I feel very comfortable in the project and am already looking forward to the next time!
Dear Hanna, dear Liz, on behalf of the entire steps team, we wish you a great and eventful time in which you can get to know all facets of Namibia and the people who live here.
Thank you for your great commitment!
