International Voluntary Service

Country Information for Africa

SCI Branches in Africa

SCI has established links and co-operation with a variety of partner organisations which are non-governmental organisations and have no administrative structure. They organise, short term international projects, but in some cases they also have other programmes during the whole year.

SCI-Mauritius

There are several working groups within SCI: Environmental Development, Gender Issues, Solidarity with Handicapped & Regional Co-operation. It is also part of the network constituted for the settlement of conflicts arising in communities – Forces Patriotiques after the February ’99 Riots.

One of the aims of SCI in Mauritius is to set up a peace centre to foster tolerance & harmony among the different socio-cultural & ethnical groups there. Currently SCI is looking for the funds to start the centre.

SCI Partners in Africa

SCI has partner and contact organisations in the following countries: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

A programme of international projects are organised by all of the partners each year. Many of the projects are held in rural areas of the country to help village communities build classrooms onto a local school or build rooms onto a health clinic.

130 volunteers are placed on projects in Africa each year, and 5/6 African volunteers are invited to join in European projects. European volunteers pay for their own travel and expenses while SCI tries to find funding and support for the African volunteers coming to Europe.

KVDA. Kenya Voluntary Development Association

KVDA is an indigenous, non-political, non-sectarian and non-profit making organisation founded in 1962. It seeks to promote intercultural education, international peace, inter human understanding and solidarity as well as sustainable Community Development through Voluntary Service. It’s essential that volunteers have a firm commitment to live and work in a community, along with the ability to adapt oneself to rural community life, the desire to learn and share, to promote peace, harmony, solidarity and understanding. The projects are organised with members of the host community mainly in rural villages and sometimes in city slums. They last for 3 weeks during the months of April, July, August and December. Most projects involve unskilled labour and local experts supervise volunteers. The work is mainly construction (renovating and converting buildings), environmental, or social care (visiting orphanages, the elderly). http://www.kvdakenya.org