ER has openings for short-term volunteers at our Fish Hoek (Cape Town) Dream Center after-school program. If you love working with kids and would enjoy a cross-cultural experience in beautiful South Africa, then this opportunity is for you.
Participants must be at least 18 years old and have a updated passport. This opportunity involves instructing kids from local settlements who are in need of homework help and extracurricular activities.
Short-Term Volunteers Do More than Schoolwork
Volunteers will join our staff at one of our two Dream Center campuses. We now serve more than 40 kids. A big part of what we do every day is helping the kids understand and complete their specific school work assignments. But we also work on reading comprehension, life skills, nutrition and spiritual development.
In addition to working with the kids, participants will be able to enjoy local sightseeing opportunities to beaches, mountains and wild game parks. South Africa is known worldwide for its beauty.
Typically, volunteers commit to three months or more and raise their own funds. ER provides on-boarding/onsite support. You will be provided with an ER account in order to raise funds to cover costs.
Interested, or know someone who might be a perfect fit? Contact us at mobilization@extremeresponse.org.Or visit our mobilization page.
Scroll below to see the experiences of ER short-term volunteers.
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Gapper Thrives in South Africa
(Jan. 8, 2018)
ER volunteer Shelby Watson discovered the benefits of taking a “gap year” between high school and college to volunteer to help kids and experience adventure at the same time.
“I found out about the Global Gap Year Fellowship (GGYF) program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The description was more than intriguing: a year of service abroad before going to college, ” Shelby shared.
“This was my chance to get away from the everyday classroom-based learning environment and experience life in a new way. I knew I had to apply.”
Shelby signed up with ER in South Africa. Read more here.
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David’s Story: From Dump Duty to Company President
By Tim Fausch, ER Communications
(Aug. 10, 2017)
“‘The secret to living is giving’. That concept has really impacted my heart.” – David Brackett
While in his early twenties, David Brackett traveled thousands of miles to change the diapers of infants and work in the Quito Dump Daycare. Diaper duty wasn’t highlighted in his short-term volunteer job description, but David went to Ecuador willing to serve others – even if it meant tackling some stinky challenges.
David had heard about ER from his cousin Jay and decided he wanted to experience life as a short-term volunteer. He came for two summers in 2004 and 2005, for about a month each time.
He stayed with Jose and Teresa Jimenez, who continue to serve the families of recyclers through ER’s Quito Dump Program. They are highly regarded for their compassion and expertise in counseling, mentoring, nourishment and training women and men in life skills.
“I went to Quito to get out of my comfort zone and serve at the Dump Daycare (renamed the Child Development Center). I mostly cared for the kids at the daycare. I got to help build things that were needed at the daycare and help with other projects at ER.
“I also got to participate in a couple projects that helped impoverished Quito families. I went wherever ER needed me. It was a mountain top experience and Jose and Teresa treated me just like family,” he added.
During his time in Quito, David was working as the Student Coordinator at Semester in Spain, an international school, where he worked for five years. He had summers off, which allowed him to travel to Quito for his volunteer stints.
After his time in Spain ended, David returned home to Portland, Oregon, fluent in Spanish. He had to figure out what to do with his life. He realized his experience with language and culture was in great demand.
“I loved interpreting, connecting people of different cultures. I saw there was a huge opportunity in the U.S. for these skills. I started working full time as an interpreter.
“Over time, I realized there was a better way to provide language services. Many of the interpreters were being treated poorly. I had a vision for how a company could succeed and treat employees well.”
So in 2010, with the help of his family and friends, David launched Linguava and started knocking on doors.
“We grew a little each month. It took a lot of recruiting to find the right people. I had to do a lot of networking. We encountered plenty of growing pains, but today we offer interpreting services in 150 languages.
“My game plan going in was and still remains to put people first and create above and beyond experiences for all stakeholders. I knew we would be a full service agency – meaning provide in-person, telephonic, and video relay interpretation and document translation. Each segment has its own certifications and requirements.”
Today Linguava is thriving and enjoys a positive culture among the staff. This success led David, Linguava’s president, to contemplate what to do next.
“I remembered the quote from Tony Robbins, ‘The secret to living is giving’. That concept has really impacted my heart.
“What is going to be really fulfilling for me is touching as many lives as possible to give back. I feel like God is blessing me with a lot of resources and I want to use them to help others.
“I’m still figuring out what this means. I’m starting with making a commitment to incorporate charitable contributions into our business model. I shared the vision with my staff that we would help fund ER projects around the world and slowly build our investment.
“One day, we hope to send some of our staff to see these projects that we’ve helped fund.”
Click here to visit the Linquava Website.
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Madison Teaches Dream Center Kids To Swim
(Feb. 27, 2017)
Madison Drescher is a recent graduate of the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, with a Bachelor of Arts, Honors degree in International Development. She is serving as a short-term volunteer with Extreme Response in Fish Hoek, South Africa. Here she shares about a unique opportunity she’s enjoying at ER’s Dream Center.
The Extreme Response Dream Center has helped change the lives of South African children in a variety of creative ways. In addition to providing a safe after-school tutoring and homework help program to children in the Cape Town suburb of Fish Hoek, the Dream Center has taken kids on a safari drive, given music lessons and offered the opportunity to join a running club.
As a volunteer with Extreme Response, I have been blessed to be part of this creative work by teaching 15 Dream Center kids to swim. I first heard about Extreme Response through a family friend and was drawn to the idea of going to South Africa. I had always dreamed of visiting Africa, so when I heard about a possible internship in South Africa, it seemed like the perfect fit for me.
Working at the Extreme Response Dream Center truly has been a life-changing experience. The kids who attend the after-school program have changed my life. They are amazing children, and I feel blessed to be able to work alongside them.
I’m also working at Victory Kids, a pre-school operated by ER partner ATAIM. Victory Kids is located on the same property as the Dream Center. I work at the Dream Center Monday to Friday in the afternoons, and at Victory Kids Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning. I assist the kids with homework, feed them, help deliver daily devotions, and of course play with them.
Back home in Ontario, I am a lifeguard and swimming instructor. I have been teaching for seven years and my experience includes instruction in the Red Cross Swim Kids program. I’ve always had a passion for swimming and educating people on the importance of water safety.
It’s especially important for children to learn how to be safe around the water, and with Fish Hoek situated on a bay, it made perfect sense to introduce swimming to the Dream Center kids. Some of them have never had the opportunity to learn any basic swimming skills, even though they live extremely close to the water.
We’re working on things like front and back glides, front and back floats, front crawls, back crawls, treading water, and much more. Although I’ve only been teaching them for a few weeks, I can already see a huge difference in their skill level. I find great pleasure when I see a child gain comfort in the water.
Being in South Africa is an amazing experience! I am having the time of my life, and I know it will be extremely hard for me to leave here without tears in my eyes. I have made lifelong friends and created relationships I hope will last forever.
I know I will return, and I hope to return and see how much the children at the Dream Center have improved. I can honestly say I am already planning my next adventure here.
Click here to learn more about ER’s South Africa Dream Center.
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Short-Term Volunteer Invents ‘The Shoe That Grows’
By Tim Fausch, ER Communications
(July 15, 2017)
After graduating from college, Kenton Lee thought he might become a missionary. He wanted to help people, especially kids, and set out on a journey to discover his life course.
Having grown up in the small town of Nampa, Idaho, Kenton, did not have much experience with international travel and different cultures. He was searching for his next steps and found out about Extreme Response’s short-term volunteer program.
Kenton volunteered to serve with ER in Quito, Ecuador in 2007 and lived with a host family for several months. While in Quito, he helped with some short-term teams and served at ER partner Pan de Vida.
“I went to Ecuador fresh out of college,” Kenton shared. “It was a fantastic experience. I had never been in an international city as big as Quito. I saw people from all classes, including lower income people who were struggling for food, clothes and shelter. It was eye-opening. Getting to know these people personally had a big impact on me.
“I felt so supported at ER. It was well-run and had a direct impact on me. ER was doing it right and I knew that I wanted any organization I joined to be similar to ER. I couldn’t ask for a better experience.”
A few weeks after his time with ER ended, Kenton traveled to Kenya to live and serve at an orphanage with 140 kids. A month into his tenure, he had an a defining moment that would lead to inventing The Shoe That Grows.
“We were walking to church one Sunday morning. I’ll never forget this one little girl. She was wearing a white dress. I looked down and couldn’t believe how small her shoes were. The front of her shoes were cut open to let her toes out.
“This really bugged me. It was a very poor village in a poor country. I saw many other kids with shoes that didn’t fit, or no shoes at all.
“So I asked one of the leaders why the kids didn’t have shoes that fit. He said they had received donated shoes a year earlier, but the kids had outgrown them. That was the problem – kids always keep growing.
“That’s when I first thought about developing a shoe that could grow with the kids. I wrote it in my journal that night.”
Kenton spent four months in Kenya before returning to the U.S.
“When I got home, I realized I could not become a missionary. I missed Idaho way too much. But I wanted to help and thought, ‘what can I do from Nampa?’
“I read my journal and found my entry on the shoes. I grabbed some friends and shared what I had seen. We decided to create a structure to get the shoes produced and launched Because International in 2009.
“We spent most of the next five years failing and struggling. We tried to give the idea away. We approached all the shoe companies. Everyone said ‘no’.
“So we tried to produce it ourselves. We made some really terrible prototypes. Fortunately, we found a small shoe company in Portland and they produced a good prototype after about one year later.
“We went back to Kenya with about 100 of the prototypes and distributed them at four schools and had the kids test them for a year. After getting their feedback we produced our first run of 3,000 shoes in October 2014.
“We had a story written about us that went viral. In one day, I got about 2,000 emails and 500 phone calls. People wanted to know how they could get the shoes or volunteer with us. It was an overwhelming, crazy couple of months. We received a lot of donations which positioned us to expand our team to six people.”
Fast forward to today. The shoes are proving to be durable. They are made of compressed rubber similar to tires and a high-quality synthetic leather. The design is purposely simple and functional.
With the shoes functioning well, Kenton, now 32, and the team at Because International have expanded their vision, including setting up manufacturing in Ethiopia and soon in Haiti, plus creating new products.
“The shoes are doing great. They make a big difference in protecting kids’s feet, helping them be healthy, confident and stay in school. It’s a small thing that makes a big difference in kids’ lives. We’ve now produced 100,000 pairs and they are in 89 countries.
“There are 300 million kids without shoes in the world. We plan to take a bite out of that number. We are working to produce the shoes in factories in the countries where they are distributed in order to bring jobs in production, warehousing and distribution.”
Because International’s vision is expanding to meet other health needs found in developing countries. They are now testing a prototype mosquito net called “Bednet Buddy” to help prevent malaria in three African countries. They are targeting late 2017 to make it available.
ER is pleased to have played a small role in Kenton’s journey and we are hoping to work together. We plan to test the shoes this year with some of the kids we serve through our partners and projects.
“Kenton had an impact when he served with us in Ecuador,” said ER president/CEO Jerry Carnill. “He recently shared with us how ER staff and those we serve impacted his life.
“We will be taking several pair of The Shoe That Grows with us to Kenya,” he added. “We are excited to work with Kenton and his team to provide shoes to kids across our regions.”
Because International is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and partners with other organizations to get shoes into developing countries. They provide shoes and ship groups of 50 in big duffle bags.
Learn more at TheShoeThatGrows.org and on Facebook.
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Unfinished Business: Visit Inspires Olivia to Return
(Jan. 26, 2016)
Olivia Hoppen was part of a team from Muskegon, Michigan that served with ER South Africa in May 2015. Her experience was so profound, she plans to return for a month-long internship this spring. She shares her story here:
When people ask me about my time with Extreme Response in South Africa, I can’t help beaming with joy. From the moment I got an email out of the blue about joining the team, to the moment I got home, it was clear that I was meant to have this experience.
My team had the opportunity to work with several ER partners while we were there. We toured the Cape Town Aquarium with African Hope Trust, spent our mornings painting and playing with children at Victory Kids, and in the afternoons helped run sports camps alongside ER staff and life skills educators from Living Hope.
I have countless stories from my time in South Africa, but one that sticks out the most comes from the sports camp in Masiphumelele Township. Because of my lack of soccer skills, I worked with the preschool group. The first day of camp we had about 25 kids; by the last day we had around 130 – talk about overwhelming!
Since these kids were too young for school, only a few of them understood English, but they were still excited about our time together. We sang simple songs, which they quickly learned. During this time, one little boy caught my eye. I reached out to make friends with him, but whenever I looked the other way, he would wander off by himself. I grew to love this little boy even though he was a bit of a troublemaker,
On the next-to-last day of camp, one of the ladies who works with these kids every day told me his primary caretaker at home is his 6-year-old sister (who also attended the camp). Though I was heartbroken to learn this, I had peace knowing that through Extreme Response and Living Hope he is being loved and has some of his basic needs met.
Even before I left South Africa, I knew my time there would not be enough. I had fallen in love with South Africa and knew I would leave part of my heart there. I immediately started talking to ER’s Lindsey Fisher about the possibility of returning, and eventually the opportunity arose to go back as an intern for the month of May. Primarily, I’ll be working with Victory Kids and the ER South Africa Dream Center.
I couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity because it is something I feel very called to do. Because I’m majoring in social work and minoring in youth ministry, I also see this internship as an opportunity to further discern what my future entails. I am so grateful to Extreme Response for this opportunity to serve!
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Short-Term Volunteer Continues Investing in Dream Center Kids
By Amy Townsend, ER Dream Center
(July 28, 2017)
Three years ago, Olivia Hoppen from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, traveled to South Africa with a team to serve ER’s South African partners.
Victory Kids greatly benefited from their work, which included
painting and spending time with the children. As the team left, Olivia remembers thinking she would one day return. She did just that, as a short-term volunteer, each of the past two years.
And Olivia’s commitment to Victory Kids, the adjacent Dream Center and the children of South Africa is not limited to her time on the ground in South Africa. It’s demonstrated throughout the year as she, her friends and her family provides monthly funding for children at the Dream Center.
She writes: “I cared deeply for Chris the first time I saw his beaming smile and bright eyes on my first trip to South Africa. Every morning when my team would arrive at Victory Kids, he was the first one to run up and give me the biggest hug. As the week went on, I got to know slivers of his story and all that he has been through, yet he remained to be so joyful.
“My connection to Chris has grown through subsequent trips to South Africa. My family started sponsoring him after the first trip because I could not stop thinking about this little boy. He is also one of the only kids who has remembered me from year to year, and I am sure that is because I try to spend intentional time with him while I am there.
“This past year I had the amazing opportunity to work with him one on one each day at the Dream Center. He had fallen behind in school, particularly in reading. When we first started he could only recognize about half the letters of the alphabet, but by the end of our month together he was reading three and four letter words. Seeing the pride he had in how far he came made every minute so worth it.”
Olivia has seen first hand the day-to-day workings of Victory Kids and the Dream Center.
After serving in 2016, Olivia continued to look for ways to serve. We were simply amazed to receive an email from her around Christmas time. She and her boyfriend had decided that instead of giving each other Christmas gifts, they donated money to for Dream center kids.
Olivia puts it into perspective: “The choice to sponsor both Chris and Krisalyn was easy for me. The Dream Center kids are truly amazing and deserve every possible opportunity that Extreme Response tries to provide to them through the Dream Center. Unlike many other sponsorship programs, I know exactly where our money is going and all of the good that is being done with it.
“It is also so cool to receive updates about them, whether through the Facebook page or ER staff members. I have seen these kids grow and flourish over my three years. When I think about it, I waste way more money on things that I don’t need. Giving up some of those things to be able to provide opportunities for these kids is beyond worth it.”
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ER Intern Captured by the Land and People of Her Heritage
By Allen Allnoch, ER Staff Writer
(May 24, 2016)
Tonya Williams’ father always hoped that his children would one day visit the Philippines. His own father was from Turburan in the Cebu province, and he wanted Tonya to experience “The Land of our People,” as he called it.
Santos Talaugon passed away in 2001, but his daughter has fulfilled his wish twice over, including a two-week ER internship in February. And she hopes to again make the long trip from her home in Santa Maria, California.
“My father was very proud of his heritage,” Tonya recalls. “As I grew up, I remember all the stories he would tell about how his dad grew up in the beautiful land of Cebu. There was never any talk of hardship, poverty or anything negative about his homeland.”
Two of Tonya’s friends, Terri Ramos and Ruth Arteaga, introduced her to ER. After hearing ER Asia’s Joshua Benavidez speak during a visit to California in 2014, she joined the Manila Christmas Team, with whom she helped host six Christmas celebrations and serve more than 800 people.
“One of the bonuses is that I went on my first ER trip with my best friend [Ramos], to a place that would capture my heart,” she says.
The trip impacted her so much, she knew she had to spend more time in the Philippines. Her recent visit was based around Makati, one of 16 cities that make up Metro Manila. There she served with a handful of ER programs, partners and friends, including the Manila Children’s Home, the Golden Hands Livelihood Educational Program, Youth Mobilization, IBIKE Ministries and There Is Hope.
Tonya’s work ranged from assisting with various children’s programs to teaching ladies at Golden Hands how to sew aprons.
“This trip was different than the Christmas parties,” she notes. “I was directly involved with the day-to-day operations of each partner, and was able to connect with the team members on a personal level. It was truly a blessing to see each leader’s passion and heart for their communities, and to show love to all they come in contact with.”
She also attended ER Asia staff meetings and came away more impressed than ever with Joshua Benavidez and his wife, Ann. “They are strong leaders with a passion to raise up strong team members,” she says. “The respect from their team members is impressive. All of the staff at Asia ER is excellent at what they do. They strive to be better and have a passion to [impact] as many people as they can.”
Tonya came home filled with fond memories, such as the last day of her stay, when she finished out her assignment with IBIKE Ministries.
“We were walking back to the office, blasting music and laughing and goofing off right in the middle of the day,” she says. “Then we finished the day with a home-cooked meal and all ate with our fingers. We had a great time, and although most of them did not understand a word I was saying, they all were so loving and welcoming to me, I felt like I was part of the family.”
Such memories and hospitality already have Tonya yearning for a return to “The Land of Our People.”
“I fell in love with the people, the land and the work,” she says. “Each time I go, I leave a little bit of my heart there. I have gained many friends and now have a connection that will last a lifetime. My father would be pleased.”
Does Tonya’s trip spark an interest in short-term volunteering? If so, click here to learn how you can help make an impact in extreme circumstances.