At a glance
- This is a volunteer opportunity with Projects Abroad. Devxchange will assist you in choosing the right fit, raising funds with your own campaign page, issuing tax receipts to donors if project meets CRA criteria as a charitable activity. Devxchange will also assist you in onboarding with Projects Abroad.
- Work at a center for street children
- Help with education, vocational training, and family reintegration projects
- You’ll live with a local host family who will welcome you with open arms; this will be your home away from home.
Details
- Running educational workshops for groups of street children
- Learning about child and family counselling
- Leading fun activities with children, such as sports, dancing, or arts and crafts
Includes/Excludes
Food and Accomodation
- Food (three meals a day)
- Airport pick-up and drop-off
- Full induction and orientation by an experienced staff member on arrival
- Transport to and from your work placement
- In-country support and 24-hour back-up from our team of full-time local staff
- Emergency assistance from our international emergency response team
- Project equipment and materials, including access to our database with thousands of resources
- Training and workshops from our experienced local staff
- Regular social events and community activities with other volunteers and interns
- Access to our local office with internet connection
- Certification of project completion
- Access to our alumni services and discounts
- Visa support and advice
- Fundraising support, including your own personalized fundraising website with DevXchange
- Tax Receipts for your donors if activity meets CRA criteria for charitable activity.
- Pre-departure preparation by your own specialist Volunteer Advisor
- Personalized MyProjectsAbroad website, with all the information you need about your project, accommodation and destination
- A free cultural awareness course
- Membership to our volunteer social media groups, to share information and to get in touch
- Support to help you complete registration or internship documents, if applicable
Not Included
- Flights
- Visa Costs (where applicable)
- 10% Admin fee for donations involving tax receipts.
Itinerary
This project is perfect for you if you are passionate about working with children and helping communities. Togo has a large number of street children, and lacks structured programmes to help them. On this project you’ll work at an NGO specialising in helping these street children.
You’ll gain practical experience of working with children aged 6-17, which could help your future career. It’s also the perfect project to help you develop important life skills such as teamwork, leadership, and planning.
Our Childcare Project in Togo runs throughout the year and you can join at any time from a minimum of two weeks. However, we do encourage you to stay longer, so you can have a bigger impact on the children you work with.
You’ll work at the street children’s center from Monday to Friday, with your weekends free. Your placement will start around 8 am each day. Therefore, you’ll be up early, starting with breakfast at your host family. This communal meal will be a great way to get prepared for a busy day ahead and catch up with your fellow housemates.
Mornings at the placement will normally start with an educational workshop. You’ll have planned this the previous day and will be able to deliver the workshop alongside the local staff. You’ll teach the children about a wide range of issues, especially focusing on COVID-19 awareness and prevention.
After a short break, you’ll then get involved in the family reintegration work in which the center specializes. This could involve taking notes at an interview or joining a home visit.
After a packed lunch provided by your host family, it will be on to the afternoon session. This will be an opportunity for you to get creative and lead fun activities for the children. Sports are always popular, as well as singing and dancing.
You’ll finish your working day by planning for the next morning’s session. Then it will be time to head home for dinner at your host family.
The aim of this project is to provide sustainable educational support, care and protection to disadvantaged children and vulnerable groups. Through this we aim to enhance their physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development.
We work with a center for street children that aims to look after children and where possible reintegrate them back into family life.
As laid out in our Childcare Management Plan for Togo, we’ve identified the following sustainable goals we hope to achieve with our volunteer childcare project in Togo:
- Improve hygiene levels
- Increase emotional support and care
- Improve the quality of life for street children and abandoned children
Help us achieve these long-term goals by joining us as a Childcare volunteer in Togo.
Food and Accomodation
You’ll stay with a local host family in Lomé, Togo’s capital city. Togolese families are famous for their generous hospitality, and pride in their home country. You’ll be able to get to know your new host family, learning about their history and culture, as well as sharing your own.
Your host family will provide you with breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. Togo is famous for its delicious cuisine, so you’ll be able to sample lots of traditional dishes, as well as a few Western meals too! If you’re interested in food and cooking, you might even be able to help cook some dishes, learning some tips and tricks from your host family.
We will always try to let you live alongside at least one other Projects Abroad volunteer or intern at the same host family. Your room will be modest, but comfortable, clean, and safe.
Find out more about our accommodation.
Free time and leisure activities
You’ll work Monday to Friday and have your evenings and weekends free. You’ll be living with other volunteers and interns, so there will be plenty of people to socialise with in your free time!
There’s so much to do in Togo, from a shopping trip to one of Lomé’s traditional markets, to sunbathing on beautiful sandy beaches.
If you’re a keen foodie, you’re sure to enjoy sampling some of West Africa’s best cuisine. There are plenty of restaurants to try, but also a huge array of exciting street food vendors too.
If you’d like to travel even further afield, you could also arrange a trip to nearby Ghana or Benin. Many of our volunteers and interns plan some extra travel time at the end of their project, so that they can take longer to explore nearby countries.
