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  1. A brief encounter with 'voluntourism'

    posted by Colm Hanratty | 1 Comments

    A brief encounter with 'voluntourism'

    Feb092010

    Upon return to Cape Town yesterday I attempted to help ‘give something back’ to the community. 'The Backpack' where I’m staying run a community project in Heidveid, one of the townships here. I couldn’t go out for the entire day unfortunately, but I did manage to make it out by around 4pm to get enough footage for the “10 things video” which will be on the site soon.

    If you’re coming to Cape Town and you want to get involved in a community project, you should stay in The Backpack, Ashanti Lodge, or Salty Crax Backpackers. If you don’t want to stay in one of these hostels for one reason or another, or they’ve no availability, don’t fret. Contact them when you’re in Cape Town and you’ll be able to go along on their project for the day.

    While I didn’t go out for the entire day with The Backpack's community project, I do know what most of the day entails. You start off with a walking tour of Bo Kaap, one of Cape Town’s most fascinating neighbourhoods. From here you go into Downtown Cape Town for your lunch. Then after that it’s out to the school in the township where you meet the children and help out for the afternoon.

    For the little time I was out there yesterday, I could see that you really can make a difference. Hopefully the video will make a difference and people will begin to volunteer more after watching it. Time will tell. But if you want to make a difference, sign up when you’re here.

  2. 1 Comment so far.

    Nikita Kondraskov said on 09/02/2010 at 6:53pm

    “ Great way to spend a Holiday !

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