Volunteer Work Overseas – KNAN1
This project, Volunteer Work Overseas, will have you working with 60 children in Nanyuki, Kenya. You can do counselling, helping with homework, gardening, conduct building repairs, and coordinating sports activities. Additionally there is a need for counsellors and social workers at this project. Nanyuki is about 3 hours drive from Nairobi and near Mount Kenya and several wildlife parks.
Orphaned and neglected children, aged 4 – 17, live here. This home started as a soup kitchen by UNICEF and was previously known as Laikipia Rehabilitation and Rescue Centre. The Municipal council gives some support through children’s services, although they need donations for school fees. The goal is to rehabilitate the kids and then send them back to their own home or to the homes of other family members.
Volunteer Work:
- Assisting the children with homework
- Counselling
- Painting, building and repairs
- Coordinating sports activities for the children
- Teaching skills and crafts
- Gardening
Kenya School Terms (approximate):
- 23 Jan – 21 April
- 8 May – 11 August
- 28 August – 3 November
Itinerary
Day 1
Arrive today at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. You can buy your visas upon arrival at immigration; please have US, GBP or Euro to pay for this (approximately $50). Once you have your luggage, and have gone through the exit door, you will see your driver holding a sign with your name on it.
There are ATM machines at the airport so you can withdraw some local currency. 10,000 Kenya shillings is approximately $125 US.
On your drive to Nanyuki, you may ask the driver to stop along the way so you can buy some drinking water or snacks as the ride is about 3 hours long. You will be taken to the homestay where you can meet your hosts, have dinner and get settled a bit before going to the orphanage. Breakfasts and dinners will be at your homestay each day.
Days 2+
After breakfast, your homestay hosts will transport you to the orphanage. You will meet with the manager, who will welcome you and explain current volunteer needs to determine where you can best spend your time. You can arrange with him what times work best for you for you for your volunteering. Weekends are yours to decide if you want to work or take some time off, to enjoy the local area or explore the town. You will have lunch each day at the orphanage while working. Breakfast and dinner is served at your homestay each day.
Last Day Depart
Today you will be returned to Nairobi’s airport or to a hotel. Your pickup time can be arranged with the driver to depart 5 – 6 hours before departure of your flight. You can save time by checking in on-line ahead of time. Nairobi’s airport has many shops, but not much in the way of restaurants, so a good idea is to pick up water and snacks.
About Nanyuki
Nanyuki is a town situated northwest of Mount Kenya and is used as a base for climbing the mountain’s Sirimon and Burguret routes. The equator passes through this small trading town, and the town boasts the cleanest water in the country as it flows down from Mt.Kenya. Nanyuki is very near major parks such as Mount Kenya National Park, Lewa, Ol Pejeta (Sweetwaters) Samburu and Shaba.
The town is the market center for farms, ranches, game parks and wildlife conservancies in the region. It’s also the base for people seeking to climb Mount Kenya, the most famous landmark in the country. Nanyuki has some of the cleanest water in Kenya since the water supply source is a river on Mt.Kenya.
Nanyuki can be reached by air with regular service by Air Kenya.
Excursions
- If you wish to do any additional excursions on the weekends, or before or after you do your volunteer work, we can arrange for you.
- Treks on Mount Kenya can be arranged, either as a short day hike or the more adventurous full technical climb for 8 days.
- Aberdare National Park – visit for a day or overnight, staying at The Ark, allowing you to watch animals drinking in a waterhole from the deck of the hotel.
- Visit any of the parks below on a day trip or by adding on a few extra days to your volunteer program
Kenya Parks Nearby
Aberdare National Park
Between 2 mountain peaks is a plateau of moorland. The eastern slopes are relatively gentle and are therefore attract more animals. This park offers variety of flora and fauna not found elsewhere. The high altitude of Aberdares National Park makes the park different to the typical savannah of most Kenyan parks and creates a cool alternative to the traveler.
The forest is rich in wildlife. Elephants and buffalo dominate. You may also see black rhino, giant forest hog, black serval cats and the rare black leopard. The Aberdares also form a respite for the endangered eastern race of bongo, an outsized forest antelope.
Other wildlife consist of eland, waterbuck, bushbuck, reedbuck, duikers, suni, bushpig, warthog, lion, Syke’s monkey and hyena in varying numbers.
Lewa Conservancy
Spanning 62,000 acres, Lewa is home to over 10 percent of Kenya’s black rhino population, over 14 percent of Kenya’s white rhino population and the world’s largest single population of Grevy’s zebra.
As the plight of the black rhino became desperate in Africa, the ranch was converted into the Ngare Sergoi Rhino Sanctuary. With the enthusiastic support and funding of co-founder, Anna Merz, the sanctuary operated for more than 10 years. Then in 1995 Lewa Wildlife Conservancy was established as a not-for-profit organization.
- Monitoring and protecting endangered species and habitat
- Ensuring conservation directly benefits communities through education, healthcare, enterprise and water development
- Financing conservation by combining tourism and carefully focused donor support
- Supporting the government with wildlife translocation, veterinary intervention and armed anti-poaching teams across northern Kenya
- Lewa is home to over 350 species of bird and 70 mammal species, including the Big Five
- 68 black rhino are monitored on a daily basis by highly qualified rangers
- About 370 Grevy’s zebra live freely on the conservancy
Mount Kenya National Park
Mount Kenya is the country’s highest mountain and second highest in Africa. Sitting astride the equator its icy summit reaches to 5199 meters (17,058 feet). The entire mountain above the 3200-meter contour forms a national park. Many rivers flow from the perpetual snows of Mount Kenya, among them the mighty Tana River, Kenya’s largest and longest river and source of much of Kenya’s electricity supply.
Most visitors are content to marvel at the mountain’s beauty but some will want to attempt to reach the peaks; a feat requiring considerable rock climbing skill. But the mountain’s lesser peaks and glaciers can be scaled and walked by the fit and the adventurous. The best months are January and February and late August through September. For those who wish to savour the mountain air, the glorious views and the peace and tranquility, which emanate from the mountain, there are many hotels around the foothills among them the famed Mount Kenya Safari Club.
Ol Pejeta Conservancy
Ol Pejeta Conservancy is a 90,000-acre (360 km2) not-for-profit wildlife conservancy in the Laikipia District of central Kenya. It is situated on the equator west of Nanyuki, between the foothills of the Aberdares Mountains and Mount Kenya. All 5 members of the ‘big five’ can be found on the Ol Pejeta Conservancy; lion, buffalo, elephant, leopard and rhino. The Ol Pejeta Conservancy works to conserve wildlife, provide Kenya’s only sanctuary for chimpanzees, and boasts the largest sanctuary for black rhinos in East Africa.
Cheetah, hippo, giraffe, baboon, patas monkey, aardvark, impala and eland are among the many more common African animals that can be found on the Conservancy. Some other rarer animals include; Jackson’s hartebeest, Grevy’s zebra, hyena, serval cat, African wild dog and the bat-eared fox. There are also over 300 bird species on the conservancy.
