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Helping Hands Primary School, Nigeria

Helping Hands Primary School in the village of Mbukwa is situated in a poor area of Abia State, Nigeria. The school is looking for people of graduate level (not necessarily trained teachers) willing to volunteer for 3 to 9 months, to help with English, Maths, and Creative Arts.

The average class sizes is 25 - 30 and there are single classes for three nursery years and six primary years. Oldest children are aged 12 - 13. All teaching is in English. There are few resources (mainly text books for teachers and some posters) and a small library, but most teaching will be "chalk and talk". The head teacher is a deaconess of the local Methodist church. The standard of teachers’ English varies considerably, though most are local graduates or locally trained teachers. The school day is 8:00am to 1:30pm and there will be opportunity do get involved in the life of other local projects if desired. The rest of the Amaudo project assists the mentally ill and those with learning difficulties - though the children in the school are from the local villages and not connected with the Amaudo project. Accommodation for teachers is available at one of their project centres (Amaudo 2) about 30 minutes away by minibus, where the head teacher also lives. Transport will be available on a daily basis.

The school is for local village children and is run to serve local people, partly in recognition for the grant of land given by the local community leaders to the Amaudo project. The school year is much the same as in the UK so they are looking for people who can offer a minimum of one academic term but particularly for those who could offer six months or more. One issue maybe that of visas - a three-month visa is easily obtained and this can usually be extended to six, beyond that it may be necessary to leave Nigeria and return. Volunteers generally have to enter on visitors' visas (acceptable as no salary is involved) as work permits take many months to acquire.

Religious faith is not a requirement, but since school and project are Nigerian Methodist church institutions it is essential that teachers can accept local patterns of worship.

Volunteers must:

• be adaptable and sensitive to the local culture

• have patience in dealing with children who are learning in a second language, and also with staff whose experience of the world and knowledge of English is limited

• at your accommodation be able to cope with recovering mentally ill residents, whose social skills are not always perfect

• be inventive in dealing with poor resources

• fit in with local leadership styles

In return you will receive an incredibly warm welcome, friendship and gratitude from children and the community as well as an experience of unique projects and of a part of Africa very different from that offered by many short term programmes. The project is putting together a new welcome pack for volunteers which will help people to adjust and provide back-up when needed.

Accommodation is provided in a three room guesthouse at Amaudo 2 (it has a central living room and a bedroom each side). It is possible therefore to accommodate a married couple or two people of the same sex. The rooms are screened against insects and mosquito nets are provided. Electricity is available in the evening, usually until about 10:00pm. A simple bathroom (buckets of water) and a pit latrine are in a block behind the house. These would not be used by other residents. Basic food is available free at the centre, but it varies very little and supplements might be needed for variety (and roughage, depending on the season). The food is very basic! You will need to clean your rooms, wash your own clothes (though could pay someone to do it) and generally look after yourself. Water is safe - pumped from a borehole. Malaria is endemic and proper precautions need to be taken. Advice of all these matters is available from us.

Terms and Conditions

We will not be the 'employer but act as the agent between the requesting project and interested volunteers. This is a voluntary placement supervised by the senior person at each place from whom tasks will be delegated. Should there be any questions or disagreement these will be sorted out on the spot through negotiation with the current administrator of the projects who is a 'Lay professional' of the UK Methodist Church, interviewed and selected on their behalf by us.

Contact
If you are interested in this opportunity and would like to know more contact us.

Look at our volunteer terms and conditions in how it works

We can also help you with...

Tickets and Visas especially if you can’t get to the Embassies and High Commissions in London. We use a travel agent that gives its profits to development work.
Travel and Health Insurance
National Insurance
Briefing or De-briefing