Livingstone Sports and Community Development

Please Note: This program is temporarily unavailable. Check out our alternative programs in Africa or schedule a one-on-one call with one of our expert volunteer advisors.

If you ever wanted to spend your days playing football, netball and cricket while making a positive contribution to the community, then this is the project for you. If that wasn’t enough, then spending the weekends bungee jumping and white water rafting will surely make the trip to Zambia worth it.

Program Highlights:

Improve the lives of underprivileged kids by playing sports with them and gain experience in coaching at the same time
Immerse yourself in the community and help empower and influence all ages with a sense of self-worth and development
Teach students valuable life-skills lessons in teamwork, communication, nutrition, hygiene, etc.
Live only 7km away from Victoria Falls, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World
For the adrenaline junkies, the mighty Zambezi River and Victoria Falls offer endless adventure activities, such as helicopter rides, white water rafting and bungee jumping off the famous bridge!

Your Schedule at a Glance (Minimum two-week commitment):

Arrival Day, Monday: Arrive at Livingstone International Airport (LVI). You will be picked up at the airport and taken to your accommodation in Livingstone. Take some time to rest and meet the other volunteers.

Day 1, Tuesday: Start your volunteer experience by teaching kids the importance of physical education (PE) through both theoretical and practical classes. In the afternoon, join the after school club or help adults improve their literacy skills.

Day 2, Wednesday: In the morning you will help communities set up sustainable farming programs and provide assistance preparing the land, planting, watering, weeding and harvesting, before going back to school to assist with PE classes.

Day 3, Thursday: Today you will participate in a health education talk at a local school, and then head back to assist with PE classes.

Day 4, Friday: Engage with the kids for the last time this week in morning PE classes, and then join the math or art club.

Days 5-6, Saturday-Sunday: Your weekend is free for you to release some energy as you take advantage of Zambia’s adrenaline filled activities such as bungee jumping and white water rafting.

Day 7, Monday: Start the new week by seeing the kids again in PE classes, before spending your afternoon volunteering at a local elder’s home or joining the math club.

Remaining Weeks: The remaining weeks will follow a similar schedule of volunteering Monday-Friday and having Saturday-Sunday off. Use your weekends to take day trips to Victoria Falls, go on boat cruises on the Zambezi River or take a safari through the Chobe National Park. Departures are on Monday.

Location of the Project: Livingstone, Zambia

Project length: Min 2 weeks – Max 12 weeks

Arrival Airport: Livingstone International Airport (LVI)

Volunteer Work: Work with children, sports coaching, community development

Age: 18-80 (This project will consider volunteers who are 17 years old with a letter of consent from a parent or guardian)

Number of Volunteers: 10 international volunteers

Important Note: Volunteers staying longer than 30 days will need to apply for a “temporary employment permit.” This costs approximately $250 USD to be paid upon arrival in Zambia. You must be at least 21 years old to be eligible for this visa. High school diploma is required for all volunteers staying longer than 4 weeks.

What’s Included

Accommodations: Shared lodge rooms

Food: Three meals per day (excluding weekends)

Airport Transfers: Airport transfers are included on both arrival and departure days

Orientation: All necessary project introductions will be provided upon arrival.

Support: Comprehensive and professional pre-departure travel guidance, 24/7 GoEco emergency hotline, experienced local field team.

What’s not Included

Flights, visas (approx. $50 USD), travel health insurance, weekend meals, personal expenses

Location

Travel to Zambia and experience firsthand the authentic African culture and eye-opening lifestyle of native Zambians. Zambia is Africa’s most urbanized country, with a huge percentage of the population localized in just a few urban centers scattered throughout the country. These densely packed regions often suffer from extreme poverty, unemployment, HIV/AIDS, and illiteracy.

This project takes place in Livingstone, a town located in the Southern Province of Zambia and directly next to the famous Victoria Falls. Livingstone has a history of economic instability due to its proximity to the Zimbabwean border and restrictive regulations on trade in the past. However, Livingstone is now slowly emerging as a lively town with modern restaurants, shopping, hotels, and theaters.

Volunteer Work

This project consists of the following possible morning activities:

Physical education in schools: Here you will spend your mornings in schools throughout the community teaching physical education to students. You will be provided with a curriculum book for lesson planning and will be teaching both practical and theoretical skills of physical education. You will be encouraged to use your creative side in planning and leading fun and educational games and activities for the children during their designated physical education time.
Training teams: The Livingstone community organizes several all-boys community soccer and rugby teams that enable boys of all ages, whether or not they are in school, to feel part of a team. As a volunteer, you will help the coaches run practices and games and will contribute any skills and experience you have to the training teams, both on and off the field.

Keep in mind that although your schedule is determined by one of the above projects, our volunteer coordinators are always flexible and appreciate volunteers who come with their own unique experiences and skill sets. If you have something else in mind you would like to work towards, let us know and we will do our best to provide you with tasks that will be meaningful and relevant for you, as well as exciting for the kids.

After your morning sports activities, you will have the option to participate in other community development projects throughout the area. These include:

Building and construction projects: You will be building classrooms for childhood education initiatives.
Farming: Help the community work towards self-sufficiency by working on a sustainable farming initiative.
Reading club: Help children after school with reading and literacy.
Art club: Plan your own arts-and-crafts projects to nurture creativity.
Adult literacy club: Help young adults in the community improve their literacy and ultimately find employment.
Senior living home: Assist the staff in providing care for people without families to look after them.
Afterschool clubs: Play with preschool-aged children after school.

A typical day: After breakfast, your work day begins at 7:45 am at one of the morning projects. After a one-hour lunch break at 11:15 am, you will take part in one of the afternoon community projects until 5:00 pm, when you will be taken back to the volunteer house for dinner. Evenings and weekends are free and can be spent as you wish.

Important Dates: As we work within local communities, our projects are affected by the school terms. Local partners take time off to spend with their families on public holidays and our school/education-based programs are structured slightly differently during the school and exam holidays. Some of our projects may be put on hold whilst the kids are on leave, but there is no shortage of important and rewarding community work to be done here.

School Terms: Please inquire about specific dates.

During the last 3 weeks of December, this project becomes a special Christmas project. Volunteer activities are similar, but take on an additional holiday theme.

Living Arrangements

Internet icon Internet: WiFi is available at the complex for small fee.

Laundry icon Laundry: Laundry services are available for about $4 USD per load

Accommodations icon Accommodations: Volunteers will sleep in same-sex, shared rooms (for 6-8 people) in a large, comfortable, and secure volunteer complex located just a 5 minute walk from Livingstone’s town center. Bed linens are provided (but please bring your own towel), a lockable cupboard is available in each room to store your valuables (please bring your own padlock), and a daily cleaning service is included as well. The complex provides great social opportunities with other volunteers as it can house up to 87 people total and contains a dining area, bar, T.V. lounge, resource center, swimming pool, large garden, and a rock climbing wall.

Food icon Food: Three meals a day are provided during the work week. Breakfast is on a help-yourself basis and includes cereals, toasts, coffee, and tea. Lunch and dinner are full meals prepared by the staff cook. Meals are not provided on the weekends, so this is a great time to go out and explore the local restaurants and cuisine!

Requirements

Please take note of this project’s minimum requirements:

Minimum age of 18
Police clearance
High school diploma is required for all volunteers staying longer than 4 weeks
Immunizations (proof of Yellow Fever vaccination required for travel into Zambia. Consult your local travel clinic for any other recommendations)
Strong desire to help others
Ability to work in a team
Basic English

Travel Highlights

Not Included: Volunteers will get weekends off to explore the area and go on additional trips. Although these are not included in your program fee, our staff would be happy to help you arrange exciting excursions for this time. In the past, volunteers have enjoyed:

Dinner/sunset cruise on the Zambezi River
2 night safari in Chobe National Park
White water rafting on the Zambezi River
Bungee jumping and gorge swings over the Batoka Gorge
Helicopter ride over the Victoria Falls
2 night boat cruise along the Zambezi River

Important Notes: For this program, volunteers are required to purchase a business visa to Zambia upon arrival. For a single entry, it will cost about $50 USD, and for multiple entry, about $80 USD. It is the sole responsibility of the participant to arrange for and cover the costs of the appropriate visa.

Volunteers travelling to Zambia for over 30 days will need to apply for a Temporary Employment Permit, which costs approximately $250 USD.

Zambia has recently begun to require proof of vaccination for Yellow Fever upon arrival per recommendation of the World Health Organization. Consult your doctor to arrange this and to discuss any other immunization recommendations.