Law and Human Rights work experience in South Africa

Country: South Africa
Location: Cape Town
Departures: Departures can be arranged at anytime to suit you
Price: From £1695 - £2695 (4-12 weeks) excluding flights. £595 for each additional month. Price includes meals, accommodation, transfers and insurance. [currency converter]

The Law and Human Rights placements in South Africa are based in the varied and bustling city of Cape Town. South African law is an advanced and westernised system that allows volunteers on a law internship here to get a fantastic view of how the law is implemented, while simultaneously working alongside a number of humanitarian law organisations.
Volunteers on a law project in South Africa could find themselves working with the Legal Aid Board, or a number of other smaller non-profit legal organisations. The collective mission of these organisations is to provide good quality, independent legal representation to the poor and vulnerable, ensuring effective access to justice for all South Africans, especially the Black and Cape Coloured communities so appallingly mistreated during apartheid. With its brutal history of apartheid and colonialism, there can be few better places than South Africa to get involved in campaigning for human rights. Our Human Rights projects in Cape Town offer volunteers the unique opportunity to get involved at grass roots level, raising awareness of human rights in a variety of marginalised communities or at risk groups such as prisoners, children, women, or those in rural communities throughout the Western Cape.
All of our Law and Human Rights projects are located in the heart of the central business district in Cape Town City Bowl. This area has numerous coffee shops, snack bars and lots of street traders, together with infamous Cape Town landmarks such as the Dutch East India Trading Company’s famous botanical gardens and the Victoria and Albert Waterfront. In the same area dancers, drummers, choirs and painters add a certain buzz to the magnificent view of Table Mountain standing constant guard in the background.
A voluntary placement in Cape Town could be a valuable addition to your CV in this notoriously competitive profession, and might just secure you that lucrative first job once you graduate.
In South Africa you can choose to work on a criminal law project, or a human rights project. Some of our law placements and human rights placements are open to all, while others require you to commit to at least three months on the placement, have some law experience, and provide additional references in support of your application. Please contact our staff if you would like further information on which placements you qualify for.

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A taste of volunteering - by Justin Francis

If you are interested in volunteering to work with communities in need, or in wildlife conservation, but are unable to take very long periods off work then there is a new type of trip – a taste of volunteering – that might be of interest for you. These shorter trips combine volunteering with an opportunity to see the main sights in destinations.

Many of us like the idea of ‘doing something worthwhile’ during our time away from work - or between jobs. Of course if volunteering involves travelling to some of the most beautiful parts of the world then so much the better! We volunteer in the knowledge that as well as making a difference where it is needed most we will also discover new things about ourselves, and that pitching in together with like minded people is a great way to meet new friends.

Ten years ago volunteering either involved taking two years off in developing countries, or spending a weekend pulling prams out of canals in the UK. More recently tour companies have created one to three weeks trips which combine time spent volunteering with an opportunity to travel with your group to visit the main areas of interest as a tourist.

For example, a 19 day trip in Vietnam combines 6 days building a classroom, and then the opportunity to visit Hanoi, Saigon and Ho Chi Minh City for £995 excluding flights. Alternatively, you could combine a Tanzanian safari in the Serengeti with time spent building a home for street children, 13 days for £980 excluding flights.

The essential difference between a charity trek, where you raise sponsorship money for a cause, and these taste of volunteering holidays is that in these trips your contribution is principally the work that you contribute rather than a financial benefit, which of course makes them cheaper.

Choosing the right volunteering organisation
It’s important that you choose your volunteering organisation carefully. It’s vital that the project is based on real local development or conservation needs, and that local people are consulted about what is required and how it is implemented.

You certainly will enjoy your trip more if the benefits to conservation and local people are obvious. There have been examples of volunteering programmes are determined by what appeals to the volunteering organisation or tourists rather than real local needs.

My advice would be to ask to see detailed reports on the effectiveness of the projects before you travel, and to ask how local people are involved in the decision making processes. In some projects you will have the opportunity to work alongside local people, which is both desirable and enjoyable.

And finally
Edward Abbey said 'sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul'. If you like the idea of travelling with a purpose then I’m confident that you’ll find these trips one of the most worthwhile, enjoyable and memorable experiences possible. [src]

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