Volunteer With Us
Our team
We are hiring volunteers for two position:
- “young leader” – a person who (1) takes care of campers throughout the day on a social, personal and emotional level, (2) assists courses, and (3) organizes evening activities.
- “course teacher” – a person who prepares and teaches courses which can be either theoretical dense front-of-class crash courses or experimental creative courses on a subject she is enthusiastic about.
Young leader position description :
Do you enjoy participating in and working at camps, as well as accompanying children and teens on a personal, social and emotional level? Then you’ll be a perfect fit as a young leader at Assalams youth camps.
Starting from July 2022, Assalam will organize educational camps at its youth centre. Most camps last for one or two weeks, and the target group are Zanzibarian and international kids and teens. For camps of 40-60 children to run smooth, it’s of outmost importance to have leaders who lead and assist the children throughout their day at camp, leaders who are there for the kids, leaders who are role models and mentors. We call that position “young leader” since these leaders are usually at a young age because the job is immersive, intense and inspiring. Typically the young leaders are recruited among former campers but since the youth centre is just about to launch, we hire outside staff.
During waking up in the morning and bringing to bed campers, you will be responsible for the campers of one or two rooms of your gender. You stay in the same house as these campers (although you share your room with other young leaders of the same gender, not with campers) and you accompany the campers of your house in particular.
During the day, you will attend courses together with campers. You will assist campers to catch up, to perform the tasks, and you will support the activity teacher. That’s also an amazing thing that you can attend all these classes for free and learn from and work together with highly qualified experts.
In the afternoon and in the evening it’s up to you to organize various kinds of optional activities for campers, like ice breaking games, terrain games, board game tournaments, social deduction games, sport games, debates, playing instruments together, singing songs at the camp fire, going for a swim, puzzle hunts, stargazing, … whatever you enjoy and want to share with the kids. You are not just working at the camp, you are the camp, all of you, since the camp will take shape according to what you bring with.
Your typical day at camp will look like this:
| Time | Campers Program | Your job |
| 6:00 | library open | campers who are awake early may go to library and read or play boardgames – one young leader has shift in the library |
| 7:45 | 1st wake up | you wake up your campers |
| 8:00 | 2nd wake up | make sure all campers do get out of their bed |
| 8:00 | breakfast | all staff meeting after breakfast |
| 9:00 – 10:30 | course part 1 | accompany campers to their courses, assist the course teacher |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | fruit break | bring campers to the break |
| 11:00 – 12:30 | course part 2 | accompany campers to their courses, assist the course teacher |
| 12:30 | lunch | |
| 13:00 – 14:00 | journal and family time | go together with the campers which you supervise, and assist them to write journal and speak in their group. This is also the time slot to call parents. |
| 14:00 – 16:00 | social time/ freetime | this slot is to preserve room for unorganized spontaneous play and conversation. Just enjoy the time with campers 🙂 |
| 16:00 – 18:00 | evening activity | outdoor evening activity, e.g. terrain games, sports, organized by young leaders |
| 18:00 – 19:00 | dinner | including announcements |
| 19:00 – 21:00 | surprise time | indoor evening activity, e.g. boardgames, debates, organized by camp organizers and/or young leaders |
| 21:00 | bedtime | bring all campers to their room |
| 21:30 | sleep | make sure in all rooms lights are switched off |
It is an intense job, so you need to be resourceful, resilient and responsive. You may have noticed that there is no official time off for you in that schedule, so it is up to you to schedule them within your team of fellow young leaders (e.g. you agree with your colleague that he will wake up both his and your campers since he is rather the early bird, and you in return bring all of them to bed since you are rather a night owl).
But apart from being a very demanding job, it is also extremely rewarding. During informal education as in camps, kids and teens learn and grow much faster, and catalysing this process and accompanying them whilst they learn and grow is one of the most pleasant things to do. And also, being a young leader “builds character” as some say.
Your working time will be six days per week, with one day off typically between two camps. The minimum duration to volunteer as a young leader will be three months. During these you will receive:
- a briefing and organization day before each camp: how to organize and run an activity, how to integrate campers, how to solve conflicts, how to stand up for your own needs, how to communicate efficient within the team etc.
- working together in a team of 6-12 fellow young leader volunteers (amount depends on camp size)
- free accommodation and food during your stay
- transport to and from the airport
- pocket spending money of TZS 150’000 per month
However, you will need to pay by yourself:
- transport to Zanzibar airport or seaport (for young leaders from Tanzania, we are able to cover your travel expenses up to TZS 100’000)
- mobile internet (approx. TZS 20’000 / month)
- health and travel insurance
- own expenses
- souvenirs
Minimum duration to volunteer is one camp, however the longer you are available, the better.
interested? How to apply:
send us your CV to [email protected] along with an essay answering the following questions:
- why do you enjoy camps? (if you don’t have fun, it isn’t worth it)
- what motivates you to work with children and teenagers?
- what are your strategies for working in a team?
- what hobbies do you have?
(We want to hire people with a vast range of experiences, skills and interests, such that they can organize many different activities in different contexts.)
what evening activities do you want to organize? An evening activity typically lasts one or two hours minutes but we are also open for longer activities. At this point of application we are especially eager to hear about things not everyone can organize. So your chances to be accepted are higher, if you know some special terrain game or debating tournament rather than just basketball and swimming. Please describe each activity in a few sentences. Once you are accepted, we will send you a more detailed form to describe your activity and all material required.
Course teacher position description:
Do you believe in informal education, do you love teaching kids and teens subjects you’re passionate about, using your very own style, and do you love living in camps? Then you’ll be a perfect fit as a course teacher at Assalams youth camps.
Each of these camps will be dedicated to one of the four educational topics: Entrepreneurship, Communication and Social Development, Permaculture, Adventure and Survival. During a typical camp day the 30-60 campers can choose which course they want to attend, out of four to six courses that are offered that day because we believe in the efficiency self-directed learning.
Generally speaking, there are two types of courses. One kind is theoretical, we call it crash-course, which is basically front-of-class teaching, but in an extremely concentrated and dense form. The point here is not to teach the campers a subject in a way that they can apply it (one week is way too short for that), rather it’s about giving them a chance to sniff into a topic at a young age for them to find out whether they enjoy it and providing them with additional resources for their own study.
The second kind of course is practical, we call it creative course, which is experimental learning where campers can bring in their own ideas and create their own projects. Here again, the point isn’t to craft something perfect (again, a week is too short for that), rather it’s about giving campers the chance to experience themselves and train their teamworking and self-organizing skills.
Examples for both types of courses you can find in the courses on this website
Since both these styles of teaching are quite different than traditional schooling, we aren’t primarily looking for staff which a teaching diploma but rather staff who do have a lot of experience in their fields of expertise. Ideally they already have experience in informal education.
You as a course teacher can offer either a crash course, a creative course, or a course duo which are a crash course and a creative course that are connected to each other (e.g. “the structure of a business plan” and “bring your business idea to paper”) in your field of expertise. These can be about hard skills, soft skills or both.
You can either pick and modify one or more of our template course descriptions, or you can write your own idea into a course description (which we encourage you to do) alongside with your application. You find the templates but also some other ideas attached.
Your teaching time will be 3 hours in the morning. You will receive a young leader, a young person taking care of campers on a social, personal and emotional level, who will assist your course. You can instruct him to supervise campers during group work, to help slower individuals to catch up, to help you setting up the stuff etc.
In the evening you are welcome to organize activities or spend time with campers, however if you want to relax in the evening, that’s fine too.
Volunteering Conditions
The Foundation values its volunteers and will endeavour to provide you with:
- Description, written or verbal, of your position so you understand your role and the tasks you’re authorized to do
- Orientation and all the training necessary for the volunteer position
- A safe environment in which to perform your role
- Respect for your privacy, including keeping your private information confidential
- A supervisor, so that you have the opportunity to ask questions and get feedback
Furthermore the Foundation will provide:
- Accomodation in a shared room with an own bed, mosquito net, fan, private shower and toilet
- 3 meals per day suiting your diet requirements (e.g. vegetarian option)
- transport from your location in Tanzania to the foundation and back to your location in Tanzania
The Foundation expects that all Volunteers will:
- Support the Foundation‘s goals and objectives and do everything in their power to promote and achieve them
- Participate in all orientation and training programs
- Only undertake duties you’re authorized to carry out and always operate under the direction and supervision of nominated staff or and obey reasonable directions and instructions
- Understand and comply with the Foundation’s policies and procedures i.e. Human Resource Policy, Employment Equity, Child Protection Policy etc.
- Behave appropriately and courteously to all staff, students and any other party or parties the Foundation has relations with
- Notify the Foundation, in due time, if you wish to change the nature of your contribution
- Be open and honest in all their dealings with the Foundation
- Comply with local laws at all times
