It is essential that our volunteers understand our ethos and are prepared to work with us to ensure they are doing good through their volunteering.

Our children live in FAMILIES at Forever Angels and our goal is for them to make secure attachments to their Mamas and Aunts.  We do not believe that orphanage care is ever a good option for a child, and children are only in our care because there is no other safe option in the short term for them.

Many orphanages around the world exist to support volunteers who want to ‘travel and do good’ and in doing so, children are living in orphanages to fuel the ‘volunteer business’ – many who have relatives and who could and should be living at home.  This is tragic and wrong.

Forever Angels exists because there is a real problem of child abandonment and maternal mortality in the city and there is no other option for these babies.

However – we provide short term care whilst searching for extended family members or adoptive families in cases where no family can be found.  Whilst in our care, our children live in family and their Mama’s and Aunts are their caregivers and providers.  It is essential that the children attach to them and not to volunteers who are short term and who come and go out of the children’s lives.

Volunteers are not allowed to form close attachments to the children at Forever Angels – their role is to provide educational and fun activities to enrich and enhance their childhood experiences.  Even better – we hope they will train our Staff so leaving lasting change and improvement for our community.

All volunteers need to understand the importance of this, and they will be expected to read about the issues surrounding growing up in institutionalised care before they come.  They are also asked to sign to agree to work with us and support our ethical ethos at all times.

Pre-Volunteering Support

Amy (Our Founder who now lives in the UK) is available to answer any questions you may have.  She is more than happy to have email or phone conversations or even meet you in person to discuss the volunteering experience, show you photos and basically tell you what an amazing time you will have!

She will guide you through the application procedure; give you booklets of information about Tanzania, Mwanza, and Forever Angels; advise you on vaccinations and travel health; and even give you some basic Swahili tips!

She is full of good ideas about fundraising and can support you to raise as much money as possible.

Amy will ensure you have all your correct paperwork and know what you are doing in terms of obtaining your visa on arrival, as well as advising about flights and hotels if necessary.

She has supported over 500 volunteers going to the Forever Angels and is happy to answer any questions you may have.

Volunteering Support at Forever Angels

You will be collected from Mwanza airport and taken to the Volunteer House on our Forever Angels compound (about 10 minutes away)

Our Managers will settle you into the Volunteer House and introduce you to the other volunteers.  Our volunteers are always lovely and welcoming and will make you feel at home right away.  You will have a ‘Food Parcel’ waiting for you to keep you going for the first couple of meals.

On the first few days you will be taken on a tour of the local market as well as into the main town to get your bearings.

We know you want to dive ‘straight in’ so the Managers will give you a tour of Forever Angels.

During your time volunteering – the Managers are around for you to chat to any time if you have any questions or concerns.  The other volunteers are also always a great source of advice and support.

Amy is just an email away if you need anything.

The children now live in Family Homes and most of the day to day care is done by the Mamas in each house.  Our goal for volunteers is to get them creating fun activities for the children, supporting in Preschool and helping our staff through training and idea sharing.  Your experience will be much better if you come with training sessions prepared and ready and willing to help out wherever is needed.

Post-Volunteering Support

Volunteers are asked to complete a brief evaluation when they leave so we can strive to make the volunteer experience better. (But – if you have a lumpy mattress or a dodgy cupboard door, just report it to the Managers as soon as you notice so you get the benefit!)

Volunteers are invited to join our ‘Forever Angels Volunteer’ Facebook page to post any stories and photos and to chat to other volunteers.

Again... Amy is always around if you need a chat or just want to reminisce about your experience.

She is always more than happy to provide you with a reference and will send you a ‘Volunteering Certificate’ too.

Volunteers come for between one and three months and can arrive and leave at any time as long as there is room in the house.  For visa reasons it is not possible to stay for more than 3 months.

The fun thing about volunteering with us is that there never is a ‘typical’ day – you take out of the experience what you put in.  First and foremost, we require you to plan and carry out training sessions with our staff in your area of expertise.  Secondly, we ask volunteers to plan and deliver fun and exciting activities to engage, educate and develop the children during their times at Pre-school…and help out with any other tasks required (which could be sorting clothes, painting walls, making Pre-school resources etc)

Tanzania is a very safe and peaceful country. Mwanza is a very safe city and our volunteers have never experienced any real problems. You do need to remember that you are a 'Westerner' in one of the poorest countries in the world though - so do not 'flash' mobiles, cameras, or wads of money around.  And do not take risks you would not take in your home country.

Mwanza is wonderfully located to travel to a wide variety of amazing destinations and there are plenty of travel opportunities for before or after your volunteering placement.  We are very close to the Serengeti National Park, a short flight from Zanzibar, Kilimanjaro and close to the borders of Uganda and Kenya.

Flights

Depending on where you are coming from, flights can vary hugely.  From the UK an off-peak season Turkish Air flight can be bought for £450 to Dar es Salaam.  But during peak season they can be more than £1,000.  Internal flights from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza are around £100.

Visa

The Ordinary Visa permits you to volunteer for up to three months (a Tanzanian Government regulation) and it costs $50.

Accommodation

We ask for a ‘donation’ to cover your accommodation costs – this money goes directly to Forever Angels and helps us to fund our work.  This covers your accommodation, lunch at Forever Angels as well as a cleaner to wash your clothes (hand washing is not as fun as you may think!)

1 month - £500

2 months - £800

3 months - £1,000

Often your skills mean more to us than the money – so if these accommodation costs will prevent you from coming, let Amy know when you apply.  We may be able to offer a reduction.

Spending Money

Most Volunteers tend to live on between £50 to £100 ($85 - $160) a week in Tanzania - this allows them to go out to dinner a couple of times a week and buy food at the local market.

Other Costs

There could be other costs in terms of paying for vaccinations (some Doctors offer to do this for free for volunteers – it’s worth asking!), medical insurance, COVID tests etc.  Please bear in mind, you must be fully vaccinated to come to Forever Angels and show proof of this.

Thank you for asking!  We are ALWAYS in need of underwear (ages 1 to 6years), pyjamas (ages 1 to 6 years) bubbles, balloons, stickers, sweets (like Haribo / Smarties), colouring books, face paint, sterilising tablets, and 5ml syringes.  If you can bring any of these items, that would be wonderful.