Be a volunteer at Camp!
Camp is staffed by our local caseworkers and by volunteers from the U.S. who travel to Kenya to attend as well as Kenyans who volunteer their time to assist.
New experiences and expanded worldview: Since 2007, over 50 Americans have volunteered to help out at camp. The number of American volunteers continues to swell although not all volunteers attend all camps. There have been an equal number of Kenyan adults who have also volunteered to help at camp over the years. This mix has provided another wonderful delight of the NRCF camp experience, the interchange of cultures, ideas and the wonderful resource of different people with different knowledge and skill set to share with the kids. One volunteer, Margaret Pfeffer, has attended many camps, running our craft learning programs. Many have gotten “hooked” and have attended more than once.
All voluteers have used their unique skills to teach classes, run new and creative games, and to share new life experiences with the kids. This includes a workshop on causes of sexual violence, classes on drawing, biology lessons and writing workshops. Our volunteers from our partner Wilderness Inquiry (a Twin Cities based wilderness travel company and non-profit) have helped us provide our children with the opportunity to see African wildlife in Kenya’s national parks and to climb parts of Mount Kenya, experiencing bamboo forests and piles of elephant dung for the first time.
This experience has been two–way as our amazing NRCF children and Kenyan staff and adult volunteers have taught our American visitors many new things and opened up our eyes in many ways.
Transforming lives: As one of our American volunteers put it, “When I first arrived in camp, I wondered if I could survive the difficult living conditions at camp. That feeling lasted about one hour and then I realized just how wonderful it was to be around these kids… camp experience is all about the kids. They are very special and I want to come back to camp again…”
Want to volunteer? If you are interested in joining as a camp volunteer in the future, please email staff@ngongroad.org. We will be happy to discuss the rigors and opportunities involved in being a camp volunteer and explain the wonderful safari opportunities surrounding a trip to Kenya for NRCF holiday camp.
Visit the Camp page for descriptions of the different camps put on each August.