African Impact - South Africa Conservation Projects

African Impact is a multi-award winning volunteer travel organisation operating responsible and sustainable volunteer projects and internship programs throughout Southern and East Africa. We have over 10 years’ experience and have facilitated over 12,000 volunteers in 12 countries across the continent!

OUR VISION:

Being Responsible
We believe in having volunteer projects and internship programs that make a long term, positive change to communities and conservation; and we work with responsible partners across Africa to achieve this.

Being Leaders
We lead the way in volunteering by offering unique, high quality experiences and are recognised for growing and improving our own business and the volunteering industry at large.

Being Appealing for Travellers
We expand the horizons of volunteering and responsible travel by attracting a wider range of people and offering new impactful experiences.

Being an Appealing Employer
We attract the right people to work with us and create a dynamic environment where people can learn and grow with the company.

Changing Lives

Our mission is to maximise the positive force of volunteering through responsible management, education, strong partnerships and a passion for making a difference, while making sure our volunteers have a fun and rewarding adventure with us. We truly believe that volunteering has the power to change lives; we’ve seen it first-hand.

We always aim to integrate ourselves into every level of the community working from grassroots to partnerships with local governments and we strive to nurture a culture of mutual respect and understanding, and embracing diversity.

The volunteer experiences we offer in Africa are based on three key points: 1) volunteers having an amazing time and experiencing everything South Africa has to offer; 2) volunteers learning as much as they can about local history, culture and wildlife and soaking up the essence of our country; and 3) supporting local communities and conservation efforts through education and hands-on help. It’s also important to us that volunteers understand their contribution so they leave knowing they have achieved something remarkable.

Our Charity: The Happy Africa Foundation

As part of our commitment to making a positive impact, we set up The Happy Africa Foundation in 2008. The charity helps to independently monitor our projects and provides tools and expertise that help to ensure our sustainability. The charity also ensures that donations given by our volunteers are managed responsibly.

Through our close partnership with them The Happy Africa Foundation has grown into an organisation that has funded numerous initiatives and programs in the communities where African Impact volunteer projects are based. The charity is proud to have financed the building of clinics, crèches and school classrooms, provided communities with education and skills training and helped beneficiaries improve their wellbeing and quality of life through improved nutrition and the provision of much-needed health equipment.

Our Wildlife Trust: ALERT

African Impact were also instrumental in the establishment of the African Lion and Environmental Research Trust (ALERT) in 2005, a non-profit organization dedicated to the facilitation and promotion of sound conservation and management plans for the African lion in consultation with governments, wildlife authorities and communities.

Alongside African Impact, ALERT also aims to support the ground-breaking four-stage African Lion Rehabilitation and Release into the Wild Program developed by our founders in 1999. The aim of this program is to provide a solution to augmenting the sharply decreasing numbers of African lions through the release of wild-born offspring from rehabilitated captive bred lions by raising awareness and funds to source, secure and prepare suitable release sites for the lions.

Our Projects

To ensure the sustainability of our projects, we thoroughly evaluate each potential project with a detailed scorecard before setting up a volunteering program. This involves analysing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a project as well as its long-term viability and impact. Also, every single one of our projects has community stakeholders. We won’t run a project unless the community not only wants us there, but actually has ownership of the project. Community buy-in is essential.

At African Impact we take a holistic approach to the implementation and running of our projects. We always aim to integrate ourselves into every level of the community working from grass roots to local governments. We have a core emphasis on learning and empowerment for all involved – changing the lives of people in the communities we impact, our volunteers and all African Impact staff.