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The Medical Program is based at community health clinics and as volunteers, you will mainly be assisting the prep-room where you prepare patients for their doctor visit. All our Medical Projects are "clinics" or "day hospitals" i.e. they have doctors and nurses on duty but no wards for overnight patients or major surgical facilities. As these are government clinics with local laws in place volunteers are limited in terms of actual hands-on work.
20 hours of help per week
Elderly Care: Assisting and spending time with the elderly.
Social Work: Help with volunteer work in local projects and communities.
Amount: US$ 30 Per day
Fee pays for: Benefits for travelers
Description: Volunteers contribute $30 per day to cover their airport pick-up on arrival in Cape Town, accommodation, breakfast on weekdays, orientation session, placement at a suitable medical clinic, 24/7 support from the local team.
2 days off per week
Shared Dorm: You will have a bed in a shared room, which means you will share the same room with other travelers.
Breakfast: You are entitled to a free breakfast, every day of your stay.
Pick Up: We will pick you up when you arrive, and take you to our property.
Use our equipped kitchen: Feel free to use our kitchen and make your own delicious food.
Certificate: Get a certificate of completion after you finish your experience.
Fast Internet Access: High-speed internet for you to work remotely
Intermediate English
Over 18 years old
Welcomes solo volunteers, couples, and partners of volunteers
Flights, Travel Insurance, Internal Transportation and Visa
This program is open to medical students or anyone with an interest in the medical field. You will gain a good insight into the local healthcare system in South Africa. One of the biggest challenges facing this system, is long waiting times (especially for the elderly and very young children). As a volunteer, you will help speed up the processes so patients can be seen to, at a much quicker rate.
Please note that this position is largely observation-based. Volunteers are not allowed to treat patients directly, or prescribe any medication.
Working Hours are generally 08:00 - 12:00, Monday to Friday.
A typical day at the clinic where duties are assigned to volunteers are as follows:
- Assist the nurse assigned to you with their day-to-day schedule
- Prep Room (blood/urine tests, etc. before the patients see the doctor)
- Assist clients with activities such as getting them from one service point to another
- Weighing clients, holding babies/adults to be weighed
- General assistance of medical staff where required and where experience and expertise follow, etc.
- Admin duties / patient files / reception duties
- Help out with fundraising initiatives when available
Volunteers need to be willing to work wherever needed - often, you will assist with patient files and reception duties but will get good exposure to our local healthcare system. Volunteers need to wear medical scrubs to the clinic, so bring some along or you can buy it in Cape Town, quite cheaply.
Many worldpackers have been applying to this position recently. The host will probably not be able to respond to all of the applications, so we recommend that you also apply to other hosts in our community and not just this one :)
