Volunteer activities at the Dream Centre


What kind of things do volunteers do at the Dream Centre?

  • Nursing: An important aspect of your volunteer work is helping out the nurses. After an extensive preparation course, under guidance of an experienced nurse or doctor and depending on your background, you’ll help with the administering of medication, dressing, showering and feeding the patients, etc.
  • Conversation: Someone to talk with, to exchange ideas and thoughts, is incredibly important for the patients, who often only get an occasional visitor. It’s also a great way for you to learn more about South African culture.
  • Organizing activities: Volunteers are asked to regularly organize relaxing activities for the patients. An afternoon in the garden painting, simple exercises and games with balloons, organizing a concert, all are examples of small things that might just be the high point in the week of someone who’s very ill. It’s therefore an important part of your work.
  • Hobbies: A lot of the patients have a hobby, or would really like to learn something new. Helping out with this is a lot of fun and very useful. There are, for example, people who knit, people that play or would like to play the guitar etc.
  • Fund raising: Because the Dream Centre largely depends on donations to survive, organizing or helping to organize a fundraiser may be part of your work.

As you can see, there’s a lot to do, and the Dream Centre is a project where the work is very varied and is received with much gratitude. However, do pay attention to this:

The patients at the centre are all living with AIDS; many of them are in the final stages of the disease. Therefore, death is a regular occurrence at the centre. This doesn’t always make the work very easy; on the other hand, it does give you a real picture of the devastating results of the HIV/AIDS-pandemic and the lives of its victims. Make sure you realize this when you choose this project! Of course, there’s always professional help available at the centre to help you cope with your emotions and experiences.

Dream Centre Program Details »

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