Volunteering and Internship events in Cape Town

African Sunrise's approach differs from other volunteering companies. We don't just place volunteers, students and interns at projects. It's important for us to spend a lot of time with the organisations we work with, helping wherever we can. Our team attend every event and get as involved as much as possible. We regularly launch fundraising initiatives to assist the organisations in our network. Take a look at a few of our fundraising events and campaigns

Travel Tours

At African Sunrise we don't just offer volunteering and internships. We like to offer amazing Garden Route tours so you can explore this beautiful country! Each trip is unique and our latest trip included snorkeling with seals and visiting the Cango Caves 

Wine Tour 2021

We're doing quite a few Wine Tours this year, trying out a few new Wine Farms to add to our list of places to take you! Enjoy the beautiful weather, the great company and the amazing wine. 

Friday Soup Sessions 2020

Our Healthcare students from Sweden have joined our weekly visits to the Breaking Bread Community Development Soup Sessions which happen every Friday. 
A warm meal is served, and there's lot of interaction with the homeless community. The children love having the students around, and we have been joining in these Soup Sessions for the past 4 years already, as well as fundraising for the Organisation to help out with food, clothes, toiletries and outings for the children. 

St Michaels Child and Youth Care Centre High Tea 2019

As part of Women's Month, we collaborated with one of our Organisations, St Michaels Child and Youth Care Centre to host a High Tea celebrating women. 

The girls from the Centre performed wonderful dances, sang and read poetry, and we had great music from a local band. There were cakes, scones, cupcakes and many other treats that were kindly donated, and the event itself was completely sold out! It was wonderful celebrating the girls and women. 

Mandela Day 2019

We had an amazing Mandela Day this year, where we joined Breaking Bread Community Development to hand out some hot food, sandwiches, juice and lovely care-packs to the Homeless Community. 
Breaking Bread serve a hot meal every day, but it's always special to join them on an occasion where a lot of companies in the area get involved too. Meeting and talking to our community members makes for a safer and friendly community for all. 

African Sunrise Bags for a Cause!

We have recently launched our range of bags - these are durable and very handy for your laptop, books, or the beach! They're available in black or white, and the best thing is, R10 from every bag sold goes to Breaking Bread Community Development , who work with the homeless and disadvantaged children and adults in Cape Town. 
Our bags are R200 each, and are currently available to purchase. 

Soccer Tournament with Breaking Bread

Breaking Bread Community Development hosted a fundraising Soccer Tournament and our students from Umea University joined us by entering two teams (one was an all-women team, the Vikings!). Unfortunately we didn't win but we spent a great day playing soccer for a great cause and raising R10 000 for Breaking Bread! It was great having students and crew playing alongside each other. 

Kindergarten Outreach 2019

We joined our friends at Breaking Bread Community Development to visit the children and teachers at the Kindergarten in Philippi Township. We took donations with that were kindly donated by friends - these consisted of a new stove, food for the children, new shoes, clothes, books and toys. Tania and CJ were part of the Driving Spirit team that were responsible for the fundraising and building of this kindergarten, so it is always a special place for us to visit, and to see how the children are growing up. There are about 30-40 children that attend the kindergarten and they rely on the school for their daily meals and to learn to read and write. 
We do regular visits to the kindergarten, and we're happy to be a part of this wonderful initiative, which is run by Youth Solutions Africa, and the outreach provided by Breaking Bread Community Development. Education is the way out of poverty, and we will continue assisting these children as they grow. 

Christmas Prep at a Home of Safety

Our interns were having a great time with the boys from one of our Homes of Safety for Boys making Christmas Decorations. This forms part of their play therapy as well - and interacting with the interns and volunteers builds much-needed social skills. The home is going to look beautiful at Christmas! 

Cape Town Colour Run

Our Crew and Interns took part in the Cape Town Colour Run this year. The Colour Run's mission is to bring people together and make the world a happier, healthier place. By creating an experience that’s more about the memories you make than your mile per minute, they've made running feel accessible to a broader demographic. Filled with colour and happiness, with a wonderful scenic ocean route, it's an amazing run! 

Khayelitsha Fashion Week

Our crew and interns regularly attend this fantastic initiative.  The purpose is to prepare, develop and establish local brands, to provide them with a platform to showcase their latest offerings and new designs to the community of Khayelitsha. Powerful messages are brought to light through fashion.

Khayelitsha is a partially informal township in Western Cape Province, located on the Cape Flats in the City of Cape Town. The name is Xhosa for New Home. It is reputed to be the largest and fastest growing township in South Africa.

Fundraising Hike up Lions Head

Breaking Bread Community Development recently completed a crowdfunding campaign which saw one of their directors Martyn hike the daunting Lion's Head mountain. We donated to their campaign and helped to share their posts with our network of followers. African Sunrise and our favourite backpacker's Wanderlust joined him when he tackled Lion's Head.

Martyn is the first person to admit that he's terrified of heights, which made the fundraising initiative that more compelling. By the end, they raised over R 10, 000 in that went towards their Homeless Feeding Programme, as well as a Children's Holiday Programme.

Sarah Fox Children's Hospital Mandela Day

For Mandela Day this year, we teamed up with Sarah Fox Children's Hospital to host a Fun Walk to help raise vital funds for the hospital. We were joined by Breaking Bread, Jive, African Bank, KPMG, You2African and Kekkel en Kraai.

Everyone involved had such fun at Nantes Park in Athlone, where we completed the walk, people danced and jived, we enjoyed food and had an amazing time with the community. It was an inspiring day for a worthy organisation. 

Gangster Museum

We love supporting our friends at the 18 Gangster Museum in the township of Khayelitsha. The Museum is the first of its kind in Cape Town and aims to help South African youth to understand the treacherous path that too many young people in their communities follow into gangsterism and, ultimately, prison. More importantly, 18 Gangster Museum seeks to offer a positive alternative.

Incorporating immersive text, imagery and a replica prison cell, 18 Gangster Museum's installations are curated by ex-offenders who share their real-life experiences of gangsterism, incarceration, and how they turned their lives around. Our interns, students and volunteers get to take part in singing, dancing and even football games when they visit.

Heritage Day 2017

To celebrate South African Heritage Day, we joined Breaking Bread Community Development, an NPO that works with the homeless community, as well as working with the disadvantaged children in Observatory and Salt River, Cape Town.

We assisted with raising funds for the event, in addition to collecting donations to be handed out on the day. Everyone enjoyed an awesome traditional braai, musicians performed, and it was a fantastic day. Thanks to the kind donations, we gave out toiletries to the men and women from the homeless community.

Our interns and volunteers all joined in, and we watched the traditional Kaapse Kloppse - which is a very colourful, traditional marching band that forms part of Cape Town's heritage

Rehab Waterpark Day

The African Sunrise team has a range of different projects we work with, all providing different needs for children and adults. One aspect that is often underfunded and overlooked are affordable rehabilitation centres for drug and alcohol abuse. For us, the organisation we work with offers an essential service for some of Cape Town's adults who struggle with addiction daily.

One of our interns was doing his five-month internship here and got to know the guys very well during this time. With the help of two field studies students, they fundraised for a day out for the patients, which was a welcome break from their extensive therapy at the rehab facility. It was a wonderful day that was enjoyed by everyone - swimming, dancing, eating (the traditional South African braai) and playing games in the sun together, like a group who are more like a family.

Children's Hospital Staff Outing

Our two Social Work interns Sanna and Jenny were doing their placements at one of the Children's Hospital's we work with. They decided to do a fundraiser to treat the children and staff to a fun day out. Everyone at the hospital works extremely hard, and this was a truly heart-warming event for the interns to organise.

Everyone, including the cleaners and kitchen staff, went ice skating, bowling and out for lunch. It was a great end to their year, and we are so thankful to Sanna and Jenny for not only making a huge difference in the lives of the children in the hospital every day but also to the hard-working staff.

Kids Christmas Beach Day

Many of the children that we work with rarely get the opportunity to relax and have a fun day at the beach. That's why two of Breaking Bread's interns – Sven and Moa, as well as their volunteer Sophia, hosted a Kids’ Beach Day as their Christmas party.

The weather at Maiden's Cove beach was lovely, and the kids had an amazing time in the water and building sand castles. Everyone enjoyed a traditional braai and had an excellent day outdoors. Every child received a stationery pack to use for the next school year as well.

Valentines Township Community Day

On Valentine's Day 2016 we joined a small community in Phillipi Township where our directors CJ and Tania were part of the Driving Spirit collective. They were responsible for fundraising and overseeing the construction of a kindergarten for the children in the township.

Everyone enjoyed food, cool drinks and toys for the children, all donated by various people who were following Driving Spirit's crowdfunding campaign.

It was an amazing experience to play games with the little kids and soccer with the older boys. The children love our visits, and it's always a pleasure seeing the joy on their faces when we are there. Lots of face-painting took place - and not just the children's faces but the adults too!

Home of Safety School Dance

Three of our interns, Evelina, Thanh and Frida, who were doing their Social Work internships at one of our Homes of Safety for Children, held a "School Dance" for the children.

All the children dressed up in very smart evening wear, each one had their photo taken, and they got to feel special for a night. There were people singing karaoke, laser lights and even a smoke machine.

Everyone enjoyed dancing, singing and all the excellent food. It was a night the children will never forget. Our three interns also fundraised to do various repairs in the home, as well as buying much-needed appliances.

Heritage Day 2016

Heritage Day is a public holiday which celebrates every culture, and that encompasses all of South Africa. In recent years, the unifying love of braaiing is shared by all South Africans.

On Heritage Day in 2016, African Sunrise was part of a community celebration that took place on the Village Green in Observatory. Our team and Breaking Bread made and served soup and bread for the homeless people we know in our area. Our Swedish interns cooked traditional meatballs and chocolate balls, which they sold to raise funds for their organisation of choice. There was live music, food and artisan stalls, and best of all – our director CJ exhibited a selection of her photographic art. She sold most of her work, also raising vital funds for Breaking Bread.

It was a day of meeting and greeting everyone in our community, where we weren't just celebrating our South African heritage; we were creating an inclusive celebration that people from all over the world could enjoy.

Mandela Day 2017

Mandela Day is one of our favourite events of the year. Nelson Mandela was an iconic figure in politics and will go down in history was one of the world's most significant figures to overcome oppression. To South Africans, he is also known as Tata Madiba – father of the nation.

This year, St. Francis Boys' Home was our project of choice for our 67 minutes of action to commemorate Mandela Day. We had a fantastic day of Karaoke, soccer, lunch and of course, wall-painting! Volunteers from the community joined us, and the boys had a fantastic day celebrating the life of Madiba.

Driving Spirit Kindergarten

CJ and Tania were leading members of a collective called Driving Spirit, and in 2014, their group initiated, ran, and successfully raised over R45, 000 to build a kindergarten in the Olieboom Annex of the Philippi Township. This included clearing the ground, securing the materials, and project managed the construction of three wooden huts that would later serve as classrooms.

After the main building was completed, through our friends and regular donors Tessa James and Andy Stidworthy, CJ was able to invite the Expresso Show to do a feature on the opening of the kindergarten. Their producer Andrew Katzwinkel spent the week at the kindergarten, where they Expresso production team assembled a jungle gym with help from some of the people who live in the township.

When additional building materials were needed, another regular donor Jon Muller and his team at OMSFIN secured them in addition to funds. This was a massive project, and it took a lot of hard work from the Driving Spirit team. The kindergarten has two part-time teachers and caters for over thirty children.

Comedy Night at Bazinga Bar

As you can tell, comedy and Cape Town go hand in hand. And we're so lucky to be able to call many of the comedian's close friends. They have helped us time and again by organising and hosting live comedy nights whenever we need to raise money for initiatives.

With the help of our wonderful group of comedians, our director Tania created a comedy night at the Bazinga Bar in the CBD (Cape Town city centre). Hosted by Martin Davis, and with performances from Angel Blythe Company, Ambrose Uren, Peter Sserwanga and Milo Hot Chocolate, the evening was a hit with everyone. And after the comedy was over the bar morphed into a nightclub.

Gumboot Drive in Philippi Township

During our many visits to Philippi Township, it was apparent that the children didn't have any suitable footwear to protect their feet in rainy weather conditions. So, CJ decided to run the idea of setting up a crowdfunding campaign with a view of buying as many pairs of gumboots as possible.

Within the space of one month, her campaign reached its target of R 5, 000 and over fifty pairs of gumboots were purchased. The Driving Spirit team then created another event so that we could have a day out with the kids. And after the fun and games were over, we handed out the gumboots. It was another excellent day for us to spend with the children of the township, and we hope their gumboots keep their feet dry in poor weather conditions.

Soccer Fundraiser 2017

During our time with Driving Spirit and volunteering with other organisations, we've put together at least one soccer tournament every year to raise much-needed funds for various worthy NPOs and organisations. In 2017, we spent a day at the scenic Fives Futbal soccer courts, which was on the rooftop of the Grand Central – one of Cape Town's tallest buildings!

We had teams from all over Cape Town compete; which included a comedian’s team, various NPOs and organisations, local businesses and corporations, and our directors CJ and Tania fielded their own all-female squad.

With live music, a braai, plenty of cool drinks and good times had by all. The event raised a lot of money for Breaking Bread, which went towards their Feeding Programme.

Re-purpose Schoolbags Fundraiser

A Repurpose Schoolbag is an all-purpose satchel that's made from recycled materials. It includes a small solar light that charges up during the day and transforms into a light so that children can study when they get home. This is especially needed in townships where electricity is scarce.

Our director CJ created a fundraiser to buy as many Repurpose Schoolbags as possible, which resulted in over one hundred Repurpose schoolbags with solar lights being given to the children of the Philippi Township.

These school bags are an invaluable resource for children who need to study at night-time to complete their homework. The solar lights provide a safe source of light without resorting to using candles, which can cause fires.

StreetSleeper Fundraiser

African Sunrise and Breaking Bread teamed up to raise money to purchase as many Street Sleeper homeless sleeping bags as possible. The sleeping bags are nothing short of remarkable and straightforward. Street Sleeper upcycles advertising billboards to create a waterproof, all-weather sleeping bag. They're easy to carry and can last for years.

We created and successfully ran a fundraiser to provide the homeless people we work with in Observatory with Street Sleeper sleeping bags. At the end of our crowdfunding campaign, we were able to provide over thirty sleeping bags, which we handed out at our weekly Soup Sessions mobile soup kitchen.

Sanitary Pad Drive 2016

Statistically, one in ten girls in African miss school because they don't have sanitary pads. In the poorer areas of Cape Town, even things like toilet paper is a luxury. Sanitary pads will be at the bottom of the list – leaving many young girls stranded, and of course, embarrassed.

That's why the African Sunrise team and our volunteer Miranda held a fundraiser for sanitary pads – we had pop-up collection points around Cape Town and raised money online.

Overall, we managed to provide almost seven hundred sanitary packs to Uitsig Highschool, as well as to Fezeka Highschool in Gugulethu. We spent another day handing out the sanitary pads to the girls from both schools, and we hope to continue providing sanitary pads to the young women that can't afford them.

Mandela Day 2016

Every year, on Nelson Mandela's birthday, South Africans are encouraged to dedicate a minimum of sixty-seven minutes to help others in honour of his memory. On Mandela Day 2016, the African Sunrise Team raised money for a fun day at Heatherdale Children's Home of Safety.

We provided each child with a jersey, as well as lunch and snacks. We had a karaoke machine which was a massive hit with the kids and adults. There were face-painting and a jumping castle. Our team also handed over a cheque for R5,000 to the home to go towards their running costs.