AJUDE | Associação Juvenil para o Desenvolvimento do Voluntariado em Moçambique

What kind of work is involved?

The work greatly varies from one project to the other. It normally involves Construction work in remote rural villages, nature conservation work and environmental education, restoration of historical monuments, bricks mounding, health and Aids awareness campaigns, sanitation projects such as digging water wells and erecting Blair toilets. The communities may ask us to perform other specific tasks beyond the scope of our agreement. This is seen as a way of promoting intercultural understanding.

Food and Accommodation

This is normally provided for duration of the project. Most of our projects are usually self-catering (unless it is stated otherwise) and sufficient money is provided for you to buy and cook food together. Please bring with you traditional receipts that do not require particularly special ingredients. Accommodation is usual in classrooms or tents but this is known before hand.

Who are the other volunteers?

This is not known until you arrive; each project is made up of people of various nationalities, ages and backgrounds. On every project there is camp leader usually chosen and trained by us. The leader depends on the full participation of each volunteer, so it is the whole group’s responsibility to ensure that the project is a success.

Portuguese and English are the Camp Languages.


What to bring

Participants should remember to bring suitable clothes (e.g. winter/summer clothes) depending on the geographical location of the workcamp they would have chosen, a good sleeping bag; a small mattress; working boots and gloves. Also bring with you some recipes, some music from your country as well as musical instruments if you can play one, etc. in Mozambique only powerful currencies are exchangeable such as the British pound, US dollar, Euro and for other currencies ask first before bringing them to Mozambique. The exchange of money is done at banks and any other officially licensed places. Visa and Master card can be used to withdraw money form the bank or to pay you bill in some restaurants.

Travelers’ checks are not advisable because very few places and expensive one can cash them.

We strictly recommend all volunteer to bring mosquito repellent and mosquito net, do not forget sun block.

What is the cost?

The workcamp participation fee is strictly US$210 and this covers simple accommodation, food and project expenses during the camp. Please note that this does not include travel expenses to and from the camp, so participants are asked to reserve a small amount of money for transport to the camp and vice-verse. We advise all volunteers to ask for advice from us when they are planning to book their ticket to Mozambique.

Some tips for Volunteers!!

Mozambique is a large country and beautiful to see. If you are attending a camp in the northern part of Mozambique (Nampula Province) we advise you to book you ticket to arrive by plane in Blantyre – Malawi and from there you can catch a bus to Nampula (this trip may take you all day) where you will meet our contact person who will show you the surrounding of the city before drives to the camp. If your camp is in the central part of Mozambique (Manica province) we advise you to take a plane to Harare and from there you can get a bus to Chimoio (this trip takes half of a day) where you will meet our representative who will show you the surroundings before depart to the camp. Another possibility for this camp is to arrive in Maputo and meet our volunteers at our office who can show you a bit of Maputo city and afterward you can get a bus to Chimoio (this trip take 15 hours).

For you who are going to attend a camp in the southern part of Mozambique you can arrive at Maputo airport where you will be picked up.

For those who are planning to attend two different camps they will get advises from other local workcamp participant on which is the best way to travel in Mozambique.

Please, do not book your flights to arrive to those locations before getting advices from us.

Participants should arrive at least two days before the camp starts for orientation. It is also important to note that project locations may change due to several reasons some within (too few application, massive cancellations or community failing to make its contribution to the project’) and without our control (political instability, natural disasters).

Please inform us as soon as you have your travel details, special the possible arrival time, this will allow us to organize a picking up for you from the airport or from Bus station.

Leisure Activities

Weekends are meant to be for free tours that the group can organize by itself. You can decide to visit places of interest around the area of the work camp. It has now become a custom in all our Workcamps to have cultural nights. This affords each volunteer the opportunity to present her/his country and culture. Please bring with you your national flag and traditional dress if possible.

Visa Procedures

The visa procedures for going to Mozambique are as follow:
All participants must proceed to the closest Mozambican embassy with an application form accompanied by an invitation letter from AJUDE – Mozambique. The application form can be collected at the embassy. Normally visa is issued within two weeks time. It’s important to notice that there is no volunteer visa for people going to Mozambique and normally the volunteers that come to Mozambique they apply for a tourist visa with the duration of 30 days and renewable at the end of the period of one month. For this kind of visa the volunteer can get at the entrance immigration point (boarder gate, airport, etc). The cost varies from 25 to 45 USD.


POSTAL ADDRESS PHYSICAL CONTACT ADDRESS

AJUDE – Associação Juvenil Para o Desenvolvimento do Voluntariado em Moçambique
Rua da Mesquita, Nº 222, 1st Floor.
P.O BOX 177
Maputo - Mozambique
Tel/fax +258 21312854
email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
website: www.ajude.org.mz
Mobile: + 258 82 7398770
+ 258 84 2781240