Voluntourism - making your holiday so much

There are numerous legitimate opportunities for tourists to be involved in volunteer work in East Africa. You may decide to spare the last couple of days of your break to do so, or perhaps a free afternoon. In any event, at Zoar we are able to arrange this for you.

Volunteering while on holiday is definitely a great way to directly impact the communities in your host country. You may choose to offer professional services or simply to visit a Children's Home for instance and do whatever needs doing. Please write to us what you have in mind and we will suggest to you the best way to go about it and put you in contact with the relevant organisations.

Zoar Tours works closely with the founders of Mago Youth Polytechnic in Kakamega, Kenya. The school was founded by a group of Dutch hardware dealers in 2005 is now in its third year of existence. From a tiny school with thirty-five students studying masonry, tailoring, motor vehicle mechanics, and carpentry, Mago Youth Polytechnic has grown into a large family of one hundred and seventy people, consisting of one hundred and fifty seven students, seven instructors, five subordinate staff, and one administrator.

The number of girl-students has significantly risen from ten in 2005 to thirty-one in 2007. They are currently in the final phases of creating a beautiful and modern guest house which will be used as a training centre in catering and hotel management. A conference hall for seminars, beautiful rooms for visitors, and a large, well-equipped kitchen plus a dining hall, are in place.

The students at Mago, most of them from very poor families, will forever be grateful to the many Dutch families and companies that have made them realize their dreams. Although most of them cannot afford to pay school fees, they are determined to get technical education which they strongly believe is the answer to unemployment not only in Vihiga District of western Kenya, but in Kenya as a whole.


If you would like to be a part of the work at Mago please let us know and we will work it into your itinerary as per your instructions.