The Rainbow Dreamers Volunteer Project is a community outreach project started by Aaliya Bulbulia and her students in November 2013. It has grown to serve, on average, 100 to 200 children each week. Every Thursday after 15h00, Aaliya, Samia and Adele (teachers at EC language school Cape Town) and a group of student volunteers set out to Kalkfontein for an afternoon of fun and learning with the local children. Everyone is encouraged to join as a volunteer, but, if you can’t attend, donations of clothes and funds are welcome!
Kalkfontein is a township situated in Kuils River, near Stellenbosch, about a 40 minute drive from the Cape Town city centre. The number of children who attend the project range, on average, between 80 and 120 in winter and 150 and 200 in summer. People of all ages, nationalities and interests are welcome to join Rainbow Dreamers as volunteers. The project relies on the ongoing participation of volunteers as it’s entirely volunteer-run, with the oversight, organisation, guidance and help of these three dynamic facilitators..
Here is what some of the volunteers had to say
On the 16th of April it was a very special day for me. I went with EC’s teachers (Aaliya, Samia and Adele) to Kalkfontein township. We have a project every Thursday with the children from there and we help them to exchange and to be good people in the future. So, this project was new for me and I have never done or tried anything like this kind of project, but I decided to go with them for the experience. So, we went to Kalkfontein township and I didn’t expect the area to be like this. It was a poor area and the people are very simple. We got off the van and we started to walk and the children came over and they followed us to the community hall. There were a lot of children.
We started our activities with the children and we put the children in three groups. Each group had the chance to do all the activities and after 15 minutes we changed the activity for each group, which went very fast. This was amazing to share the games with the children. and to play with them. Also, when i saw the children were very happy and they wanted to play with us I felt something in my heart and I wanted to start crying! i was extremely happy that day and I’d like to join this project again and again. Finally, I don’t know how I can explain my feelings that day but I’m grateful to see the children are very happy and I’m looking forward to doing this project again next week. Nawaf from Saudi Arabia
Robin from Switzerland also spoke about his experience :
During my visit to the beautiful city of Cape Town, I joined a volunteer project from school. A group of students went to a township outside Cape Town called Kalkfontein, I was there with other students to join a group of local children. THe place was very special and interesting for me as I’ve never seen this before. The township is very poor, they don’;t have proper houses or other things which I’ve never thought it could be! It was really interesting to see how people manage their lives and how happy and satisfied they are in comparing to my country (Switzerland where everyone wants to have more and more. For me it has changed my way of thinking and how I spend my money and energy. So i wold recommend a visit to this place to everyone.
