Are you ready for a truly special experience?

Different culture and new challenges?

At MyFarm in The Gambia we need volunteers to help out with our activities. Here you can stay in beautiful nature and make an impact. Together with our dedicated staff you will learn, play and work – in the vast gardens and in Learning Labs. Children and youth from all over the country will come and visit – and you will help them to learn from their experience at the farm.

MyFarm is used as a creative hub for testing out new educational concepts in a challenging context. For example, we teach entrepreneurial skills through work in gardens and literacy/numeracy learning through technology and hands-on games in Learning Labs. Then our methods and concepts are to be scaled up and also replicated in other parts of the world.

We are looking for positive and proactive volunteers with a great team spirit, who want to help out in our education efforts or work in the garden.

Our key areas we need volunteers in:

Education side

  • Learning labs – train and follow up teachers at MyFarm and also around the country
  • Creativity lab – Do various creative /artistic projects with the children. Make content for our creative apps.
  • IT-lab – Use of low tech such as Micro bit and also Mind craft – creative module
  • Training in entrepreneurship based on “How to Make Money”

Garden side

  • Permaculture and various garden activities such as aquaculture, home gardening, beekeeping and organic pesticides

MyFarm

  • General maintenance – a handy and practical person
  • MyFarm on Wheels – join on trips in communities
  • Communication and social media – write about what we do and create content for our new apps as tools for our training. More information on www.leaplearning.com
  • Taking photos and making videos from our projects

Want to learn more about us? Visit our web page: www.africastartup.org and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GambiaStartUp

Do you want to be a part of MyFarm and the educational journey of the children?

Please contact us at: post@africastartup.org and let us learn more about you. Maybe you are really good at building things, making art or dancing is your passion? We need all sorts of talent – do you love to work in the garden or is technology your greatest interest? Or something else entirely?
We look forward to getting to know who you are, and what your greatest skills are – skills you can share with us and the local community.

We are mainly looking for long term volunteers who can stay for a minimum of four months. We have accommodation for you at MyFarm.

If you you need more inspiration, here you can read Evrim’s experiences as an volunteer:

My Volunteering Experience at MyFarm

I come and go to MyFarm periodically. And when I go away from here, I miss this place so much. I think there are very few places on earth that make you feel at home and at peace, as a part of nature. When I first came here, the first thing that caught my attention was the birds singing. You can understand how diverse birds are from the diversity in their singing. Therefore, the sleep you have here can be the sweetest sleep and the best mornings in the world.

Since My Farm is spread over a wide area, it consists of quite different and comprehensive sections and activities. There is so much you can learn from each activity. But it was the permaculture activities here that particularly attracted my attention. It is a great privilege to have this ancient knowledge in these ancient lands in today’s world where we experience climate change, thirst and hunger.

Also “Learning Lab” has become a special place for me. There are a lot of games in these Labs to attract kids’ interest. And all of them are very clever but very simple programs for fast learning. The best part of these Labs is that you “learn to learn!” While I was observing the children, I learned to learn with them in these Labs.

Another thing that caught my attention during my stay here is the dedication of a huge, warm-hearted and helpful team. And when I’m with them, I feel like a part of this team, this family. MyFarm is not only a startup project that started in Gambia, where the most beautiful people of Africa are located, it is a giant learning laboratory established with natural methods in a magnificent nature that can be a hope for all humanity and help you discover yourself and your potential.

Evrim Aykan