There are two airports near Arusha, Kilimanjaro (JRO) and Arusha (ARK). Kilimanjaro is an international airport, and Arusha is a domestic airport. You can often find cheaper flights to JRO, so that should be your first choice. We will pick you up at any time, day or night, so please choose the flight that suits you best.
Information about travel vaccines and health advice for Tanzania can be found on your country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, and on the World Health Organization’s website. We recommend you visit a doctor who specialises in tropical diseases before your trip, to get any vaccines or medicines you may need.
To volunteer in Tanzania, you will need an ordinary visa for the purposes of humanitarian and charity activities. Most countries can easily obtain the visa on arrival at the airport. It costs $US50 ($US100 for American citizens), is valid for three months and can be renewed once. If you plan to stay longer than six months you need to apply for a Resident Permit.
We recommend you have health insurance for your trip to Tanzania. Health care is not expensive here, but in case of an emergency your insurance can arrange for you to return to your home country for better treatment.
Fluctuation in the exchange rate is common but currently it is:
English and Swahili are both official languages in Tanzania, although English is not widely spoken. At your project we will make sure that there is at least one person who speaks English. Also, we offer Swahili lessons for a small fee to make your everyday life easier
There are many ATMs in Arusha. All of the ATMs accept Visa and Mastercard’s. Payments with credit cards are only possible in large supermarkets and shops, at any other place only cash is accepted. Do not bring Travellers Cheques as you will be unable to cash them.
There is a washing machine in the hostel, but it is mainly used by our staff to clean the bed linen. Buckets are available to wash your laundry yourself by hand, and the machine can also be used for 15.000 Tsh.
We recommend buying a local sim card. After you arrive, we will take you on a town tour and help you buy one so you can use the internet to stay connected with family and friends.
How much you spend depends on your personal spending habits. Some examples of local prices include: bus rides in town cost 400 Tsh and taxis start from 5.000 Tsh. Local meals start from 2.500 Tsh and western style meals are around 15.000 Tsh. A beer cost between 2.500 and 5.000 Tsh and cocktails start from 10.000 Tsh. Fabrics for the tailor start from 12.000 Tsh and tailor- made clothes start from 10.000 Tsh. Souvenirs can be found from 3.000 Tsh onward
The working hours vary depending on the project. Usually, you will work Monday to Friday, from morning to afternoon. In some projects it is possible to also work on the weekend if you wish. You can discuss the exact working hours on site with your project managers.
Some of the projects provide their volunteers with lunch. If your project does not provide lunch your project manager can recommend a nearby restaurant, where local food is served from as little as 1.000 Tsh
Our house has a fence a daytime watchman, a night guard and our guard dogs. Arusha is generally safe but it is best to take a taxi in the evenings rather than walking. When you arrive, we will give you all the tips you need to know on how to stay safe.
We welcome anybody who is open to new cultures, and who wants to contribute to meaningful projects in Tanzania. Work experience in the chosen field is welcome but is usually not a requirement. If a project has specific requirements, they will be listed on the project page. A basic knowledge of English, and the willingness to learn some Swahili words are necessary. Please note to work in our projects you must send us an “Police Clearance Certificate”. And upon arrival all volunteers are required to sign our “Code of Conduct”. Those volunteers working with children must also sign our “Child Protection Policy”.
The minimum stay is two weeks. But it will take a few days to settle in and learn about your project and the best way you can support. The longer you work in a project, the more you and the project will benefit. Due to visa regulations the maximum time you can spend as a volunteer or intern in Tanzania is three months.
You can choose between a single room or dorm in the hostel, and a single room with a host family. Please let us know your choice on the registration form. Read more about the accommodation here.
At the hostel there is a hot cooked meal every evening, and there is always a vegetarian/vegan option. And our host families can cater for any dietary restrictions too. In the registration form please inform us if you have any allergies, and we will take care of your requirements.
On the first day at your project, we will take you there, usually by public transport, and show you how to get back and forth safely. Or, if it is close, we will show you how to walk there. For projects that are located far from our hostel, we recommend accommodation with a nearby host family. In the project descriptions we have written the distance between the hostel and each project.
The Organization is coordinating, organizing and processing your stay. Therefore, we need to have a proper administration office. Furthermore, we help and guide you once you are on site. In exchange, our projects provide accommodation, food, drink, and airport pickup. All these expenses need to be covered.
Fees which are included in Program are:
The social projects on ViA are usually Non-Profit Organisations (NPO). Thus, we hardly earn enough money to cover the costs. This is also the main reason, why we need your help. We cannot afford to bear all the costs by ourselves. This is why they depend on donations and on the volunteer's fees.
Fees for the volunteers arise because a volunteer program causes expenses for the social project that runs the program.
Not all social projects are operating in the same way. Some are supported by the government and some are not.
The difference of the fees depends on what the Project offers. Have a close look at what the social project charges for.
The average weekly fees are calculated from the costs of the volunteer program. Weekly fees can vary depending on the length of your stay. Sometimes the weekly fees decrease over time as there are no initial fees anymore. In other words, the longer you stay at the program site, the cheaper the fees.
These expenses emerge in order to run the project and can include office-items, salaries of local staff, insurances, trainings, telecommunication, office rent, transportation etc.
Therefore, fees can vary. However, all these fees can be associated directly with the project. The fees help the project to operate and to improve their community. We make sure that our projects state social impact so that you know what the local contribution of this project is.
But overall, your time and your financial contribution is the key to make our social impact work!
To illustrate for what your fees are used for here are two examples: E.g., Environment conservation program needs to plant trees or establish seedling bank we need to provide gardening working equipment, seedling, trees, for the volunteers.
Most airlines are already offering flights from all over the world to Tanzanian airports several times a week again. In contrast to most other countries, no negative Covid-19 test is required when entering Tanzania and no quarantine is initiated. Only a fever is measured upon arrival and a mask is required until you leave the airport.
Covid-19 no longer has any noticeable effects on everyday life in Tanzania. The shops, restaurants, bars and clubs as well as the tourist attractions are open and tour operators are looking forward to the visitors after the long break. There is neither a nationwide mask requirement nor a contact restriction but you are free to wear a mask everywhere and to keep your distance from the people in your area if you feel more comfortable with it. In front of most supermarkets, banks or shops you have the option to wash and disinfect your hands before and after entering.
All of our projects have reopened since June 2020 and we have already deployed volunteers in most of them. We are in constant contact with those responsible for our projects and should a situation arise that you feel uncomfortable with, we will surely find a solution together.
Transport in local public transport is still largely carried out by Dala Dalas (minibuses with usually around 15 passengers), if you do not feel safe to be in such a confined space with other people, just let us know. Alternatively, you can reach your project on foot (if within walking distance), by Piki Piki (motorcycle taxi), Tuk Tuk (covered motorcycle taxi with 2 seats) or we can organize a taxi for you that will take you from the hostel to the project and back again. This is more expensive but with that many options we will surely find a way to adapt your stay so that you feel comfortable day after day.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, only 1 million confirmed cases and 30,000 deaths have been reported in Africa instead of the 40 million corona infections and 190,000 deaths forecast by the WHO (as of September 2020).
An important reason for this is undoubtedly the lack of test capacity, especially in rural regions, and the sometimes-incomplete data that is transmitted.
But even if the number of unreported corona cases is much higher, the question remains why the specially set up bases and health facilities were never as overloaded as those in European countries are in some cases to this day
Tanzania, like almost all African countries, already has some experience with highly contagious diseases. People here are used to living with the fact that there is not a diagnosis, treatment and cure for every disease. Unlike in western countries, the measures and hygiene concepts already existed from earlier outbreaks of influenza-like infectious diseases such as Ebola and could therefore be brought up quickly. Citizens also took the danger seriously from the start and acted responsibly on their own.
Corona diseases are particularly dangerous for members of so-called risk groups. So, for example, older people and previously ill people often have a more severe course of the disease.
In general, the population in Tanzania is much younger than in most western countries. For example, if the average age of Germany at the end of 2019 is 44.5 years or that of the USA 38.3, the average age of the Tanzanian population is only 18 years. There are also significantly fewer smokers, cases of obesity or diabetes.
In general, we advise you to take out health insurance that covers an illness with Corona when you travel to Tanzania. This can cover the costs of visits to the doctor, help you with the procurement of medication and, in an emergency, even let you fly home. Under the insurance conditions you can see whether your insurance also applies in the event of a corona infection occurring abroad.
If you feel sick during your stay and show symptoms, we will be happy to accompany you to the next test centre and support you with any treatment that may be necessary. We know some good clinics that come close to our western standards and that we have entrusted our volunteers to for years.