Full website here: www.SibanyeGapPrograms.com
Email here for more information! |
Want to open up your world, create new friendships across the globe, gain internship experience & build your confidence?
Join Sibanye. The word Sibanye means “together as one” in Xhosa. Xhosa is one of the eleven official languages of South Africa, the native tongue of Nelson Mandela, and one of the most spoken languages in the Western Cape, where our program is nestled.
Sibanye Volunteer & Cultural Immersion Summer Program is founded on the principle that tremendous growth takes place when people work together for a common good. Sibanye participants come to the program to see themselves change by working to make a positive influence in the world. An experience of true immersion to the lifestyle of the locals: living, working, sharing with them and eventually seeing the world as they see it, allowing participants to put into action the potential that has been waiting to manifest. |
WHO?
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WHERE?
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In beautiful Stellenbosch, South Africa. Stellenbosch is about 45 minutes from one of the most breathtaking and diverse cities in the world: Cape Town. Stellenbosch is surrounded by mountainous nature reserves, is just 20 minutes from the Indian Ocean, and hosts the large and prestigious Stellenbosch University.
South Africa has amazing cultural and biological diversity, rich history and amazing infrastructure, and at the same time, has deeply suffered the pain of segregation. The Cape region has everything that an adventure and purpose seeker wants: mountains, oceans, wildlife, myriad cultures and languages, tons of causes to join, experiential and formal education opportunities, and friendly people who speak English and at least one other language! |
PROGRAM SUMMARY
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True immersion experience:
Support:
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PROGRAM HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY
PROGRAM HISTORY & PHILOSOPHYResearch has been accumulating over the past few years to reveal that cross-cultural immersions can be immensely helpful in many areas. People who spend considerable amounts of time in other cultures can develop better communication skills, leadership skills, creativity, and a more complex mindset that helps people draw from different perspectives to better problem solve and reach their goals. However, at the same time cross cultural experiences can also be overwhelming experiences if there is a lack of intention and necessary support.
Founded in 2016 and based on Supportive Immersion Philosophy, Sibanye South Africa uses a human centered, process based approach towards experiential learning in which participants will have the opportunity to see both themselves and the world through a new lens. Through a variety of scaffolded activities ranging from true immersion experiences, to Sibanye’s unique global citizenship course, and a collaborative capstone project, Sibanye participants will engage with the South African culture in ways that simultaneously bring out meaningful insight into ourselves and the world. Finally, this will be done with the constant support and direction of the trained Sibanye team from before the participants arrive in South Africa through our collective time living, working, studying and having fun together. In addition to building its program on the Supportive Immersion principles, what further separates Sibanye is unique relationships with our local South African partners. Whereas most international gap programs focus the majority of their energy creating and facilitating experiences for visiting participants, Sibanye believes that facilitating an experience for a visiting participant starts with developing deep and meaningful collaborative relationships with local communities and local organizations. From our experience, we have found that in order for an experience or collaboration to reach its full potential, an equal amount of care and energy needs to go into creating opportunities and empowering our local counterparts as it does for our visiting international participants. We like to call this the 50-50 approach to Supportive Immersion. This 50 – 50 approach to Supportive Immersion can be seen in the relationship Sibanye has developed with our main partner organization, Usiko, and our host community, Jamestown. Usiko, is a nonprofit organization that mentor South African youth and young adults and help guide them towards a more caring, responsible and fulfilling adulthood. From 2016-2018, Sibanye facilitated 4 TREKS (Travel for Reflection, Empowerment, Knowledge and Sustainability) with Usiko and paired visiting high school participants with local South African participants from Usiko. During their two weeks together, these two seemingly different groups participated in a variety of different activities together ranging from an African Rites of Passage in the Hottentots Holland mountain range, to a safari experience and community engagement project. Despite being from different countries and different backgrounds, these two overcame a variety of challenges and bonded to become close friends. It was truly a memorable and life changing experiences for all of us who had the pleasure and privilege to be a part it. What Sibanye hopes to do now is open up these kinds of life-changing, perspective-building, profound experiences to more young adults through an extended summer program where youth can reap the benefits of international travel, meaningful internships, facilitation of collaborative community projects, and social bonding and confidence-building to gain skills that will benefit their futures in college, the work world, their relationships with themselves and others, and the world in general. |
TestimonialsI stood sweating, twenty feet deep in non-existent water and only then did I truly understand the reality of crisis, the reality of privilege. It is only when we step back from what we have that we realize just how much we need it. Water is a human right, a necessity and I was so used to that. Turning on a faucet and letting it run while I did something completely unrelated. And as I stood there in that dam, I really began to fathom just how important the work we were doing was. The most important thing I learned on this trip is that I need to be more grateful. Grateful for what I have, grateful for what I have learned and experienced, and grateful for the privilege I have been blessed with. I especially learned this when interacting with the Usiko boys. Learning that $25 was an insane price to spend on sunglasses where for me it was pocket change, eating a handful of chips from a bag that Dwayne bought, but ate the same amount as everyone he shared with. I am so grateful for the experiences I have had and the people I have had the privilege of knowing. This trip will forever have a place in my heart & I will never forget what I learned. My time in South Africa was an extremely humbling and memorable experience for me. I truly mean it. It has taught me more about myself than I realize even now. The biggest message that I got while I was over in South Africa was that no matter how far away from someone you live, you are for more alike than you are different. I don't think I would have learned anything even close to that if I had just gone to be in a different continent with my family. I can say with full honesty that this has been the most meaningful thing that I have done maybe in my whole life. My time in South Africa with Sibanye was an amazing experience. It was truly an an experience of traveling, not tourism. We spent time getting to know other high schoolers with the Usiko organization, spending a weekend with them in the wilderness and at a safari. We also all worked together to install water tanks at local preschools. It was by far the most profound travel experience I ever had, opening me up to new perspectives and like experiences. South Africa is a terrific place with astounding people. Our journey to South Africa allowed me to gain a massive perspective other than my own about the planet we live in. I had such a beneficial experience in South Africa. Meeting the USIKO boys showed the similarities and differences between teenagers in the states and Africa. South Africa is currently in a horrible water crisis. Our mission to serve a community other than our own was to install three water tanks into three different schools to provide a way to store water to benefit the school and the families of the attending students. After installation, we painted the tanks with symbols that we deemed appropriate to the water cause. Outside of the community service, an activity that added to my experience was our wilderness weekend. Following the rituals of the USIKO program, we spent a couple nights in the mountains behind Cape Town to return to nature and learn more about ourselves. Through solo time and bonding over fantastic meals, I was able to create a deeper relationship with people that I beforehand would have never imagined to have met. I hope that more of the wonderful people on this planet can see the issues that plague us all and come together to support causes like ours in any way possible. |