Voluntary Project Overview

Chennai (formerly Madras) is an exotic city located in the tropical climes of southern India. Our local partners work across the city teaching children from underprivileged backgrounds.

Our volunteer programmes to teach English in India target disadvantaged children who do not have access to a full education. Like many other Indian cities, Chennai has a large slum population, where social and economic pressures mean that many children drop out of schools.

Volunteers wanting to teach in India can provide support for a local NGO, which promotes community development in deprived areas of Chennai. This organisation runs a number of informal schools which focus on encouraging young drop-outs and children rescued from child labour back into formal education.

These volunteer teaching projects focus on motivating children to see the benefits of education as well as enjoying it, so classes are a mix of core academic subjects and activity-based learning. After approximately a year, children are placed back into mainstrea education.

The Volunteer Abroad Role

Volunteers teach slum children in India, teaching English and can be involved in various informal activities to motivate young people to stay in the education system. This can include playing games, running sports clubs and teaching arts and crafts, and volunteers teaching in India should try to make education as enjoyable as possible for the children.

Career breakers wanting to volunteer to teach English in Chennai will have opportunities to spend time in a variety of projects, including transit schools, schools for children with special needs and other community development initiatives.

Volunteer Work Impact

This is an exciting opportunity for career break volunteers interested in teaching in India to make a real difference to the lives of street and slum children. Our local NGOs rely on volunteers teaching English abroad, and your enthusiasm and ability to make learning fun will be warmly welcomed.

Many of the children on this voluntary teaching project attend classes against the wishes of their parents, so it is of vital importance that they are convinced of the value of education and are prepared for mainstream education. Volunteers teaching English in India on this project can have a real and positive influence on the future of underprivileged children in Chennai.

Other Volunteer Abroad opportunities

On this career break volunteer project, volunteers can do much more than teach English abroad. Volunteers teaching in Chennai can get involved with many of the NGOs other activities, including training local teachers in the transit schools or providing counselling for disadvantaged women.

Those teaching in India can also take the time to explore the rest of the subcontinent. MondoChallenge can help you to plan career break travel that fits around your volunteer teaching project.

Voluntary Programme Requirements/Eligibility Criteria

Volunteering to teach children abroad can be a challenging career break experience and volunteers should have good communication skills, plenty of enthusiasm and a good sense of humour! Volunteers teaching English in India must be willing to take on the tough conditions of teaching in slums. In particular, as a volunteer in India, you should have patience communicating with children and staff from a completely different culture. While previous teaching experience is not essential, any experience working with children would be of benefit to those wanting to volunteer to teach English abroad. If you would like teaching ideas to prepare yourself to teach English abroad we can arrange for you to take part in a TEFL training weekend.

Volunteer Accommodation and Living arrangements

Chennai is a coastal city in southern India and a pleasant place to stay while you volunteer abroad. Volunteers teaching in India stay with local host families, where they have a room to themselves. This gives you the chance to immerse yourself in the rich Indian culture during your career break abroad.

What’s included in your Programme Fee?

• Project selection and placement - Our in-country teams work constantly to identify and select projects that are doing exemplary work in developing countries but need your skills and effort. Our staff are in dialogue with you to ensure that we choose a project that really needs you, where you will use your skills and contribute, because at MondoChallenge, we believe that a great volunteering experience is largely dependant on matching you with the right project
• Pre Departure Briefing - Before you leave, we will arrange for a pre departure briefing where we help you with small but extremely helpful details on your chosen destination. Things like: what to pack, local culture and customs, food, safety and precautions if any - simple things to make your life easier!
• Guidance for processing visa - MondoChallenge will arrange for any relevant documents and guide you through the visa process.
• Airport Pick Up - Arriving in a new city and not knowing where to go and how to go can be quite unnerving. A MondoChallenge representative will meet you at the airport and take you to your place of stay where you can put your feet up after a long flight.
• In country Orientation and Welcome Pack - When you arrive at your location, you will be given an orientation where you could meet other volunteers from MondoChallenge, learn all about your location, how to find your way around, where to get SIM cards for the phone, small bits that you will need help sorting out in the first few days.
• In Country Support - Our local co-ordinators are there to guide you through out your stay. They will make sure that you are settled at your project, are comfortable with your accommodation and provide guidance on local culture and customs to ensure that you have a memorable and rewarding experience.
• Accommodation - In most cases you stay with a local host family. It gives you a taste of the daily life of a local. You will be sharing a room with another volunteer, however if you prefer to have a single room to youself, this can be arranged but a cost supplement may apply. If you prefer totally independent accommodation, this maybe possible in certain areas at an additional cost and our Programme Managers will be able to assist you with this.
• Breakfast and Dinner - Local home cooked food, will be provided at the home stays. This gives you a chance to experience local dishes.
• Optional Contribution to the Education Grant - The Educational Grant helps projects like the one you will volunteer with, to get basic infrastructure and resources. Open air schools need a roof, some need tables or chairs and some need books for children. We identify needs and constantly work at improving the conditions at our partner projects. We also encourage you to identify needs at your project and let our local management know of any specifics that you feel may help. The grants are made through our registered charity, FutureSense Foundation (Charity No: 1132101). In the project fee above we recommend an optional contribution towards these grants. If you would like to fund raise or contribute further amounts towards this directly to the foundation we can assist you through the process.

Not Included:

• International Flights
• Visa and Travel insurance Costs
• Vaccination
• Local Transport and Travel
• Personal Expenses

Project photos

Testimonials