Service Learning is a growing field throughout the educational system. Academic institutions have embraced the logic of this educational component—students acquire a more sound understanding of their academic field while gaining practical experience and contributing to society.

The South Africa Community Fund offers a standard three-week service learning package for universities and colleges. Longer options (up to 10 weeks) are custom designed to meet the needs of the institution. The program is based in Cape Town.

The three-week program bears three units of academic credit. Students read 600 pages of curricular material prior to the start of the program, participate in 120 hours of supervised service learning work, complete a daily journal based on the placements and readings, and participate in a 20 hour workshop in Cape Town that integrates the complete learning experience. Students stay in homes, utilize public transport, and are matched up with South African students. Weekends are unscheduled.

Students choose from one of the following six service learning placements:

AIDS
South Africa has one of the world's highest percentages of HIV positive populations. Students can choose a placement either in Advocacy or Hospice Services. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is the most prominent advocacy group in South Africa, influencing the government to fund a free national drug therapy program that includes prevention of mother to child transmission and cocktail prescriptions for people who have tested HIV positive. Hospices for infants who are HIV positive are plentiful in the Cape region and are good placements for volunteers who want to learn about comprehensive infant care—issues of health, family support, government services, foster care and social collapse.

The Arts
During the Apartheid years, art played a prominent role both as a tool for resistance by the liberation movements and as a tool for public manipulation by the government. South Africa is currently working to recover lost or banned art, is encouraging the emergence of Africa old traditions of dance, music and drama, and is funding public art education. Additionally, small economic development NGOs are training and supplying local community cooperatives with the means to create crafts for sales to tourists. The South Africa Community Fund can place volunteers either with the Community Arts Project or the Khayelitsha Craft Market.

Environment
South Africa is home to the world's tallest mammal, largest mammal, fastest mammal, largest reptile and largest landed bird (giraffe, elephant, cheetah, crocodile, ostrich). It contains the world's second most diverse plant kingdom (in the Cape), mines half the world's gold and 70% of the world's diamonds. These environmental facets of beauty of wealth, when juxtaposed with a pressing rate of unemployment (nearly 50%), create a natural tension between human welfare and a sustained environment. The nation is trying to forge a national policy on sustainable development that seeks the long term health of both the natural and the social communities. There are dozens of local NGOs for volunteers to choose from for their placement.

Peace Building
Yesterday's freedom fighters are today's managers at City Hall. Now that the nation has been freed from the oppressive system of Apartheid, the difficult work of managing freedom has led to new conflicts. Peace building organizations are addressing these conflicts through community clinics, town hall meetings, conflict training, mediation services and skill development. Other peace building organizations, such as the Tutu Peace Centre, are working to develop peace building skills in women and youth while taking the lessons of the Truth and Reconciliation and Commission to other countries in Africa and Asia. Volunteer placements are available in both types of organizations.

Religion
Religion both created Apartheid and overthrew Apartheid. Religious devotion sits at the core of South African identity in both the black and the white populations, and any sustained civil program involves the faith community. Unlike north America where a wall divides religious and government life, in South Africa they operate in partnership. In the new South Africa, religious organizations are at the forefront of social transformation, leading national efforts for human rights, AIDS programs, education, housing and health. Volunteers who intend a future vocation in religion will find several strong placement options in Cape Town. The South Africa Community Fund works in partnership with the Protestant, Islamic, Jewish, Catholic and Eastern communions.

Social/Health Work
During the Apartheid years, the white government funded one medical doctor for an average of every 189 Whites and one medical doctor for an average of every 19,000 Blacks. The long term social consequences of that unjust program have been immense and the social and medical professions have been taxed under the weight of need in the traditionally black communities. Malnutrition, depression, AIDS and TB are wide spread. These, combined with a high rate of unemployment, have created a pressing social dysfunction. Hundreds of small, local NGOs are trying to address these issues in partnership with government and religious organizations. Volunteers have a wide range of options for placements in social and health work.