It’s only eight in the morning and we have already planted three garden beds. The seven other volunteers and I, covered in dirt and sweat, listen as our coordinator points out three sections of land with tree saplings that need to be removed. He warns us that we may have to dig a bit to get the root up, then he heads off to address other business.
The eight of us have been volunteering on a photography conservation project at African Impact’s location in the Greater Kruger area of South Africa for just about two weeks. We united from across the globe due to our mutual love for photography and wildlife. While I had never worked in wildlife conservation before and did not know what to expect from African Impact’s program, I was blown away by the dedication of the staff and extent of the programs that worked to address the root causes of environmental issues in South Africa. Every week two to three mornings were dedicated to work relating to these root issues such as community outreach and habitat conservation. The fact that these were not one-off experiences, but an integral part of our schedule emphasized their importance and the sustainability of African Impact’s volunteering.
Although they approach their work from several angles, the outreach we did through the Farmers of the Future program stood out to me as particularly important. Farmers of the Future focuses on helping local young people develop agricultural and entrepreneurial knowledge to help them support themselves and their families. It is through this program that my cohort of volunteers currently finds itself, faced with a seemingly never-ending field of tree saplings.
We are at a training site for one of Farmers of the Future programs; a new site in need of lots of start-up work. After creating and planting the garden beds with some of the trainee farmers, we receive instructions to remove the trees from Johann, the coordinator in charge of the program. He then leaves with the trainee farmers, to guide them through a lesson in their workbook, and we get to work. We dig and dig. And dig. And dig.
Twenty minutes later, I have a hole an arm’s length deep but no sign of the root ending. The others aren’t doing much better. We have maybe removed three saplings in total. When Johann and the trainees return, we are in the same 10 square meters of land where they left us. It may not seem like much, but our hour of work allowed Johann and the trainees to focus on learning their curriculum. While such indirect services, like pulling the trees, may seem of little impact, it actually creates access to one of the most valuable resources: time.
In the world of charity volunteering, there are two main styles of intervention: direct service and indirect service. Direct service is really hands on and is what most people think about when they think of volunteer work. It (unsurprisingly) involves working directly with affected populations, for example serving food at a soup kitchen or tutoring disadvantaged children. Where direct service occurs, it is often easier to see how and who you are helping. Conversely, indirect service is anything where you are not working one-on-one with a population. This could be cataloging books, hauling trash, painting offices, or weeding a garden. While it can be unglamorous and outside of the common perceptions of charity work, someone still has to do these jobs. Without volunteers, trained staff would need to spend their time on these tasks, but with volunteers to help spread the load, trained staff can spend time on work where their specialized skills and knowledge are vital.
Every weed that volunteers pull at a training facility for Farmers of the Future is time that Johann and the trainee farmers get to spend learning. All the hours that volunteers go on drive to record giraffe data are hours that a trained researcher can go through the statistics instead of sitting in the game vehicle. Every minute volunteer photographers spend at their desks, editing photos allows African Impact’s resident photographers to focus on their own vital work and write articles. Every shovel-full of dirt I cleared away from that stubborn tree root gifted our Farmers of the Future the all-important resource of time.
In the end, another volunteer was needed to give the root a good pull and free it. It was kind of like when a lid is stuck on a jar and you try so hard to open it, then a friend comes and effortlessly twists it off. “I loosened it!” you would say.
Indirect service is sometimes that initial, frustrating twisting. All the work and the twisting helps to loosen the lid so that someone will be able to open the jar and release what we had been working for into the world. African Impact is a community of people working together, loosening lids, doing whatever is needed to advance conservation initiatives.
We left the Farmers of the Future site with blisters and dirt-caked skin, collapsing into our van and prying the windows open as fast as we could. I had only removed two trees in my forty minutes of digging. It’s not a lot, but I am doing what I can to loosen the lid.
If you would like to get involved with this project or learn about other projects African Impact offers across the continent, visit africanimpact.com.
Mack
enzie Brockman is a visual storyteller based out of Colorado. She recently graduated from Central Michigan University with her Bachelors of Science in photojournalism. Alongside photography, Mackenzie enjoys sustainable volunteer work. Connect with her at mackenziebrockman.com
The Field Biologist 