About us

In 1994, Wolfgang Graser and Alexander Kratochwil moved from their home in Vienna to the beautiful city of Cape Town. They quickly fell in love with this vibrant city and its friendly, smiling people. They first opened an English language school for foreign tourists to learn English, but soon they discovered that behind the shiny places there are enormous problems and challenges that this country faces for historic reasons. They met with organisations that assist government in the struggle for a better life and a better environment.

When you see what these organisations do, it’s not difficult to feel moved and share in their desire to help. They can’t solve all problems overnight, but they do make an impact and do change people’s lives on a daily basis. What they need, though, are volunteers who share their passion to help and who want to make a difference.
In 2009 we started to supply some of these organisations with international volunteers. What we specifically loved was not only to seeing these organisations thrive with the volunteers, but also noticing how the volunteers themselves benefit hugely from the experience.

Ross Muir first joined the Good Hope Volunteers family in 2021 when working as a Volunteer Coordinator in Port Elizabeth. In September 2024 he moved to Cape Town in order to take on the role as our Volunteer Manager.
His childhood was a lovely mix of a small, local community and the rich expanse of a game reserve experiencing the therapeutic benefits of nature. He feels genuinely committed to social development and environmental sustainability and found himself volunteering at various NGO projects during his well-travelled teenage years. Ross holds an honours degree in Psychology, which equips him with the skills to better help communities.
He is thrilled to build strong relationships and partnerships with some of the extraordinary projects in our remarkable country and to introduce young volunteers to the richness they have to offer.

Vuyokazi Currie has joined the team in May 2023. Her background is in the area of Community Development. After finishing her Counselling Studies, she had a life-changing experience while volunteering as a Life Skills Facilitator at Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town. She then mentored and coached volunteers, connecting with community members, as well as students who came from abroad. Having worked in the most disadvantaged communities in South Africa, and other African countries encourages her to share her impactful journey with others, and to inspire them to "give and gain", by making a difference in the lives of others as well as their own.
She will support management and volunteers, maintaining relationships with existing as well as potentially new partner projects and will also be busy arranging social activities for our volunteers.

It is the love for South Africa and the international travellers that pushes us daily to provide the best possible meaningful experience to the volunteers, but also to support our projects with what they need to do their jobs and to grow into a brighter future.

Today we support more than 25 projects in southern Africa. If you are looking for a life-changing experience, then allow us to assist you in finding the most suitable project on our website and beyond.

Mission Statement

Good Hope Volunteers provides an all encompassing, high-quality volunteering experience to individuals and groups from all over the world.

Our staff are committed to practicing openness, transparency, inclusivity, equality and tolerance whilst make a meaningful contribution to the development of the volunteering industry in Southern Africa. Through well researched project selection and thorough client communication, we work to ensure that our participants leave Southern Africa having had an unforgettable experience within the country they serve, its environment and its people. We spare no effort to place ourselves at the forefront of further developing Southern Africa as an internationally acclaimed centre of excellence within the global volunteering industry.

Our Policy

Good Hope Volunteers strives to deliver a high-quality, volunteering and travel experience for each of our candidates.

With this in mind Good Hope Volunteers only associates itself with volunteer projects that provide a meaningful and tangible contribution to the environment and the development of the countries it operates in as well as its people.

We do not associate ourselves with volunteer projects that are not all-inclusive, tolerant of all beliefs and ideas, nor projects which do not follow strict conservation guidelines with regards to the care of animals, both domestic and wild.

We believe that the future of these countries and the conservation and development efforts that they need, rely heavily on the dedication volunteers provide. We aim to be a part of the growth and success of the countries we provide volunteers for, and are, at the same time, very proud of the country we live in.

Good Hope Volunteers is going green

  • Using solar power at our accommodation
  • Encouraging our volunteers to recycle & reduce their plastic consumption
  • Using LED light
  • Only growing indigenous plants in our gardens which have minimal water needs
  • Regularly producing a green report to monitor and assess our procedures

We are proud member of: