Cost of Living in Kenya?

Don't know about volunteering costs...

On your traveling days if you are going budget then expect at least 40-50 USD/person/day for everything.

It depends on where you are, and how you plan to live.

Most local people live on less than $2 a day. I have met some volunteers who were staying in $75 a night hotels with air conditioning. (Nothing wrong with this by the way)

In my personal experience, when you are volunteering you will not have time to spend too much money (On yourself that is.)

If you set up long term accommodations and eat local food then you should be just fine with $15 a day.

I agree with Eve that it is more expensive to travel.

Peace,

BB

as BB said, much depends on you and your lifestyle as far as how much you can get by with. If you are happy with a simple life, I think you would find even $4 a day on food to be quite luxurious. Accomodation is a different story. If you were staying longish term, you could find something very cheap... and again it would depend on how rough the conditions you could handle. I know of rooms that go for around $4 a month near where we are (in Western Kenya), but there is no electricity in those rooms and no furniture. But even for $100 a month you could find something quite reasonable.

As far as volunteering goes, we have a volunteer centre here in Western Kenya which is available for anyone willing to help out. There are no fees you need to pay, although those who are willing and able are welcome to give a small contribution towards the costs. We provide free shared accomodation and meals for any volunteer who works with us. We usually have a reading program which we take to local schools when schools are in session, as well as visits to a local orphanage. We often engage in other projects too depending on how many volunteers we have available. School holidays just started this month and we are engaged in a number of different activities including tutoring children who are struggling with their reading, teaching computer classes to teenage orphans, painting a public mural with school children on the topics of Honesty, Simple Living, Peace, Equality and Community, and running an Alternatives to Violence workshop. We are a mix of international and Kenyan volunteers. For more information you can email me at franandkim @ gmail.com (without the spaces in the address) and visit the following website:

Free Volunteer Centre Website

Thanks for the info! Sounds like costs really vary quite a bit depending on how you choose to live and travel. Atleast now I have some sort of a ballpark figure to get myself started.

Kim, I've already got an organization I've been in contact with about volunteering but I will definitely pass along the info about the Free Volunteer Centre to some other friends who may be interested! Sounds like a great organization!