Joslyn’s Two Weeks Volunteering in Zanzibar: Beyond the Classroom
After two weeks into her volunteering experience in Zanzibar, Joslyn’s journey with R.O.S.A. has become about much more than supporting digital education.
When she first arrived, the expectations were simple: step into the classroom, share her skills, and navigate a new volunteer placement. But through her work with R.O.S.A.’s ReCoding Africa program at Kweto School, that perspective has continued to evolve.
Redefining Digital Literacy
Before arriving in Zanzibar, Joslyn viewed digital literacy largely through a practical lens: understanding how to use technology and digital tools to produce an outcome. Seeing those skills come to life in the classroom changed that definition.
For Joslyn, digital literacy has become a way for students to communicate ideas, collaborate, express their creativity, and build confidence. Technology is not only a skill to learn, but a tool young people can use purposefully to shape their own futures.
This is at the heart of ReCoding Africa: helping students develop practical digital skills while creating space for creativity, self-expression, and new ways of learning.
More Than a Guest
Some of the most meaningful parts of Joslyn’s volunteer experience have also happened beyond the classroom. Through shared meals with her host family, conversations with students during school breaks, and everyday moments in Nungwi, the line between visitor and community member gradually began to disappear.
What Joslyn expected to be a standard volunteer placement became a much more immersive experience. Living alongside the community has given her the opportunity not only to contribute, but also to listen, learn, and understand daily life from a new perspective.
This is the kind of cultural exchange and service learning R.O.S.A. strives to create through volunteering abroad: one where learning flows in both directions and impact is built together.
She arrived ready to share her knowledge. In return, our community in Zanzibar has offered lessons that extend far beyond technology and the classroom—reminding us that some of the most meaningful parts of volunteering come from the relationships we build along the way.