Namibia is open!

Namibia is the first of the SADC countries to open its borders to international tourists.
With the warmth of spring heating things up in Southern Africa, we have the first GOOD NEWS for Volunteers looking at making a change in Africa. Namibia has opened its borders to visitors! This is an incredibly positive step for Southern African countries, and one which we have been looking forward to for months!

The Namibian government announced the reopening of its borders as of Tuesday, 01 September 2020. This means that as flights start arriving to South Africa’s northern neighbour, volunteers will once again be welcomed in this beautiful country

There are several entry requirements which must be met:

Travellers permitted to enter Namibia must inform the relevant Namibian diplomatic representative in their country 14 days before entering Namibia about their intended trip dates, including entrance date into Namibia as well as departure date. This needs to be done in a written document.
All travellers who arrive in Namibia with a negative PCR test result that is not older than 72 hours will be permitted to travel freely in and around Namibia.
All travellers who arrive in Namibia with a negative PCR test result that is older than 72 hours but not older than 7 days, will be permitted to enter the country, however they will be required to spend their first 7 days in the first destination facility under supervised isolation.

All new arrivals to Namibia must have copies of the following documents to show the airport officials on arrival:

Copy of invitation letter (Good Hope Volunteers will share this with you once booking has been made)
The Ministry of Health certificate – to prove your stay is in a government certified establishment (Good Hope Volunteers will share this with you once booking has been made)
The completed Health questionnaire for arriving international travellers
The completed Primary Surveillance form for arriving international travellers

On arrival at Namibian Wildlife and Namibian Medical projects:

All travellers must get a Namibian telephone number for contact tracing purposes. SIM card and top up credit can be purchased at the project on arrival, OR at the airport.
All travellers will receive temperature screening and will need to complete the contact tracing form, this will be done in the project office on arrival
On day 5 volunteers will be retested for COVID-19 on site by Dr Rudie Van Vuuren, test results will be shared on day 7, after which visitors will be permitted to travel onwards if results are negative. If results are positive, they will need to stay in a government isolation facility at own expense. Please note, the onsite testing will incur a cost of N$1,700 per person

The great news is that the project IS a government registered isolation facility and so any such isolation period can be done at the project.
Should any medical care be needed the project will arrange access to the best medical facilities in Namibia.

Visitors may participate in all activities offered as normal, but are not permitted to leave the premises until after 7th day

We are all very excited about this latest update and are looking forward to the return of our wonderful volunteers to Namibia.

This means that all volunteer bookings for Good Hope Volunteers will continue AS NORMAL to the Medical and Wildlife project in Namibia. And any existing bookings from September 1 2020 are permitted to travel to Namibia to participate in their projects.

Yours,
Vanessa Randon (Programme Manager)
The Good Hope Volunteer Team

To be part of our amazing volunteer community, please contact us.