The AIFS program, High School Exchange South Africa was launched in 2000 in conjunction with our partners from AIFS Germany. Since that time many South African host families have opened their homes and have successfully hosted young exchange students from Germany. The boys and girls, ranging in age from 15 to 18 years old, are all eager to experience the South African way of life and culture. Historically, students have been placed in Durban and Southern KwaZulu-Natal, but it is planned to extend the program to other major metropolitan areas in South Africa.

The students all live in typical South African homes and attend South African schools for either a semester or an academic year, and their objective is to learn as much as possible about the South African culture, history, attitudes and lifestyle. The main responsibilities of a South African host family are to provide the student with a complete home environment and to allow the student to fully integrate into their everyday life. Each student participates in the family’s activities such as birthdays, weddings or family outings, but the student also knows that helping the host parents with the housework, doing homework, and studying for school is an essential part of the program. Both the host family and the exchange student benefit enormously from this unique experience.

This program has been very successful and AIFS South Africa hopes that in future many more cosmopolitan and open-minded South African families will decide to open their homes to foreign students to form lifelong friendships and to make a contribution to a better international understanding.

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