Volunteering Projects in Uganda

Invite Friends to Volunteer

Description

The Global Volunteer Network currently has opportunities aimed at providing primary and secondary education to needy children, and community outreach and counseling with our partner organization in Uganda. This provides an opportunity to experience Ugandan life first-hand while working to improve your host community. Our partner in Uganda has projects based in Mukono, Jinja, Wakiso, and Masaka Districts. All projects are aimed at providing primary and secondary education to needy children and community outreach and counselling to youth and adults. Village Teaching and Outreach Placement: Our partner works with a number of small community based organizations that provide counselling, care, and education for rural people and orphaned and underprivileged children. Some of these placements focus exclusively on teaching primary or secondary school. Others include both teaching and community outreach components. Please inform us if you wish to teach, do outreach work, or a combination of both, so we can best choose your program. Village teaching placements can include arts and crafts, structured play, music/singing, sports, health, and academics. Volunteers can teach primary or secondary students. Volunteers choose which subjects and age groups to teach upon arrival. They work independently to plan lessons using government curriculum and textbooks. Please be aware that there will be few (if any) resources available at school. Volunteers should bring any supplies, teaching materials, or instruments they wish to make use of. The main focus is to provide children with a loving, creative and interactive environment in which to flourish. Village community outreach placements can include youth mentoring, team building, HIV prevention and AIDS care, sanitation and hygiene, and general public health. For volunteers with a medical background, placements can include working with health-based organizations. Volunteer activities may include home visiting, designing education materials, conducting seminars, and maintaining wells and other village infrastructure. A village placement is particularly appropriate for volunteers with great ideas and enthusiasm for grassroots development. This is a real opportunity for deep cultural exchange. Organic Farming Project: Volunteers with a green thumb, or those who just want to plunge their hands into deep, rich, African soil, will be interested in an organic farming placement. This village based placement teaches and promotes modern methods of organic farming in rural Ugandan communities. Volunteers work along side Ugandans digging and maintaining demonstration gardens. Activities include raised bed and double-dug farming to best utilize soil and make planting, harvesting, and fertilizing easier. Volunteers also teach water conservation by lining large pits with plastic bags to collect and store rain water. The organization composts garden refuse and spreads it as fully organic fertilizer, and shows how to create pesticides by mixing ingredients such as tobacco, chilli pepper, and onion. Volunteers will be given basic training upon arrival. A small nursery school is a recent addition to the placement, and can be a refreshingly shady place to volunteer after a morning of digging. It benefits the severely rural poor and orphaned children of the area. Remote Orphan Care Project: For volunteers wishing to work in a very remote area with HIV affected orphans, our partner works with a project in western Uganda, about 5 hours away from its other host organizations. This is the area where HIV/AIDS has most devastated Uganda. The organisation is focused on bringing aid, education, and love to the orphans of the area, many of whom have lost their parents due to AIDS related illnesses. Volunteers help with basic academics, feeding, organizing play, arts and crafts, hygiene and HIV/AIDS education appropriate to the childrens' age level (3 to 12 years). Volunteers may be asked to help with administrative work such as budgeting, updating paperwork, writing proposals, and maintaining personal files on the children. This is a challenging but amazing program for volunteers with experience organising children, such as camp counsellors, day care workers, and people who love children. Bring your games, songs, and enthusiasm to the village! Public Health Improvement Project: This is a project promoting general public health improvement in Uganda. Volunteers travel with and work alongside Ugandan counsellors in a variety of programs, directly benefiting 10 rural communities and 7 secondary schools. Volunteers will be engaged in a combination of the following activities: Village outreach: Public speaking and mentoring in various rural communities respecting HIV/AIDS, malaria, hygiene, family planning, reproductive health, nutrition, early childhood feeding, sanitation, women's rights and domestic violence. This is the most important and most common activity undertaken by volunteers. Volunteers travel to a variety of villages on a weekly basis. They design their own seminars based on that weekÂ?s subject matter. Basic training and educational materials are on site, but volunteers are encouraged to bring new materials as well. Secondary School outreach: Public speaking and mentoring of youth about teen issues. These may include drug abuse, pregnancy, STDs, sexual education, and decision-making. Volunteers may visit 1 or 2 schools per day speaking directly to students about issues affecting them. Again, volunteers will design their own speeches, but will be given basic training and access to educational materials in order to prepare themselves.

Requirements:
Volunteers for the Uganda program must: * be 18 years or older * have no major health problems * be able to walk distances up to 5km daily * obtain a police check from your home country prior to volunteering * sign a general waiver of liability * have a positive and outgoing personality

Requirements

No

No

Language

English

The in-country fee covers administrative charge, project donation, airport pickup, transport to project, meals and accommodation during placement, and supervision.

You will need a weekly budget of approximately US$25 to cater for all your other expenses like bottled water, personal costs, beverages and entertainment. The other costs you will need to meet are your flights, visa, shots, travel insurance, and departure tax.