A Complete Guide to Volunteering in Uganda
Welcome to your official guidebook to volunteering in Uganda. This jam-packed book brings you all the information you need for a fun volunteer experience in Uganda. From deciding where and when to travel, to choosing the best volunteer project for you, this book will supply you all the information you need to make an informed decision. While we guarantee a thrilling experience full of unexpected adventures, we will provide a thorough preparation for anything and everything you may face in your exciting travels.
Chapter 1: Getting Started
Welcome to Uganda!
Famously crowned “the pearl of Africa” by Winston Churchill, the small, land-locked country of Uganda boats an incredible array of sights and exciting activities for eager adventurers looking to volunteer abroad in Uganda. From scaling the monstrous mountain of Rwenzoris, the tallest in Africa, to admiring fields of flora, flauna and wildlife, you will spare no time enjoying the spoils of the African country.
Considered one of the safest countries in all of Africa, tourism and volunteer trends are skyrocketing in Uganda, so hop on board and see what the hype is all about!
A true volunteering experience in Uganda may take on many forms, but each form will open your mind to a new and exciting world. Depending upon your interests, you may choose to build and maintain local developmental projects, work closely with job creation efforts, join the health care promotion industry, craft your own adventure.
Whatever your choice, commit yourself to promoting a healthier, more productive, and more enjoyable lifestyle for the local communities you work with. Help build confidence and eradicate poverty while experiencing a part of the world so that many people miss out on.
Why You Should Volunteer in Uganda:
With massive mountain ranges, expansive rivers, diverse wildlife, and unique cultural traditions, Uganda’s will blow your mind in seconds. Those who visit the country reaffirm its beauty to everyone. In fact, the Lonely Plant Travel Guide claimed that Uganda was ‘the best travel destination’ in 2012, further proving just how amazing the country is.
Feel rewarded with a burst of energy when you decide to volunteer in Uganda. With over half of its population under the age of 18 and a long history of political unrest and child homelessness, you will experience the rare opportunity to someone’s life every time you speak. Feel the gratitude and love from every person you meet and share in memorable moments day-in and day-out.
Your unique volunteer program in Uganda will throw you into a foreign world filled with tastes, smells and sights that only your dreams can imagine. During your free time, join fellow group members and explore the busy bazaars, coffee and plantain fields, and mountains in and around your volunteering area.
Here are just a few of the best reasons to volunteer abroad in Uganda
Form life-long connections with the local people.
Live amongst some of the most caring and loving individuals in the world when you volunteer in Uganda. With budding tourism numbers, local Ugandans passionately hope to share their cultures and customs with all visitors. Experience vibrant smiles and warm embraces from everyone you meet. Don’t fear if you’re called a muxungu either! The word means ‘white man’ and often serves as a term of endearment.
Wild Life: The Ugandan landscape contains countless different national parks and reserves. Take an excursion to catch a glimpse of a hippo, elephant, crocodile, antelope, water buffalo, lion or exotic bird.
In comparison to many of its bordering countries, Uganda’s land remains relatively untouched. Often referred as “off-the-beaten-track” Ugandan landscapes emanate a raw, remote emotion that welcomes in personal contact with rare wildlife.
Outdoor Activities: Whether you find enjoyment hiking through the Rwenzori mountain range, walking on a safari around Lake Mburo or kayaking in the river of Bunyonyi, you can find any opportunity to excite your mind while volunteering in Uganda.
You can watch and track gorillas, rent all-terrain vehicles and bikes for a day of extreme sports or go whitewater rafting down the world-famous Nile River. Whatever your desire, you’ll surely find what you’re looking for in Uganda!
Observe Gorillas: Found practically nowhere else in the world, the endangered gorilla calls Uganda its home. Tourist excursions and tours provide you the chance to soak in these creatures’ beauty and support the local conservation efforts. Protec local animals, landscapes and communities while you enjoy all they have to offer at the same time.
Change the World:While Uganda may possess some of the world’s most unmatched beauty, the country itself still requires our help. Passion travelers looking to volunteer in Uganda can immediately change the communities they serve. Choose to work with HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, teach in schools and orphanages, and support wildlife conservation projects.
Kick Back and Relax on the Ssese Islands: If you choose to volunteer in Uganda, the majority of your time will be dedicated towards serving the local communities. However, during your free days and weekends, you may arrange to travel to the Ssese Islands for a deeply relaxing and inspiring vacation.
The massive archipelage of 84 islands is satiated along the northwestern border of Lake Victoria and contains nothing but pristine white sands for your enjoyment.
Experience Personal and Unique Growth: Even if you’ve been to Africa before, volunteering in Uganda undoubtedly expose you a host of new, life-changing experiences. From the welcoming hearts of local communities to the impact you and your team will have on the children and animals around you, Uganda will sculpt you into a stronger, nicer, and better person.
What are Some Popular and Available Volunteer Projects in Uganda?
Chalk full of exiting and stimulating experiences, Uganda can change in your life with just one volunteering project. Work with children in an orphanage, sweat over some manual labor, teach in schools, or share your healthcare knowledge with the people of Uganda. Your passion and commitment will change their lives.
Here, you can explore the various different volunteer opportunities available in Uganda.
Working in a Rural Community:
If tall meadows and quite streets bring your heart to a quiver, join one of the many rural volunteer opportunities in Uganda. Countless organizations around the world recruit volunteers just like you who hope to support women’s rights groups, underprivileged and orphaned children, and education programs.
You may choose to organize team sports activities for local kids, dig wells and milk cows on a farm, teach English and other elementary topics to local school children or support women’s rights initiatives to weave baskets and raise awareness for their prerogatives.
Orphanages:
Most orphanages in Uganda generally offer sanctuary to children aged anywhere from newborns to teenagers. In Uganda, most of these orphans come from impoverished neighborhoods and often suffer from malnourishment.
Volunteers working in Ugandan Orphanages can teach classes, assist local professors and teachers, help organizing daily activities, build and maintain new infrastructure, or assist with anything else the orphanage may need.
Healthcare:
Join one of many healthcare initiatives when volunteering in Uganda. Many inhabitants of rural communities in Uganda lack proper access to sufficient healthcare, and therefore suffer from otherwise preventable diseases.
As a healthcare volunteer in Uganda, you can provide these local communities a proper healthcare education, minimize the infant mortality rates and raise awareness for HIV/AIDS prevention projects.
Construction:
If digging, building, cutting, and creating excite you, then feast your hands on one of the man construction opportunities offered in Uganda. Volunteer projects in Uganda include helping create and maintain buildings all throughout the country.
Work with local communities and their construction teams to expand, renovate, restructure, create and design new structures all around the country.
Sports:
If you’re passionate about sports then explore the wonderful opportunities that Uganda offers visitors. Take note that in Ugandan culture, children don’t often participate in organized sports. Therefore, they often lack much of the same team building skills related to youth sports.
As a volunteer in Uganda, you can change the lives of so many kids by increasing both their physical fitness and self-esteem. Work to teach local communities how to play volleyball, soccer, and netball in a structured setting.
Where are Some Popular Places to Volunteer in Uganda?
Kampala:
The official capital city of Uganda, KamPlaces To Volunteer pala is the largest city in the land-locked country. Once teeming with dangerous streets because of political unrest and rising secular tensions, Kampala has now transformed into a haven for tourists and visitors alike.
Volunteers in Uganda can travel to Kampala for culturally rich environment and several opportunities to make a difference.
Bulenga:
Located in the Wakiso district, the city of Bulenga is about 12 km from Kampala city. Bulenga boasts more of a rural, country environment with several orphanages scattered throughout its grounds. Most orphaned children have lost their parents to AIDS.
As a volunteer in Uganda, you can both help care for children and work at an orphanage in Bulenga.
Mukono:
Known as one of Uganda’s fastest developing urban areas, Mukono holds more than 58,000 proud and happy Ugandans. The thriving town features an exciting, central market filled with unique cultural experiences.
When volunteering in Uganda, you can dive into both the education systems and healthcare systems in Mukono.
Mutongo:
The city of Mutongo is located just 15 km from the capital city of Kampala. Those who live in the tranquil city speak both Swahili and English and enjoy a soothing, tropical climate.
By volunteering in Uganda, you can live in Mutongo and work with teachers, carpenters, doctors, children, or women’s rights groups.
What is the Best Season to Volunteer in Uganda?
Because of its geographical location near the equator, Uganda is a tropical, warm travel destination all year round. Temperatures vary only between 22-28 degrees Celsius or 75-82 Fahrenheit.
The tropical climate in Uganda brings heavy rains throughout the year. Fortunately, Uganda’s rainy season is shorter than most other tropical countries and spans from October to November in the fall, and from March to May in the spring.
Don’t be deterred by the month of the year when volunteering in Uganda as the country’s rainy seasons present tourists and visitors a like the perfect opportunity to admire wildlife otherwise hidden,
From June to September, Uganda adopts a more arid and dryer climate.