📝 Detailed information
🏢 About the local organisation
Uganda Pioneers´ Association (UPA) is an indigenous youth voluntary Non-Government Organization (NGO) registered with the National NGO Bureau in Uganda, under Ref No. S5914/114. The organization focuses on offering youth with the opportunity to contribute to community development by involving them in community projects through themed workcamps and international volunteer exchanges. The organisation is Not-for-Profit and does not represent any political, religious or sectarian motives.
💼 What the programme involves
• Social support to HIV/AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children.
• Join in home visits to positive living children or other vulnerable children to assist in food preparation, cleaning (hygiene) basic medical care and counseling.
• Office work related to organization development and programming.
• Move within the slum communities of Kawempe division and the rural areas of Wakiso, to care givers of orphans.
• Volunteers can also spend time working within the studios, ie participating in health talk, talk shows, dialogues, schools where our orphans receive education from and offices of the agencies which support the work of the Project.
• Participate in organizing recreational activities, retreats for children.
• Music dance and drama
• Participate in the Kiganda Children for Change Project; teaching the children basic English/Math, life skills teaching, home visits, fundraising, counseling, writing reports, additional programs such as music, dance & drama, gardening and sports.
🏠 Accommodation on site
The volunteer has the possibility to choose between staying in the guesthouse, with different international volunteers (sharing room, normally 2-4 people) or to stay in a host family. Accommodation is at the UPA Guesthouse, average but not luxury. The Guesthouse has a bathroom with a shower, and a toilet. In the Guesthouse the volunteers prepare their own food. UPA provides gas cooker, a fridge, and utensils.
Alternatively, a volunteer can stay with a host family to be more exposed to the Ugandan culture, if that’s his/her wish and this should be communicated UPA on application for the project. In this case you will eat within the family and can engage in the cooking.
It is around 25 minutes to Kampala downtown it costs about 2000 Ugandan Shillings by Minibus-taxi (Matatu) or around 4000 Uganda Shillings with a Boda-Boda (Motorcycle Taxi).
⚠️ Requirements
• Clothes, both casual and formal. Especially for your work you should dress more formal or events where you are invited to.
• A light sleeping bag and flashlight.
• Working shoes (trekking/sports shoes) in case of physical work
• A personal first aid kit (bandage, disinfectant, diarrhoea tablets, etc) and any medication you may require (allergies, asthma, diabetes, etc.), however almost all medicines can be purchased in Uganda.
• If you bring electrical equipment then remember to bring a British adapter. Otherwise you can buy one in Uganda for about 3,000 to 5000 UGX.
• Sun glasses, sun cream/lotion
NOTE: Shorts, dresses and skirts should reach knee length for cultural consideration. Smoking in public is illegal while engagement in drug/harsh carries a life prison sentence.
And don’t forget to bring your energy, smile, and sense of humour along too!