Volunteer with AIDS orphans in Uganda

Our partner in Uganda http://www.globalvolunteernetwork.org/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. Most projects have little or no resources, so foreign volunteers with different ideas and experiences are highly valued.

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.

Our partner works with four private primary schools in Mukono town that cater exclusively to the education, housing and feeding of needy children and orphans. Volunteers are involved in arts and crafts, structured play, music/singing, sports, health, and academics. The main focus is to provide children with a loving, creative, interactive environment in which to flourish.

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.

Volunteers may also choose to work in a local residential home for special needs children. Main activities include structured play, story time, feeding, basic colours and numbers.

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.

Volunteers are given a private room at the organizations headquarters, with their door opening directly onto a lush, green farm.

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!

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 week’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.

Volunteers will take part in a flexible schedule, which includes some or all activities offered by the program. The exchange of ideas, experiences, and culture is encouraged. This project requires walking long distances in the sun. Volunteers are encouraged to bring a sleeping bag, and protective clothing and shoes.