Voluntourism & Eco-Adventure

Help Build a much needed latrine

Why not warm your heart at the Bupala Primary School?

What's being accomplished
The Ugandan nonprofit WOWAYA is actively improving primary education in the rural village of Iganga. One week of your help will make a real difference in their efforts to improve facilities for the local children. 

How you can help
OK, first: latrines. Ewwwww.
Now: please take a minute to consider how important they are to rural education. They mitigate disease, keeping kids in attendance. They help protect drinking water. And, by offering privacy, they allow girls to stay in school after they reach puberty. It doesn't get more real than this. Lack of latrines is a major reason girls drop out of school in the developing world.

On our July trip to Iganga, utilizing funds raised by students at Radnor Middle School in Wayne, Pennsylvania, we are going to help WOWAYA staff and builders install new, private latrines for the Bubala Primary School. Your volunteer labor – digging, carrying supplies, mixing cement – will create real, meaningful advantages for Iganga's children.

All participants will be able to help in some way.  And – let's get right to it – there's no poop involved in the project. A latrine is a simple building covering a septic pit. Nobody will be using the facilities while they're being built.

Also, the Iganga village experience is so much more than work. There will be plenty of time to chill out (average temperature, 70 degrees Fahrenheit) in the beautiful surroundings, spend time with the Bubala Primary School kids and meet the local community. There's even white water rafting and hiking, plus a day of urban tourism in Kampala!

Immediately following the project, Kuchanga Travel is offering an optional wildlife safari in Uganda's amazing mountain forest and riparian preserves.

For more information on serving in Iganga or donating to the latrine project, please contact Joanne Trangle.

View trip details

They are some of the least regarded casualties of developing nations – child laborers, survivors of violence, prostitutes.  But in Uganda they’re building skills to remake their lives. Your knowledge, even in areas as basic as “home economics,” can truly help these budding entrepreneurs, teachers and health advocates being served by a carefully vetted local NGO. 

Project Highlights
You’ll have numerous opportunities to use your skills – teaching, building much needed latrines for the kids at school, providing medical and dental care or helping with a business plan.
For more information on serving with WOWAYA, please contact Joanne Trangle.

Interested in learning about tropical medicine, HIV counseling or maternity care?

What's being accomplished
Though public health care is available in Uganda, not all communities have health centers. The public health centers and clinics that exist are sometimes woefully under-equipped and under-staffed. The mission of the Hope Medical Clinics (HMC) is to improve the health care of under-served communities. Presently, HMC has two clinics in Kasubi and Ndejie, maternal health hospital in Kawempe and welcomes volunteers to support its mission.

How you can help
Both medically and non-medically trained volunteers may support community health centers and hospitals; specific duties depend on skills and qualifications. HMC has many volunteer opportunities and is willing to customize your experience to enable you to share your individual skill set and compassion with the community. All volunteers will be exposed to both public and private hospitals to achieve an understanding of the challenges facing Uganda’s health sector.

Examples of duties include:

• Medical (prenatal and postnatal care; pediatrics; tropical disease diagnosis and treatment; orthopedics; surgical)
• Public health (immunization, HIV counseling and testing, breastfeeding, family planning; community health education)
• Outreach (community outreach, clinic promotion, and health unit mobilization)
• Development (grant writing/policy issues)
• Physical support (grounds keeping, landscaping, hospital maintenance)

Health volunteers will live and immerse themselves in the communities in which they serve, especially for rural placements. This is to provide volunteers with a more holistic appreciation of the people they serve, and the complex economic, cultural, and social factors that shape their health needs. Whatever services are rendered, volunteers will work in partnership with the community. HMC expects volunteers to remember they are not simply helping but rather serving the community as equals, with a goal to improve health care for under-served communities.

In a remote Ugandan village Jewish, Christian and Muslim children attend school together in friendship. Uganda’s has a small but thriving indigenous Jewish community, the Abayudaya. Their main village of Nabugoye is located in a verdant mountainous area in eastern Uganda.

The Abayudaya community opened a health center in June 2010 to address a tremendous need for basic health care in the region. Beyond medial care, the Abayudaya also serve the local area with commerce and education. The health center, the coffee co-op and the Jewish school in Nabagoye include their Christian and Muslim neighbors, fostering good will and cooperation among the communities.
 
Economic development among the Abayudaya is shifting from being donor-reliant to self-sustaining. With guidance from their Ugandan born, U.S.-trained rabbi, Gershom Sizomu, the Abayudaya have organized a micro-lending fund to start small business enterprises. This community fund is catalyzing entrepreneurial success and creating much-needed jobs.

Volunteer opportunities

You’ll have numerous opportunities to use your skills – teaching, building, providing medical and dental care, marketing small entrepreneurial businesses or helping with a business plan. Those interested in contributing to the school’s classes will be able to work directly with the teachers and children.

Physicians, nurses, midwives and others involved in health care will have a very special opportunity to work in a community with a great need for medical care. Medical professionals joining the mission would see patients and hold day clinics for those in need or work with the existing medical center, depending on your expertise.  Pre-travel meetings will connect you with a specialist to discuss specific needs of the community.

All participants will be able to apply their talents and experiences for a grateful community. We will be meeting with new entrepreneurs and existing business people in the community, from farmers to small business retailers. Lenders are also welcome!

Special project: Community library and learning center

In this remote Ugandan village Jewish, Christian and Muslim children attend school together in friendship. You and your organization can join an interfaith charitable effort being organized by Kuchanga Travel  to develop a web-based learning center connecting Nabagoye to the rest of the world.