Uganda Lodge » volunteer

Open Letter to Potential Volunteers & Sponsors

annmcc — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:29:44 +0000

May 2009 OPEN LETTER TO POTENTIAL VOLUNTEERS & SPONSORS

Let me l tell you a little about myself. Together with my husband Paul I live in our family home some 30 miles west of London and we have four grown up chldren. We are now semi-retired, and run a small Guest House; in the past we had a pig-farm and I was a Cub Scout Leader for many years.

We now have four grandchildren, and over the past 15 years I have been lucky enough to enjoy my passion for travel. I have been to many countries, although usually ‘backpacking’ – meaning I travel independently, stay in budget accomodation and use local guides that I meet along the way. That is how I have managed to see so many places, by keeping the costs down low.

During their teens and twenties all of our children also travelled independently to many corners of the world, and I believe that travel is a wonderful educator. I welcome any parents to contact me if they have fears for letting their youngsters off on their own (or young adults afraid for their parents!!) Once I no longer had the responsibility of a young family, my travels kept taking me to new countries every year – that is until I found Uganda……

In 2004 I went to see the mountain gorillas, got shown around an orphanage and shortly after I met Denis, who was my driver out there. I went back again to Uganda the following year and saw how Denis was trying to help the people in his village by building a house that he planned to open as a Guest House that would be suitable for overseas visitors. He was already employing local men on making bricks and building, and after seeing that, the rest of my money went in the local hardware shop on cement, paint etc.

Over the following three years I have returned a couple of times each year and done some more fund-raising here in the UK to help get ”Uganda Lodge” as we have called it, up and running. Now we have opened the accommodation with four bedrooms and six African style bandas, we have a bar and we serve local food; the project just about breaks as long as we get visitors to stay. We are employing several local people on a full-time basis as well as builders and labourers as and when when money becomes available.

At the request of many local parents and carers we have built and opened a nursery school last year and it now has over forty 2-6 year old students who are all beginning to understand quite a lot of English.. It is not free (although I think there are quite a few who for various reasons have not paid anyting!) and I have explained to the parents that although I built the school it must become self-funding and bring in enough to pay the teachers salaries, the breakfasts and the teaching aids plus electricity and a little extra for maintenence. The little children are so sweet, especially now they all wear lovely new uniforms that we bought in the Woolworths 80% closing down sale! The volunteers who stay at Uganda Lodge all love working with them.

Denis’s friends have already started the foundations to build a larger school, but exactly what that is for and how it is run is not set in stone. It would be great to open a school that we could educate children of any age who come from a wider area and are perhaps orphans with no one to look out for them, or are the fifth or more child of one family (they have a sort of free education system for the first four of a family, if uniform, food, and books can be paid for) But that is in the future or if we find a wealthy benefactor!

Last year I sent out some tool kits, sewing machines and computers in a container, and I urgently want to finish building a craft-centre/workshop so we can start training disadvantaged youngsters from the nearby villages and use the equipment that is there and waiting. Alongside completing the childrens toilet block and putting in windows and concrete floors in at the nursery, the craft centre is our current most pressing goal.

So far, most of what we have achieved in Ruhanga has been done with little outside help, and in fact many of the community are not really understandng that now there is somewhere for volunteers to stay right in their village, more help will in the furure be coming to assist them directly rather than in-directly. This will be mainly in the form of better education by helping adults and children to learn basic living skills, business training, marketing skills and how to access micro-finance, loans and grants to start up new income-generating projects.

One lady I have met here in the UK has set up a registered charity called ”Let Them Help Themselves” www.lethemhelpthemselves.org and any fundraising she does will be directed at Uganda Lodge and the Ruhanga area. She would especially like to initiate a clean fresh water supply from the nearby mountains down to the nearby schools and families living around the Lodge

By looking at the photos on the website, you can see how much has been achieved by Denis and his friends out in Uganda over the past three years, by utilising the funds I have been able to send out from giving talks and organising fund-raising events here.

Potential volunteers and sponsors will by now of understood that I am not part of a large charity or organisation, although a group of local leaders have formed and registered a Community Based Organisation (CBO) out there and chosen me as their patron, but I am just attempting to ”make a difference” to the people living in a few villages in Ruhanga – an area where there are no other westerners working. Please join me.

Look at the rest of our website and then feel free to contact me directly to ask any further questions you may have about volunteering, going on a safari, or sponsoring one of our projects.

Thankyou

Ann

Are you thinking of volunteering?

annmcc — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:34:44 +0000

Who Can Volunteer?

Volunteering in Africa is for any age group, it is not something reserved exclusively for ‘Gap Year’ students.
Its always a good idea to talk with someone who has actually visited the project, so you can ask questions and get a feel for whether or not the project is something you would like to be involved in.
At Uganda Lodge volunteering is suitable for whole families, motivated and self-reliant teenagers, and also seniors who are fairly mobile – there are no steps but the ground can be uneven.

Why Volunteer?

Have you thought about the benefits you will get from volunteering? If you consider the many benefits you will receive, you will be asking yourself why you aren’t more involved with helping a cause. You will get more out of your volunteer experience than you put into it. Dont hesitate to identify and donate some of your time to a worthy volunteer opportunity. You will be glad you did. Consider some of these reasons to donate your time and efforts:

To make new friends
To build personal and professional contacts
To build your self-esteem and self-confidence
To develop new job skills
To make a difference in the world
To increase personal satisfaction
To add experience to your resume
To develop people
To develop communication skills
To do something as a family
To explore career possibilities
To feel needed and appreciated
To share your skills with others
To be challenged
To do something different
To earn academic credit
To improve your health
To have fun!

What can I do?

Don’t think you have to have a degree or some other qualifications or a trade skill on your CV . Anyone with a western education can offer help simply by sharing their experiences of life and general knowledge with these village people.

You really need to be fluent in English, and even if you are not a teacher you can go into the classrooms and hold conversations with older children in several nearby schools. They badly need help if they are to pass their exams as some of the teachers themselves are not too good!

Children at our own Nursery School and the P1 and P2 classses in the primary schools love help from visitors to learn new nursery rhymes and action songs, or simply talking about pictures in books.

We have a series of educational interactive DVD’s that are already translated into Runyankole, and they can be facilitated by volunteers both at Uganda Lodge using the TV or in the heart of the villages on portable DVD players.

Skills, Trades and Qualifications.

If you have a specific interest, for example singing & music, or sports. or arts & crafts, or you have medical experience, or computer knowledge, or have a trade such as a builder or a welder, then if you wish, we can utilise these skills and match them with work and training that can be done around Uganda Lodge.

What will it Cost me to Volunteer?

For your food and accommodation whilst staying at Uganda Lodge we charge 210,000 Ugx per week, approx £75. This can be negotiable if you stay for a long period and/or are sharing a room. However please bear in mind that ALL profits stay within the project and are helping to upgrade facilities for both villagers and future guests.

We currently do not charge any marketing or registration fees, all the background work is done for free. However we do ask for at least two weeks to be paid as a deposit to prevent the staff and community in general being disappointed.

You are also welcome to bring some extra money with you – perhaps from a fund-raising event - that with some consultationyou can spend on a project of your own choice as you see a need.

Why Should I pay to Volunteer?

A good question, please let me explain. In Uganda, as in most developing nations, there are many highly qualified young people who are coming out of universities with degrees but who still cannot find jobs…they simply are not out there.

If a project has enough money to pay a salary, or indeed even support a person by providing transport, food and accommodation then the leaders of this project should be spending the money on the nationals from the country itself and not supporting overseas visitors.

This is why I firmly believe that any reputable NGO or Charity or Project should not be offering free placements. I also believe that volunteers should not be asked to pay out for large placement or management fees, and should ensure that anything over the basic costs of their stay should actually benefit the community they are working in.

Latest News

Camilla and Joanna, two Swedish friends arrived in Uganda on 8th April for six weeks, to do research amongst the local villagers for a university project. They were met by Denis at the airport and all three went down to Uganda Lodge on the bus.

June 2009

Ann is returning to Uganda Lodge for a month to try and oversee the opening of the Craft-Centre/Workshop at Uganda Lodge