The Volunteer Uganda School Project is a grass roots project started and run by the staff of a poor school near Bujagali Falls, Jinja in Uganda to try to improve the educational standards, opportunities and lives of the children they teach. The school is in a poor rural community where the small local tourist industry will soon be dealt a death blow when the new Dam floods the Bujagali Falls. Local family income is currently only about $10 a month. Although the school was given solid buildings to compensate the community for the dam, nothing else was provided. Through the volunteer project the staff is gaining both western expertise and resources that are bought from the very small profit from the volunteer fee. The fee is kept purposely small to respect the generosity of volunteers coming to help them. As teachers are themselves poor and expected to support vast extended families because they are almost certainly the only professional people in their family, the cost of volunteers’ meals and accommodation forms the largest part of the volunteer fee.
Volunteers can undertake a variety of tasks at the school whilst living close to it in the compound of the Project Manager, Moses. This is a real experience of Africa, living and working with an extended family in a clearing in one of the remnants of the Kyabirwa jungle.
Volunteer tasks vary according to volunteer’s qualifications, experience and preferences. You do not have to be a qualified teacher but a liking for and an aptitude for working with children is essential if you want to teach any children anywhere.
The children are taught in English from year 3. They range in age from 6 – 18. Sometimes it takes them that long to finish primary school. They have to pass the final year exams to enable them to secure a place at a secondary school.
Volunteers who wish to teach will either work in class supporting the teacher or teach the class with the teacher present for support. They may also opt to teach small groups which they will take to a different room.
Volunteers may teach all subjects including sport, drama, art and music as well as the academic subjects, according to skills and preferences.
In addition to teaching there are many opportunities for volunteers to do repair and/or building work, painting, decorating and carpentry.
Then local community is very welcoming and will be glad if volunteers take interest in them by visiting them in their homes, although volunteers must be careful not to be a financial drain on them when they do. Local people love it when volunteers go to their church services, too.
Please look at our website. We have packed it with information to encourage you to come to us. So, please have a look at it, enjoy the dozens of photos of our children and read all about us. But, don’t stop there please come and volunteer at our school. Help us to give our children better lives. We are waiting to welcome you!
The volunteer fee is paid in Uganda shillings (800,000) which you can obtain at a bank when you get here. Depending on the exchange rate it is approximately $375 for 4 weeks. This fee includes your accommodation in your own room and two good meals a day. Dinner is also available if you don’t want to go to town to eat with other volunteers and friends you make locally. The cost is approximately $3.
www.volunteerugandaschool.org Moses Owino: owinomoses22@yahoo.com +256782460012
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