Placement: Volunteers Wanted for Ugandan Village Nursery School

About the Placement

Volunteers with a variety of skills and interests are warmly welcomed by the local community in the rural village of Ruhanga in SW Uganda You will stay at Uganda Lodge, which is a comfortable and relatively new Guest House that has been built by local villagers in an area where previously there were no facilities for volunteers and visitors to stay.



The cost for your accommodation is £40 per week (Max 3 per room) and if you would like to have local staff provide all your meals that is an additional £30 per week. This can be negotiable for stays of 2 months and longer. There are no other registration or project fees to pay.



All profits are immediately re-invested into upgrades for our classrooms, the Lodge and for providing additional facilities for the Community at large.



The project has enabled permanent jobs to be created for a number of local people, and many others work on a casual basis as and when money becomes available.



We built and opened a Nursery School and this now has over 100 students attending each day. Volunteers have the opportunity to run holiday activities

as well as computer lessons for older students.



A workshop/craft centre has recently been completed and part is now being used as a media centre - equipped with computers & an internet connection. In another section we have sewing & knitting machines and other tools for craft work and are making plans for to teach other vocational skills to disadvantaged village youngsters.



Initial and ongoing funding has to date been raised mainly by a small group of supporting volunteers in the UK. At the end of 2010 we will be taking delivery of 1,000 mosquito nets and volunteers will be required to assist with village education on how and why to use them, and recording the distribution process.



We have electricity at the Lodge and the school but all our water is collected from some distance away in 20 litre jerrycans. We have plans to pipe water down from a freshwater spring on a nearby hill, putting taps in the heart our village, and then on to our school and the Lodge.



Language is not a problem as there is usually an English speaker around who will be keen to translate for you. This is the language that both children and adults are keen to learn, and the little ones pick it up very easily from volunteers spending time at their school.



Ruhanga Village is in a beautiful area with many opportunities for hill-walking and exploring mountain villages. Being on the main Kampala Kabale Road - it is easy to flag down a public taxi and go to find lakes, hot springs and country markets.

It is also possible to organise a safari into one of several National Parks that are in this part of the country or plan a visit to see the mountain gorillas.

Role of Volunteer

Assisting the teachers in our own Nursery School - just a couple of hundred metres away from where you will be staying - is where most volunteers will spend much of their day. In the school holidays it is hoped that volunteers will help to organise daily activities such sports, crafts and extra English conversation



Our school has about 120 children aged 3-9 and many are orphans or coming from very poor families. We are gradually finding people to sponsor their school fees, and another job for volunteers is to provide regular updates on their progress.



With several computers now working there is a call for classes on simple word processing, accounting and of course how to use the internet. Anyone with specific interests such as tailoring, pottery, cooking building, carpentry can utilise these skills withing the project and the village.



A large hospital is only about 4kms away and the staff there will welcome help and advice from suitable qualified volunteers. We are looking into starting a small weekly clinic at the Lodge for our students and the villagers in general - when we find someone to start this up!



What you do while you are there and how you can help the local villagers really depends on what your interests and skills are.

Travel Information

Our village is approx a 5 hour journey from Kampala and a direct bus can drop you at the gate.

If you arrive by air we can organise a driver to pick you up from Entebbe Airport and take you into Kampala to help you find the correct bus.



More details are given in our information letter that you can request by emailing direct to ann@annmccarthy.co.uk

Photo Gallery

 

 

 

Uganda Lodge from the main road