The Real Uganda

I chose the Real Uganda volunteer experience because it seemed a trustworthy program that offered genuine volunteer activities, not just tokenism. The program delivered in every way. I loved living with a Ugandan family. This created a deep level of empathy and understanding for day-to-day life. I loved the groups I volunteered with. The women were so genuinely welcoming and appreciative of having a volunteer. And while my world and theirs is vastly different, my life has been enriched by spending time understanding their world and their lives. If you want to do more than just travel Uganda, I highly recommed the Real Uganda. The program is professionally run, provides great communication and Leslie is a dream to work with. A+++++

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Incredible experience. Super challenging. Leslie was a fantastic support through the whole program. Felt like I received a genuine Ugandan experience. Leslie connected me with a fantastic local organisation that is really in it's early stages of development. Spending time in the villages and meeting true locals and hearing their stories has changed me. Uganda is a beautiful country so spending a month it wasn't difficult to fill my time. Go into an experience like this with an open mind and heart.

My volunteering time with The Real Uganda was an eye opening experience and a reminder that a simple life can be so rewarding to others and myself. Learning from the locals and using my skills and knowledge with them was incredible. My experience was so life changing and memorable that nineteen years on, I am still in contact with the Real Uganda.

I participated in The Real Uganda's Public Health Improvement program. While in Uganda I spent most days at a local health center, where I volunteered in the antenatal clinic or the antiretroviral therapy clinic. Since I had not yet begun my medical training, I often sorted medications or documented appointments and patient information. However, volunteers with medical experience and adequate qualifications can be more hands-on in the clinic. I am excited to return to the program after beginning medical school and apply my new knowledge at the clinic. During my time at the clinic, I formed meaningful relationships with the people who worked there. I am so grateful to call some of them friends. Some days, I also helped to build mud stoves during the day, and most evenings were spent bonding with my host family. Although I traveled to Uganda as a volunteer, I gained more from my experiences with the locals than I could have ever imagined. I formed such strong bonds with the people at my volunteer site and my host family -- we keep in contact to this day. While in Uganda, I lived in a village with the sweetest and most caring family. There was so much love and happiness within their house, and we now consider each other family. Side note: Although I thought it would be difficult to get used to having no running water (which meant using outdoor pit latrines and taking cold bucket showers), I adapted to it pretty quickly and it was just fine! Please don't let this deter you. This program allowed me to be fully immersed in Ugandan culture and I LOVED that. The Real Uganda is the absolute opposite of "voluntourism", and exactly what I was looking for. Ugandan culture emphasizes joy, gratefulness, community, and kindness to all. While living in Uganda, I learned and began to embody the country’s values. It was typical to remain leisurely and take the time to fully experience the surrounding people and environments. So if you decide to participate in this program, please allow yourself to enjoy this way of life. Leslie (the program founder) was amazing and extremely helpful, from start to finish. As soon as I confirmed my program dates, Leslie began helping me prepare. In the months leading up to my arrival, she continued to walk me through each step of my international travel journey. While in Uganda, Leslie became my second mom. I always went to her with questions, funny stories, and any concerns, and she was always empathetic, honest, and transparent. I also think it's important to note that she conducts this program out of the kindness of her heart. Although she experiences small financial gain from it, Leslie understands the value of the experience she is able to provide to travelers/volunteers at an affordable price. Volunteering through The Real Uganda is 100% worth it, and I would do it a million more times if I could. At the end of my fourth and final week in Uganda, I called my mother and told her I wanted to live in Uganda -- The Real Uganda fostered the love for this beautiful country that grew within me. Ugandan holds a big piece of my heart, and I plan to return within the next year and travel through The Real Uganda once again.

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The six weeks I spend teaching and helping out at the school were amazing! Before coming to Uganda, I had never been to an African country. I wanted to see another country but also to immerse into another culture whilst helping others. This is exactly what I got. I was able to stay in a very small village, to eat the local food, and to experience the local life. Not all days were easy, but it was a very beautiful and fun time. The people at the village were very welcoming and friendly, and I never felt alone for one moment! The Real Uganda gave me a very warm welcome and helped me with anything throughout my stay. I felt very safe with them (as a young white woman travelling solo). They also helped me with any tourist trips I wanted to take. It was an experience I will never forget!

I had never traveled in Africa before this. And I wanted to experience the real Africa not the tourist Africa. And it is what i got. It was very real. Living with a family in a small village, working in a local poor school is very eye opening and humbling. I got to eat local foods and experience their every day life. In school I saw and was part of their education. It was very modest but teachers were very welcomy and trying to education your minds to give them a better future with the little resources they had in use. The Real Uganda program was very well organized from applying, arriving, travelling during my volunteer stay and departure. I felt safe and well taken care of before, during and after. I was placed in Buikwe village which is very grass root small poor village middle of nowhere. I would say that only with The Real Uganda program is possible to experience something like this the authentic and real Africa. I was travelling a lot during my volunteer time so it was more than just work and I got to experience the country.

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I have volunteered with TRU for 2 months and I must say it has been one of the most immersive experiences I have ever had. I have previously volunteered in conservation projects but was looking for some more cultural experience that would help me to understand the relationship between the people and the environment. Leslie, the director of TRU, has been very welcoming, answered all my questions, was available when needed and somehow always full of energy! I was placed with a local family, that took good care of me, in Lugazi and my main focus was working with the women's group as it was what I was really interested in. The Mayiando and Buyentete ladies were very welcoming from the first day, always full of joy and cheerful. And I was always excited to go to see and work with them. Together we managed to built fuel efficient clay stoves which they didn't have before and it was apparent that it was something that was needed in the community. These stoves are faster to cook with and use less firewood and produce less smoke so it has multiple benefits. We also started to make some charcoal briquettes but as it was towards the end of my stay I didn't have much time to pursue it. The women were always happy to work but made sure that we also had a good time and we danced, sang and cooked. Sharing a meal with them was always very special. I must say that the ladies truly touched my heart and I will keep them in my memory forever. During my time I had also chance to do some crafts with the Kobba ladies, visited a local clinic and did some reusable pads workshop at the local school with Doreen and Olivia (the family I lived with). I also wanted to see Uganda a bit so in a spare time I travelled to Jinja, Murchison falls, did gorilla trekking and also some cycling! Overall, it has been a beautiful experience with some challenges (as expected) and I think it made me more aware of who I want to be in this world; that we can all have an impact, big or small and that at the end of the day it is our actions that count.

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As a nurse in the US, I had always wanted to get some volunteering experience in a foreign country so when my friend mentioned that she was looking at a program in Uganda (The Real Uganda), I asked her if she wanted some company and the planning started…. We were placed at St. Charles Lwanga Buikwe Hospital and stayed with Tony and his family from Hopeline in Lugazi. Tony took the time to show us around Lugazi when we arrived and gave us a tour of all the sites that we’d be visiting. We accompanied the doctor on their morning rounds and I learned so much from them. I learned how they treat for malaria, typhoid, sickle cell crisis, malnutrition to name a few, and how they monitor HIV. I was able to see firsthand the challenges that both the healthcare staff and patient populations face due to the lack of equipment and/or funds yet how positive, humble, and optimistic everyone that I encountered was. In the afternoons, we would visit the ladies in either the Bulyantete and Mayindo groups. If you are a bit introverted like me, don’t worry – you’ll still do fine! You’re going to dance, there’s just no way around it. I had a great time with the women’s groups – everyone was so welcoming and kind. We sang, danced, played net ball, and they taught me how to make kabalagala and how to prepare and fry cassava. Again, the positivity and friendliness was astounding. Leslie totally welcomed us and prepared us for everything, she is easy to communicate with and responds quickly. I think this organization and what she is doing is pretty awesome. If there is anything that you need or want to do, she is your go to person! Definitely take time to do the things like rafting and exploring while you are here – Uganda is beautiful and fun. I feel so grateful to have had the opportunity to have had this experience and to have met all of the people that I did on this trip. The only thing that I would change is to spend more time here.

This program could not have been a better program for my first volunteer experience abroad. First off, Leslie the director is amazing and will think of everything you could possibly need to know before you start your adventure here. She immediately made me feel welcome and helped me get comfortable in the foreign culture. It was great to be fully immersed in the day-to-day lives of a Ugandan family. I was placed with Moses and his family and they were very welcoming and fantastic hosts. The living conditions were just the right amount of immersion. I volunteered at a local clinic where I took a taxi to and from. I also helped build stoves in the surrounding community. The volunteering coordination was overall pretty good I never felt awkward or pushed into something unexpected. However, you have to find your voice and let people know what you like to do and where you want to spend most of your volunteer time. I did have quite a lot of free time during most weekdays which wasn't ideal but I made the best out of it, mostly I liked hanging out with my host family in my free time. I would play with the kids and help with cooking and chores which I really liked. I felt so safe! If safety is something that is holding you back, don't let it because I felt safer than I do walking the streets in my own city. There is way more to this experience than volunteering, I also went on little trips almost every weekend and it was amazing exploring this beautiful country. Everyone and everything here taught me so much. This experience changed me as a person and I will carry this knowledge with me wherever I go.

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For this entire program, I give 10/10 ⭐ stars because the benefits to both the community and the organization are huge. Especially the knowledge and experience exchanged during volunteering period is priceless and this greatly elevates the once poor communities to well independent villages.

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Our programs are so much in benefiting both grassroot individuals most especially the unprevillaged women and children and our volunteers so that to regain hope thus dreaming again, the people we work with are much more happy to receive volunteers who always show them good behavioral habits and they always try to exchange their cultural, educational, emotional values which is what we do want our volunteers and people to obtain in their stay, it's not about being well off to be able to work with us but the love and happiness is more precious to people you will always meet on ground, Our dear friend's we do request you to work together to grow our communities we live in and to make changes in people's lives Best regards Tony

Hello, It's my pleasure to able to share my experience with my first volunteer from the Real Uganda. At first she was a little nervous which is truly fine here and days after that through out her 30days of stay. She was completely a fully blended in person. In my experience, the following elements helped with her quick bonding. Quick interuction with the two programs staff members. This helped my volunteer get different views from different staff with different positions on programs. The routine work outs at the foot ball pitch in my local community. This exposed my volunteer to the wider part of my village which was calm and very welcoming for her stay. The weekend trips to the capital of Uganda and other parts of my district Mukono helped alot in assuring my volunteer about safety both in and out of my home where she stayed with my family for a month. Whenever we could head out to help establish small vegetable gardens for these mothers, my volunteer gets a typical and more authentic rural Ugandan experience hence adding more esteem in her. Yes, there is a Luganda old saying that goes "good things always come to an end while still hot" I couldn't afford looking at my volunteer's eyes plus my daughter's eyes all dropping tears down due to the bonding the family had created with the volunteer on her last day with us. The community we serve got transformed in a sence that if a strange person comes down to help create income generating ventures in rural Uganda then we can do more for our selves. Many more rural homesteads established own small veges gardens to serve the purpose of nutrition uplift and small income growth. Ishmail Programs director, Mercys Nest Foundation.

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The real Uganda went above and beyond to make this the best experience of my life. I felt as though I was fairly prepared for the life of Uganda. I had been places before where I didn’t lay eyes on a single other white person in a whole day. I had used outdoor drop toilets and eaten street food with my hands. What I wasn’t prepared for was these aspects magnified like never before. I’d go an entire week without seeing a white person. I’d have every single conversation for a whole school week in broken English. I’d have everything washed in water that would give me typhoid if it wasn’t cooked or dried properly. I felt like I was literally walking a tightrope daily. One wrong move, one wet plate, one mozzie bite and I could be ass up or on the next flight home. I could never properly explain how thrilling and frustrating and all round fucking bananas this whole experience was. No one will ever understand, even if you come, you’ll have your experience not mine. But heck. If you can, if you want to; if it even tickles your travelling pickle to come to Uganda. Do it. Don’t think twice. This is a place I’ll be coming back to regularly and a place ill never stop talking about. It’s a place you feel instantly at home while simultaneously feeling like a freak in a zoo. It’s the best thing I have ever done. My only regret is not coming sooner. Keep being rad Uganda you wild and wonderful thing. Until next time.

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From the moment we landed to the time we were collected for our return flight we were offered every opportunity to immerse ourselves in the Ugandan way of life. Amazing tour guides and travel partners.

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Volunteering with The Real Uganda is an experience that I still think of often since returning home. I spent 12 weeks in a rural village teaching and helping out around the school and village. I had just gone through a difficult personal time in my life and I needed to shift my focus off of myself and on to others as a way to move forward, and this time in Uganda exceeded my wildest expectations. I could not have picked a better organization to go with for my first trip volunteering abroad. From the moment of first contacting The Real Uganda, they provided me with all of the information and assurance I needed to make the commitment. Once on the ground, I was met by Leslie ( The head of TRU) and myself and the other volunteers were taken around town and instructed on all the basics... ie: how to get cash out, how to use public transportation, cultural norms, best places to eat etc... Then it was off to the village! Spending 3 months living with the kids at the school was incredible. At first it is of course a culture shock, but the kids are SO incredibly happy and friendly and so welcoming that soon you just dive right into your duties. As an artist back home, I spent a good amount of time painting the dorm rooms and had the kids help me paint a large mural at the school, practicing our English along the way. The kids and everyone in Uganda are so friendly and welcoming. They really are such a beautiful community. The Real Uganda also offered detailed information on excursions to do while in Uganda, and were very helpful to set up side trips. While in Uganda I went Gorilla tracking and I went on a safari! I met amazing volunteers from all over the world that I still keep up with to this day. My best take away was to solidify what I already knew, that we are all the same the world over with the same needs and wants and goals. While it may look different to you while in a foreign country, you'll soon learn that you are no different than those you meet along the way. If you get a chance to go abroad with The Real Uganda, please do! It is am amazing country to visit, and TRU will make your stay as seamless as possible! Happy Journeys!

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That's my (short) story from volunteering in Uganda in 2014 to founding my own NGO in Germany in November 2019. My time with The Real Uganda began in September 2014, on a rainy day in the middle of the night at the airport in Entebbe. Leslie from The Real Uganda picked me up and I spent the first 48h at her volunteer base in Mukono, enjoying a first orientation. I was then drawn to my chosen projects in Lugazi, an hour away from Mukono, on the third day. My current friend and project partner, Tony Wanyoike, picked me up. We did not know each other or exchanged any information beforehand and my excitement was quite high despite my 34 years of age and various travel experiences. I only remember the first trip together vaguely. But it was a quiet getting to know each other. The silence, uncertainty, some doubts and a kind of cultural shock were gone quickly. Tony Wanyoike is a wonderful person and the support from Leslie and The Real Uganda was important, intensive and helpful, especially in the first days. Over time, I got to know and appreciate not only Tony. I lived together with Tony's family and immersed myself deeply in their everyday life. At the same time, I always kept in touch with Leslie and visited her from time to time in Mukono. I worked particularly intensively with the women's groups in Bulyantete and Mayindo. I also gained an insight into the rural located Kasubi Health Centre and helped to organise lessons at various schools. Every day there was so much traditional singing and dancing during my volunteer time in Uganda. One day I decided to teach "my ladies" a own kind of choreography (watch video below). It was great fun! Those women are amazing in many ways! Uganda is a great country with very hospitable people. My daily work had a great impact on me. I saw myself as a very little daily tealight of hope. Besides the hospitality of the people, I was impressed by the fact that despite great poverty, hunger, disadvantages, educational barriers and some illnesses, they mostly go about their daily lives with admirable humility and confidence. Since those days, the projects in the central Ugandan hinterland have become my microcosm of aid. Since 2019 I am project partner of Tony and Leslie with Hopeline Germany. I hope this partnership will last for a long time. I am always happy to answer detailed questions about my time and life on site. I am looking forward to my next visit in February 2023.

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+1

Extremely well structured and established. With evident care and detail in the planning of the trip. Experience the real day-to-day life of Ugandans and get uncensored access to their culture. Truly an eye-opening experience, that I have not taken for granted.

I spent a month in Uganda volunteering with The Real Uganda. Prior to traveling, I researched a lot of volunteer programs. Most were too costly and didn't offer a community outreach or public health program. The Real Uganda had just what I was looking for, and to top that off, the founder, Leslie is based in Uganda, which made me feel more secure. I got the chance to volunteer at two places. I worked with an organization that works with children with disabilities including cerebral palsy and epilepsy. The work I did with the organization was so inspiring and amazing. I helped the director with various tasks including handing out porridge to the families, creating and maintaining a garden for the families, collecting and distributing money for the women empowerment fund, and helping the children with physical therapy. I also volunteered at a health clinic, where I got the chance to shadow clinicians and take vital signs. My experience working with the clinic and organization was so immersive and nothing short of amazing. Outside of volunteering, my host family was so amazing and welcoming. I loved playing with my host siblings and talking to my host mom and host dad (who happened to work at the clinic and be the director of the organization). And if that is not enough to convince anyone to volunteer, Uganda is such a beautiful country. The landscape is breathtaking. Also, there is a lot to do in the country, from ziplining through the forest, gorilla trekking, and riding a boat up and down the Nile River. This was not my first time abroad, but I can say this was one of my most memorable experiences abroad. I would go back in a heartbeat. Great organization and great program!

I just completed a 4-week placement with the Real Uganda in Buikwe District! During this time, I taught classes at the Hamilton Primary school, teaching 8 P2 students. I taught everything from Math to Reading, sometimes just in the mornings and sometimes for the whole school day! Because of COVID, schools had been closed for 2 years. In spite of the challenges that missing two years of formalized education can pose, these students were caring, driven, and eager to learn! They were welcoming to me as an outsider, offering to teach me some Luganda, show me around the town, and bring in local treats! The other Hamilton teachers provided a safe space for someone with little formal teaching experience to learn! I loved teaching the kids new songs and games and finding ways to make the lessons interactive. I am so grateful to the students for being their amazing selves, the teachers for supporting me, and to the Real Uganda for making this experience possible!

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Leslie at the Real Uganda is doing something really special and incredible. She has taught me so much about the Real Uganda and about traveling ethically. She does a very good job of getting volunteers settled. There were many times that something happened in the village that Leslie had already predicted/given me advice on! When I had stomach problems, Leslie responded right away and made me feel very safe and protected. She even planned our weekend excursions and gave us lots of information on how we could make the most of our time. I found myself planning my departure of Uganda around when I could properly say goodbye to Leslie. I wanted to make sure that I had ample time to debrief my experience because she had become so important to my experience!! Because she is from Canada, I felt like she knew what I needed to know before staying in village. The Public Health program that I was placed at really prioritized my learning. As soon as I arrived, I was sat down and explained all of their HIV protocols. I was encouraged to ask any questions that I had, and all of the clinicians were eager to help me learn. I spent most of my time pricking fingers in the lab for testing and recording patient information in the records. While the work was not always riveting, I knew that I was spending my time in a way that was helping the clinic. There were days that I did 60-70 malaria tests! That is 60-70 people that did not have to wait around as long and could receive care much quicker. I really enjoyed getting to know the clinicians. They made a point to learn my name and say hi to me around the facility. In fact, once I saw a clinician out in town, and she accompanied me to get all the things I needed to buy! Another aspect of the public health program involved building plate drying racks. This allowed plates to dry above the ground and not collect dirt/bacteria while drying. We built three different drying racks for three different families during my month. We learned from community members what we needed to cut and measure and just followed their lead! I have never been as impressed as I was when I saw a 70-year-old women machete through a branch in 4 swings. For context, it took me about 20 to get all the way through. I was humbled, to say the least. This was an awesome project! I loved learning from the experts and seeing community members come together. The first two racks we made were all women groups, and that was super empowering to see. Excuse my language, but these women were certified badasses!! Overall, my month in Uganda was characterized with lot of learning. I learned so many traveling tips, and I have a lot more confidence in traveling alone. I learned about HIV and how a clinic operates. I learned how to use natural resources to make a drying rack. I learned about what Uganda is really like! Most of all, I learned more about the person I want to be and the way I want to exist in the world. A lot of this is thanks to The Real Uganda.

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