Public Health Volunteering in Uganda

Coming from the busy city of London, this was a fantastic experience to open my mind, get to know a festinating culture while being able to reach out to people in need and support this honest, small charity led by Ivan. I have been able to learn a lot about the food, the way of living and about the people in Uganda thanks to BID. I was able to learn how to make bricks for the organization, plant vegetables for food supply and visit villages where vulnerable people are helped and women are empowered thanks to BID Uganda.

I enjoyed some of the activites , but not others. The rivre walk and the walk to the koppies was 10/10. No intrenet was challenging , so 7/10. Jane , Precious , Patrick and Lucas were 10/10. I woul recommend this project to anyone who needs a detox from Social media.

New culture, new people, New Life. When we exchange our perspectives, ideas and plans to make a world better place for everyone. It's good to go different places it helps me view life in many directions

Hice 5 años en haiti, me se su idioma, se toda su cultura, me gustaría volver y apoyarlos en todas las dificultades que tienen, ya que ameritan mucha ayuda de todos nosotros, para ellos poder sobrevivir

I would really like to volunteer. I am passionate about charity and showing kindness to the world. Please, give me a chance. Kindly provide Certificate of sponsorship too since I'm not able to provide for myself at the moment. Kindly put my request into consideration.

Volunteering with Murphy Charitable Foundation Uganda has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. It is truly one of the best organizations to volunteer with abroad. During my time with them, I had the incredible opportunity to work closely with children and women in rural communities. The warmth, resilience, and joy of the people I met was deeply moving, and the entire experience was nothing short of amazing.

This an increasingly popular way for individuals to make a meaningful impact in communities around the world. With numerous organizations offering volunteer programs, it's essential to review and research these opportunities to ensure a safe and rewarding experience. *Pros:* 1. *Cultural Immersion*: Living and working with local communities provides an immersive cultural experience. 2. *Skill Development*: Volunteers can develop new skills and gain experience in areas such as teaching, conservation, and community development. 3. *Networking Opportunities*: Volunteers can connect with like-minded individuals from around the world. 4. *Personal Growth*: Volunteering abroad can be a transformative experience, fostering personal growth and self-awareness. *Cons:* 1. *Cost*: Many volunteer programs come with a hefty price tag, which can be a barrier for some. 2. *Safety Concerns*: Volunteers may face safety risks, such as health concerns or political instability, depending on the destination. 3. *Cultural Differences*: Adapting to local customs and way of life can be challenging for some volunteers. 4. *Quality of Programs*: Some volunteer programs may lack structure, support, or meaningful work, leading to a disappointing experience. *Recommendations:* 1. *Research Thoroughly*: Investigate the organization, program, and destination to ensure a safe and rewarding experience. 2. *Read Reviews*: Look for reviews from past volunteers to gain insight into the program's quality and challenges. 3. *Choose a Reputable Organization*: Select an organization with a proven track record, transparent policies, and adequate support for volunteers. 4. *Prepare Yourself*: Culturally, emotionally, and physically prepare yourself for the experience to ensure a smooth transition. By being aware of the pros and cons, doing thorough research, and choosing a reputable organization, volunteers can have a safe, rewarding, and life-changing experience abroad.

As a Social worker i often meet with clients to assess their needs, provide counseling, and develop individualized plans to address their challenges. This could involve sessions with individuals, families, or groups.

Spending time with the children and women in local Ugandan communities was truly unforgettable. The Ugandan people are so warm and welcoming, and I look forward to traveling there again in the future to support them in any way I can.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I did not know what to expect when I originally applied for this program. However, it ended up being everything I could have ever wanted and more! I felt safe and well taken care of during the entirety of my time in Kenya. I learned so much at the hospital and was able to enjoy numerous cultural treks in my free time. I would thoroughly recommend this program to anyone. I have always had an interest in global health but throughout my undergraduate career, I could never find the time to travel abroad. So during my first gap year, post-graduation, I was excited to finally have time to pursue this dream. I spent several weeks researching medical programs in Africa before coming across International Medical Aid. Between the glowing reviews on the website and all the beautiful Instagram photos from past interns, I decided IMA was the program for me. I was ecstatic when I received my acceptance but also incredibly anxious because what was once just an idea was now becoming a reality. I spent the next few months prepping, and then COVID hit, and I had to delay my trip to the following summer. During that year span, I changed jobs and was accepted into medical school. It felt like a lifetime since I had applied for IMA and what was once a fully planned experience, felt more like a dream again. But somehow on June 4th, 2021 I sat down on a plane in the JFK airport and departed for Kenya. When I arrived in Mombasa, a mere 17 hours later, I had no idea what to expect. The first car ride to the residence was a culture shock in itself. Beyond the initial surprise of the road system, traffic patterns, and tuk-tuks, I took immediate notice of the poverty level and the clear economic stratification. According to the World Bank, “ Kenya is East Africa’s largest economy…” and yet “36.1% of Kenyans [are] still living below the international poverty line” (The history of pre-and post-colonial Kenya lecture). This inequality is evident on the street as you see families living in huts only a few minutes away from mansions with tall gates, topped with glass shards so no one can enter. It is also evident in the healthcare systems. Private hospitals, such as Premier, offer superior facilities to those who can pay the cost, while the lower class has access to public-funded hospitals such as Coast General Teaching and Referal Hospital (CGTRH). The public facilities are “under-resourced in terms of equipment and clinical staff” and have “overall, poorer patient outcomes and higher incidences of hospital-acquired infections” (The current state of healthcare in Kenya). Equipt with this information, I was eager to start my hospital rotations and get a better idea of the true healthcare experience in Kenya. My first week in CGTRH was spent in the Obstetrics department. Within my first day, I saw six vaginal births, including a set of twins, and learned all about the different stages of labor, medications given to mom and baby, use of the fetoscope, procedures for cord-cutting and sex determination, and so much more. I felt immediately welcomed into the hospital. Everyone was eager and willing to teach and let us see everything. This was a welcome change from shadowing in the United States where pre-medical students are often treated as more of an inconvenience than anything else. This was definitely not the only notable difference from the hospital settings I was used to. The biggest difference, by far, was in the use of pain medications. In the United States, a woman laboring in the hospital readily has access to multiple forms of pain medication including the well-known and commonly used epidural. In Kenya, however, moms are not given any pain medications unless they have to undergo a cesarean section. This means that women go through the entire labor, sometimes including an episiotomy and later suturing, unassisted by analgesics. This type of strength and personal fortitude is unimaginable in the United States. The other major difference is in prenatal care. Although prenatal care is offered for free in Kenya, most people do not go to the doctor before they are in labor. This is due to a large number of factors, including lower health literacy. Due to this, most mothers go into labor without any knowledge of the sex of the baby or even the number of babies they are having. In the United States, most women receive consistent prenatal care, including “every 4 weeks until 28 weeks of gestation, every 2 weeks from 28 to 36 weeks, and then weekly until delivery” (Lockwood, 2021). This creates much more opportunity to monitor the health of both mom and baby, increasing the likelihood that any complications would be detected early and taken care of. The following week I was in the pediatrics ward. I was able to learn a lot here from the nurses and resident doctors. It was particularly interesting to learn about their top ten most common conditions -gastroenteritis, pneumonia, several acute malnutrition, neonatal sepsis, neonatal jaundice, meningitis, malaria, anemia, bronchitis, and tetanus- because they are so much less commonly seen in the US. I was also shown how to insert a nasogastric tube into a newborn which was very interesting. My third week was spent in the Accident and Emergency Department. Here I was able to see a lot of interesting and varied cases from bandage and catheter changes in the minor theater, to epilepsy and pneumothorax in the beds. But what I really enjoyed about this department was getting to talk with so many of the staff members when there was downtime. Doctors spoke openly with us about the corruption in their government and police force, the lack of resources and staffing at the hospital, the pay delay that they were currently experiencing, and the poverty that surrounds them. Here, I gained a new sense of appreciation for the level of dedication that these people were putting towards their patients. I was told that the staff is paid monthly and that although it was almost the end of June, they still had not received payment from May. They had apparently tried to strike in the past but were unsuccessful. Despite all of this, when I asked the residents if they would continue to work at Coast after their training was completed, most of them said they would because they loved the work they were doing. That is one of the biggest things I will take with me into my future practice of medicine. Always put the patients first and remember why you came into the profession. My last week was spent in the surgery department. This rotation was particularly fascinating as I have had very minimal OR time in the US. During my first day in the theater, I was able to observe a bilateral inguinal hernia repair on a five-month-old baby, a biopsy and excision of a mediastinal mass, and a bullet removal from near the spine performed under local anesthesia. On my second day, I was able to watch a broken femur repair. Then, I was even fortunate enough to get a third day in the OR after another intern had a night shift. During that shift, I was able to observe another inguinal hernia repair with a circumcision, and a skin graft from a woman’s leg onto the right side of her face after they had previously removed a neurofibromatosis. The skin graft was by far the most interesting and intricate procedure that I have witnessed. The surgeon was absolutely amazing and really took the time to teach us and show us what he was doing. I was able to learn so much from this. I was also able to learn a tremendous amount outside of the hospital. Between the clinics, the cultural treks, and the Masai Mara safari, I was able to gain a deeper knowledge and appreciation of the history and culture of Kenya. What stood out to me the most was the warmth we received everywhere we went. In the United States, especially in New York, where I am from, people aren’t very openly friendly to one another. This was not the case in Kenya. At the hygiene clinics, the children would run up to us with open arms for hugs and high fives. At the beach, people would strike up conversations about where we came from and what we thought about Kenya so far. At the grocery store, we had people thanking us for coming to the country and working in the hospital even though we got much more than we were able to give. Time and time again the people of Kenya inspired me to be a kinder, warmer person. When I sat down on my June 4th flight, a year and a half after applying to IMA, I could not have known the impact this experience would have on me. I am so grateful to the IMA staff, the hospital staff, the Kenyan people, and the other interns for making my experience everything that it was. As I start my journey through medical school, I will take with me all the knowledge I gained and the lessons I learned. I will be kinder, warmer, more dedicated, more resourceful, and above all, more appreciative for all the things that I had previously taken for granted. And once I complete my training, I would love to return and give back to the patients everything that was given to me.

I previously participated in a trip abroad to represent my country abroad in the field of art and music, and we got third place in singing. I am a girl who loves to travel and help others, especially since I am a doctor. I am used to caring about the health of others. I strive to volunteer in many fields

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.

The Real Uganda responded to this reviewNovember 23, 2022

Robert - this feels so good to hear. We can't wait to move into 2023 with you.

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

The Real Uganda responded to this reviewNovember 23, 2022

Thank you, Tony, for giving future volunteers these insights into what our partners find important in an international volunteer.

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.

The Real Uganda responded to this reviewNovember 23, 2022

Thank you, Ismail, for sharing the work you do with our volunteers. We look forward to seeing our partnership deepen in 2023.

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.