Volunteer in Uganda in your Gap Year, Student Holiday or Beyond

Programme Overview

Volunteer Uganda is a unique organisation that gives enthusiastic, young people the opportunity to come and teach in our partner schools for between six and twelve weeks. Volunteers make a real difference and our program generates funds for the work of our partner charities which have built and run four primary schools, a secondary school and a college. These institutions provide education for approximately two thousand people in Uganda and are transforming the lives of local people.

Excursions

At weekends, volunteers have the opportunity to try out white-water rafting at the source of the Nile, go on breathtaking safaris in Queen Elizabeth National Park, track chimpanzees in Kyambura Gorge and see mountain gorillas in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. We offer these excursions to our volunteers at approximately half the price charged by commercial tour companies. The result is a programme that combines high-impact volunteering with invaluable experience and unforgettable adventures that can’t be found elsewhere.

Accommodation & Location

Our group sizes are small, no more than ten to twenty volunteers at one time, living together in our new hostel-style lodge which overlooks Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, home to 300 of the 600 remaining mountain gorillas in the wild. The location is spectacular.

Volunteer roles

We place three or four volunteers in each of six local schools, working as assistant teachers, mostly in primary schools. Each day we drop volunteers at their schools and bring them back to our purpose-built lodge in the evening. Volunteers teach English, Maths, PE and IT as well as working on our HIV awareness outreach projects for Mend the Broken Hearts of Uganda. Placements are flexible and we aim to enable volunteers to work to their own strengths; no subjects are compulsory.

Induction and Support

Our staff provide training and personalised induction for individual volunteers, helping them to grow and become valuable teachers. Our hardworking Ugandan staff and UK group leaders ensure that all volunteers have maximum, positive learning and teaching opportunity, at the same time as ensuring that the experience is safe and memorable.

What makes Volunteer Uganda Unique?

Volunteer Uganda is a UK-based organisation with deep roots in Uganda, working closely with the local charity CHIFCOD, which runs many of the schools and projects where volunteers work. Volunteer Uganda Ltd is a social enterprise and our UK staff work voluntarily.

Participation in our programme is highly respected by employers and admissions staff alike, in a way that many “volunteering holidays” are not. Volunteer Uganda is a very different experience from that offered by large profit-generating companies, who may have sites in many countries, but who lack the local relationships which enable us to engage every volunteer in valuable and rewarding projects.

Feedback from former volunteers has been fantastic and greatly appreciated by the schools, pupils and local community where our volunteers work.

Our Mission

Everything we do is part of a well-designed strategy, which, over the past ten years, has helped transform the lives of local people. The area is undeveloped and there is real poverty, but it is clear to any visitor that we are making a genuine difference to people’s lives whilst helping to create sustainable development through education.

Who Can Volunteer?

No teaching experience is required. Our group leaders and program co-ordinators, along with the teachers in our placement schools, provide induction and support throughout. This ensures our volunteers are of maximum possible impact in their schools as well as making sure they have a rewarding and truly unforgettable time.

Volunteers need to have completed education to A-Level equivalent or beyond. Above all, applicants need to demonstrate enthusiasm and a motivation to contribute to our mission and make a real difference. An appetite for fun and adventure don’t go amiss either! If we still have places and you fit the above criteria then enquire online and one of our group leaders will give you a call to help you decide if coming out to Africa is for you.

To find out more, go to the Enquire & Apply page.