OUR CHESTER UNI STUDENTS ARE 4 WEEKS IN TO THEIR VOLUNTEERING EXPERIENCE WITH US IN UGANDA
Four weeks in…
We’re four weeks in to our epic adventure with the students from Chester University, volunteering with us in charitable projects in Uganda. The students have been experiencing the highs and lows of charity life encountering heart-breaking stories, hours on rural bumpy roads, torrential rain drowning out any ability to even hear oneself think, whilst seeing the joy they can bring as the children dance, play, and celebrate around them.
For their first two weeks with us in Kumi it was a packed schedule experiencing our traditional 10-day empowerment programme visiting seven primary schools with simple ball games, performing in a drama about the naughty monkey Calipo who needs to learn how to make positive choices and helping in the Menstrual Health and Sex Ed. lessons with the older two classes in each school. Each day had them in the heat with hundreds of children singing songs, chanting ‘Oggi Oggi Oggi’ and hearing the earth pound as the kids danced and ran.
Distributing sanitary wear as part of our Develop With Dignity project
Distributing sanitary wear as part of our Develop With Dignity project
AIC testing for HIV
AIC testing parents & children for HIV – a program that is only viable through the team
There’s nothing quite like the sound of ‘Jiggly Jiggly’ (a traditional Ateso song) pounded into the earth as the kids jump and spin in their bare feet, the dirt flying like dust in the air.
Watch the Film
Ugandan Living
running interviews
Sarah conducting interviews for her Uni coursework
Thankfully James & Sarah have had electricity and running water installed in their rental accommodation in preparation for the students’ arrival or they would have experienced the joys of a bucket of cold water over their heads to clean the Uganda earth from their skin! We were excited, this year, to have the opportunity to provide a communal complex, rather than a hotel, so that the team would have a constant presence from Teams4U whilst they fulfil the requirements of their coursework abroad.
Volunteering
Teaching at the vocational college
James, Chloe, Hannah & Olivia teaching at our skills college
The team have had the experience of teaching English, Maths and ICT at our new Vocational Skills College in Mukongoro. They have visited a local orphanage dealing with children with HIV and met children like Jessica who was taken from her mum by the Police because her mum tried to kill her! In addition, they’ve conducted their research as part of their coursework at the local hospital in Kumi.
Fence-Building
Nelson digging out one of the holes for the fence
Nelson digging out one of the holes for the fence
The students also got the garden hoes out and dug the foundations for our fence to go around our Orange Tree Plantation to protect the young plants from cattle damage.
Jessica was taken to the orphanage by the Police after her mother tried to kill her – twice
Though it’s not been easy, for example encountering stories like Jessica’s, and it’s been physically demanding digging out trenches in the heat, it hasn’t all been about work…
Seeing the sunrise
Seeing the sunrise at Nyero Rocks
Cave painting at Nyero Rocks
Cave painting at Nyero Rocks
Rowing across Lake Bisina
Rowing across Lake Bisina
Teams4U provide an opportunity to get off the tourist track, experience something you may never have thought of before and see the nitty-gritty, sometimes mundanity, of aid work abroad. We give you the chance to encounter the real, beautiful, frustrating, often alien Ugandan Ateso culture that can’t be summed up in a travel brochure. And it’s AMAZING! Interested in travelling with us? Enquire online.