Rural Volunteer Program Gomba Uganda (Off the Beaten Path Experience)
Placement Type: Teaching at rural school, Community Outreach, Farming, HIV/AIDS basic
Education, Childcare and orphans support, sports and games and women empowerment.
Location: Gomba, District, Kanoni Town Council
Type of volunteers Needed: Individuals (solo travelers) Families and Small groups
Maximum number of volunteers: 6
Average length of placement: 1-12 weeks
Program Fee Contribution: USD$110 per week, including meals & accommodation.
Airport Pickup: USD$110 (Private Car from Entebbe to Gomba) and this is one way trip.
Availability: All year-round placements are available, except teaching placements which
have holidays.
Contact information: +256743635194, E-mail: admin@gombachildren.org
About the Placement
Friends of Children in Gomba FCG is a community-based development organization, supporting
variuous community development projects within Gomba district.
The primary schools we support have been built in a very rural setting, about 5-10 km from
Kanoni town. Volunteers who go there will have the experience of a lifetime and when they
leave Uganda, they will know that not only have they experienced African culture but also
made a valuable contribution to these children’s lives and to the community as a whole.
Samuel Nsubuga the Project Coordinator and teacher is really enthusiastic and keen to have
volunteers to help him and team to look after and teach the children and build new facilities.
Samuel is the person at the school who looks after the volunteer’s arrival, departure,
accommodation and food.
Samuel consults, organizes and deploys the volunteers according to their preferences and
skills. All the teachers are very welcoming and caring. They will all help you as much as you
need. You only have to ask.
Accommodation has been organized with a local guest house. Very comfortable, secure and welcoming environment. Amenities are simple, but clean and hygienic. Volunteers must not
expect luxury.
Role of Volunteer
Volunteers don’t need to be trained teachers. They need to be 18+ with no upper limit. Some
volunteers are in their 50s and 60s.
When volunteers arrive, they meet with Samuel at the airport, who will transfer them to Gomba.
He discusses their ideas, wishes and skills and together they make a plan for the volunteer’s
time at the school and community.
He is always available for discussion and feedback. The plan can be modified at any time
according to the volunteer’s needs and those of the school and community.
One of the most valuable things volunteers can do is help the children express themselves
on paper in English and use that as a platform for English language development and
understanding English with a non-African accent.
They find writing and conversational English very difficult. Volunteers work with groups of up
to 10, using the shared writing method. Group writing is less threatening than writing alone.
Products of writing sessions can be made into reading books for use with younger children in
the school for learning to read English.
Other valuable things volunteers can do with the children are reading stories, hearing
children read, art work, math, science, soccer, netball, music. Task creativity and innovation
from the volunteers is welcomed but must not take children away from the curriculum or they
won’t pass their exams! Just relating to and playing with the children is valuable.
Some volunteers also opt for whole class teaching. They are always accompanied by a
teacher as there is often a need for language interpretation and class sizes are large – plus
children are children everywhere!
Teachers do not have time to teach more peripheral subjects due to curriculum pressures.
Music and singing with the children would be a wonderful, life enhancing treat for them as
would teaching them new games to play. You could start an after-school club.
There is repair work and construction work at the school which badly needs the touch of
anyone with building /DIY experience. The office, store room and classrooms need shelves
putting up by someone who knows how to do that properly – using batons on the wall to
support the brackets – not brackets straight onto the wall!
If you are able to make cupboards – wonderful! Folding, flat top, rectangular tables for
teachers to use for marking books would be such a bonus as currently teachers don’t have
tables to use for working. So, if you are able to make those – again it would be great!
The school does not have any goalposts – another potential volunteer task or you could
sponsor them. Carpentry, building – the possibilities are endless as you will soon discover them when you are there.
ACCOMODATION
Our accommodation have been organized with a local guest house. Very comfortable, secure and welcoming environment. Amenities are simple, but clean and hygienic. Helpers must not
expect luxury. Accommodation are in Kanoni town where we have electricity, water and a small space where Helpers can enjoy fresh air.
Each helper is given his/her own private bedroom but those who wish to share a room are most welcome. Good mattresses, bed sheets plus mosquito nets are present. A helper is served three meals a day and that is black tea in the morning at 8:00am plus a snack, lunch at 1:00pm and super at 7:00pm all East African time. We serve mostly our local food such as matooke, cassava, sweet potatoes, posho, beans, cabbages, groundnuts.
We ask for a small contribution of 10 Euros a day to cover the cost of the helper’s breakfast, lunch, dinner plus accommodation. Restaurants are available in Kanoni town for those who prefer special meals at a small cost.
Volunteers arrival
Samuel Nsubuga the Project Coordinator is the one who picks up Helpers from Entebbe Airport to Gomba district. We use private cars or airport taxis that charge 90 Euros and it is a one way trip.
Samuel Nsubuga a teacher by profession is really enthusiastic and keen to have
Volunteers’ help him and team up to look after and teach the children and build new facilities. He is the person at the school who looks after the Helper’s arrival, departure, accommodation and food. He consults, organizes and deploys the Helpers according to their preferences and skills. All the teachers are very welcoming, caring and supportive. They will all help you as much as you need. You only have to ask. Placements are available all year-round, except teaching placements which have holidays.
Volunteers Free time
In your free time, Helpers will get a chance of touring the beautiful scenery that make up Uganda. They will visit the source of River Nile (the longest river in Africa), Mountains in Uganda such as Mt. Ruenzori the highest in Uganda and others like Mt Elgon in the Eastern Uganda, Mt Moroto and so forth. Different lakes, rivers, game parks, the zoo, the Uganda museum, waterfalls, and on Sundays you can visit the church if you are interested. Special hires / taxi vehicles / okada and boda boda are all available for transport at a small cost.