FAQ
FAQ for Summer Internship Applicants
Financial
What will the costs be, and can I cut the costs? (Sample budget included)
How will finances work once I am in Uganda?
What is the $1700 program fee for? What is the refundable $200 for?
Program-Related
What projects are you currently working on for the summer 2010 trip?
General
What are the living arrangements in Uganda?
What is it like in the villages in Iganga district?
What is the weather in Uganda?
What do they eat in Uganda?
Is Uganda safe for foreigners?
What does the project provide for volunteers?
What about health issues? What if I get sick?
What size are electrical outlets in Uganda? Will I have phone access? Will I have internet access?
Can I use the summer internship as a practicum for my master’s degree? Can I receive course credit?
More questions? Email internships@ugandavillageproject.org
Please visit the Vision, Mission, and Goals page, the Executive Summary and the What We Do section to find out more about the history of UVP, our mission, and our project structure!
What will the costs be, and can I cut the costs?
Uganda Village Project charges a simple program fee that will cover your project-related expenses while you volunteer with us, plus a modest required fundraising amount. This program fee is based on the fixed costs of staying in Iganga such as lodging and project-related transport, and as such will be set on a project-by-project basis. Program fees in 2010 will be $1700 ($1500 plus a $200 refundable deposit) for all project attendees, which we have found is similar to or less than other organizations offering comparable opportunities.
Here is a sample budget to adjust according to your needs:
Program fee: $1700 ($200 will be refunded on program completion)
Airfare: $1600-$2200 depending on your depature airport and dates
Travel Items, mosquito net, money belt, permethrin spray, etc.: $100
Immunizations, if you do not have them, vary depending on your travel clinic:
Hepatitis A (series of 2) $50-$130
Yellow Fever $75-$100
Typhoid Oral $30-60
Antimalarial $20-$300 (varies based on which medication you choose)
Spending money for trips, souvenirs, and eating out: $200-$500 (more if going on safari)
Travel insurance (required to participate): $25-$100 depending on level of coverage
Volunteers can easily spend more than this if they take tourist trips to western Uganda or Kenya, eat out often, buy specialty groceries, etc., but can also spend less (which is always more difficult). The price of living in Uganda is extremely cheap if you live like a Ugandan, and just fairly cheap if you live like a tourist. Many volunteers have fundraised a percentage, if not the majority of these costs, on their own from family, friends, travel grants, and local charitable organizations.
How will finances work once I am in Uganda?
The team leader in charge of your project will be responsible for paying for items included in the program fee (rent, group meals, project materials, transport, communications). Team leaders will obtain money from the programme manager and track spending via receipts and records.
What is the $1400 program fee for? What is the refundable $200 for?
After you are accepted to the project, we require payment of a $1400 program fee to reserve your position in the project, of which $200 is refundable after successful completion of the project. Note that you will be required to decide whether you are participating in the trip within several weeks of being notified of your acceptance to the project. You can indicate your commitment to accepting the position by sending a deposit. The deposit will be applied to the program fee upon your departure for Uganda. In the event that you must cancel your trip, we will use the money towards our programs in Uganda. If there are extenuating circumstances, you can discuss them with your project coordinator and in rare cases you may receive a refund of your deposit. In general, we need to be certain that our volunteers have a commitment to making the trip, since we put a significant amount of legwork into selecting volunteers from a very competitive pool, orienting and educating volunteers pre-trip, clearing volunteers with the local government, securing housing, and other project administration issues. We hold on to the $200 refundable portion of the fee to help ensure the success and stability of our volunteer teams until the completion of the project (any teammate who abandons the team will forfeit the refund).
Please see our “Get Involved” page for more details and check back to this website for updates.
What are the living arrangements in Uganda?
Our philosophy at Uganda Village Project is to serve the rural villages where poverty and need is the greatest. Most volunteers will stay in local housing in the rural village community they will be working with. All housing is inspected prior to the team’s arrival for safety. Ugandan houses used for hosting teams typically have large padlocks and bars on the windows and are quite safe, but we recommend not leaving out valuable items and using our lockbox for added safety. Ugandan people are very friendly hosts and most of them welcome international visitors. We occasionally hire local cooks to help with the meals. Neighbors will often offer to help with cooking or laundry, after laughing at our way of doing things!
What is it like in the villages in Iganga district?
The Iganga district is a district of rolling hills and farmland near the source of the Nile, which provides electricity for Uganda and several other countries. However, there is no electricity in most of the villages in Iganga, or running water. Cooking is over a small coal stove, water must be boiled before drinking, showers are taken with a basin of water, and laundry must be scrubbed with soap and hung out to dry. If this doesn’t sound like your kind of thing, you probably shouldn’t apply. However, a visit to Uganda can change your life, and we hope that you will be inspired by what you see there. Most of the residents of the district are subsistence farmers, some do farming for export or sales, some are small business owners who run village shops that sell dry goods, charcoal, meats, or other products. Travel is via bicycle taxi, motorcycle taxi, or mataatu (minivan taxi). There are very few wild animals in the district, the ‘wildlife’ you will see is chickens, cows, goats, and pigs.
In the summer, when our intern teams are there, is the ‘wet season’, it rains fairly often. It is sunny almost every day, though, and quite warm, about 85-90 degrees. You are not far from the Equator in Uganda. Most women there wear dresses or long skirts, but long pants and even shorts are acceptable on foreigners, though they are frowned upon by Ugandan traditional culture. Most men wear collared shirts if they can, Ugandans seem to pride themselves on dressing well, especially when going to town.
The staple foods of the people in the villages of Iganga are potatoes, “matooke”, rice, and posho. All these are basically flavorless starches. There may also be boiled greens, and everyone eats mangos and papayas from the trees. Ugandans use a LOT of cooking oil when they can, and their main seasoning is curry powder. Chicken is available, but cow and goat meat particularly are more plentiful. They also take tea at almost every meal, either black of “African” milk tea, which is yummy. Sometimes we get freshly squeezed passionfruit juice- delicious! There are more ‘exotic’ foods available in town, from pasta to peanut butter to Cadbury chocolate.
We have generally found Iganga District to be a very safe place, as long as the proper precautions of international travel are taken. The people are very welcoming and friendly, and continually tell us how happy they are when Americans and other international visitors came to their area. Occasionally we have had to deal with some anti-American sentiments or ‘incidents’ with people on the street, but the vast majority of Igangans are happy to see ‘mzungus’ visiting their district. There has been fighting in the north between the government and rebel groups, but this does not affect life in Iganga. Iganga District is peaceful.
What does the project provide for volunteers?
Uganda Village Project has spent years getting to know the Iganga District and its needs in order to design effective and high-quality volunteer opportunities in collaboration with our local partners and host communities. As such we have identified various educational opportunities and local needs in conjunction with the partner organizations which we support. We believe that we provide a high-quality, transformative and fun volunteer experience which is also meaningful for those who participate. We will be providing training for the team leaders, arranging orientations for accepted volunteers, preparing for the project on the ground in Uganda, materials and funds needed for the project, volunteer manuals and other important documents such as a Luganda/Lusoga dictionary, price guide so you don’t get taken advantage of by the barter system, lists of important phone numbers and contacts, fundraising guide, securing and reserving a place for volunteers to stay, assisting in the hunt for as low-priced a plane ticket as we can find, besides support while in Uganda and a great experience! Activities outside of the project and obtaining such items as vaccinations, visas, and insurance are the responsibility of the volunteers.
What about health issues? What if I get sick?
Uganda Village Project requires all volunteers to obtain travel insurance that covers evacuation in case of medical emergency. The most common medical problem is traveler’s diarrhea. We recommend that all volunteers take precautions with food and water to avoid traveler’s diarrhea, as well as frequently washing hands. Many travel clinics dispense Cipro or other antibiotics to deal with traveler’s diarrhea if it is persistent, but most traveler’s diarrhea is self-limited and will go away on its own, the key is to stay well hydrated. We have occasionally taken project participants for further medical attention for IV fluids or for evaluation of possible malaria. We use a private hospital in Kampala, the Surgery, which is run by British expatriate physicians, for such evaluations. We encourage all volunteers to take their antimalarial medications on schedule. Even if antimalarial medications are taken regularly, however, they do not provide 100% protection against malaria. Approximately once every other year, one of our volunteers contracts malaria, which is an illness characterized by a cyclical fever.
What size are electrical outlets in Uganda?
Will I have phone access? Will I have internet access?
Electrical outlets in Uganda are the same as electrical outlets in the United Kingdom. Click here for a photo of the outlet. If you have a plug converter, you will be able to charge your own mobile phone, your digital camera, or your laptop at any location with a generator or electricity. Plug converters can be purchased at electronics stores in the USA.
Phones in Uganda are on a pay-as-you-go phone card system. Each team in Uganda will have a mobile phone to use at any time. If a team member would like to call home using the team phone, that is not a problem, but they must buy their own phone card. There are also pay phones in town. Mobile phones and phone charging businesses are ubiquitous in Uganda.
There is internet access available in Igangatown, both at the Uganda Village Project office and at several local internet cafes. The internet access can be slow at times. The internet access, of course, is only available when the electricity is working. On certain days the electricity for the district will be out.
Can I use the summer internship as a practicum for my master’s degree?
Can I get course credit?
Program participants in the past have used this opportunity as a practicum for a master’s in public health degree, a summer course with credit for both undergraduate and graduate level schooling, and an internship for pharmacy school. The staff at Uganda Village Project would like all participants to obtain course credit for this experience, which will certainly be highly educational. We would be happy to assist with any paperwork or other necessary items to help you to apply for credit or for travel grants with your institution.
More questions? Email info@ugandavillageproject.org
follow us on Twitter