The Healthy Villages Internship program is different from other ‘summer volunteer programs’ in a number of ways:

• Our Interns are Highly Qualified – In 2009, our international volunteers were made up of 15 graduate students, 14 undergraduate students, 1 engineer and 1 physician.  Of our graduate students, 6 were studying medicine and 5 held or were completing a Masters in Public Health.  Our undergraduates studied biology (many were pre-medicine), public health, peace and conflict, psychology, environmental science, engineering, and political science.  We selected international volunteers attending (or with degrees from) such institutions as Penn State, Harvard, John Hopkins, Berkeley, NYU, UC Davis, Boston University, U of Vermont, U of Austin, and U of St. Andrews in Edinburgh.  Our Ugandan volunteers held or were completing undergraduate or graduate degrees in subjects such as development economics, counseling, and community psychology.

• Our Expectations of Interns – We require a high degree of self-direction, creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving, innovation, and flexibility on the part of our interns.

• Our Inter-Cultural Team Model – We include both international and Uganda volunteers in each team for two reasons: it allows for learning and personal expansion on the part of both Ugandan and international volunteers, and it allows teams to implement projects most effectively, drawing on the strengths of both cultures and both educational /experiential backgrounds.

• Our Emphasis on Needs Assessment and Community Communication – Our teams begin their work in the village with extremely detailed needs assessments utilizing qualitative and quantitative methods (e.g. house to house visits, community meetings, interviews, focus groups, Health Center record inspection).  Teams continue to maintain an open line of communication with the village through-out the summer, working alongside and empowering villagers, as opposed to viewing the villagers as “target” of “development implementation.”

• We Work from Theory to Praxis – We usually choose student interns who have an academic background relating to their work in the village.  By doing this, we allow interns the rare opportunity to select and apply what they have learned in school to create appropriate and feasible solutions to local health and development issues.  Our program encourages innovative ideas and critical problem-solving skills, while never forgetting that our first commitment is to serve the village community.  Such an approach has done great things for UVP, producing ideas like a social-responsible business for safe water storage, or specialized shallow latrines which increase soil fertility.

• The Flexibility of Each Team’s Itinerary – Due to our emphasis on needs assessment and communication, teams tailor their work to meet the specific needs of their community. It would be impossible for UVP to dictate particular programs for each team to carry-out, though we do provide them with guidelines, certain requirements, and recommendations.

• The Degree of Independence our Interns Experience – Teams live in a rural Ugandan village up to an hour away from Iganga town.  They may not see UVP staff for a week or ten days at a time, and therefore make many important decisions and plans on their own.  While UVP staff will immediately respond to any request for advice or help, and we expect a high degree of self-motivation, innovation, and independence from our interns, and we have never been disappointed!

• Our “Issue Representative” Model – We require all team members to ‘specialize’ in a certain issue (e.g. safe water, malaria, HIV/AIDs), gathering information on the issue before and/or after arrival to Uganda, and spearheading all related projects once in village.  Issue counterparts from each team will meet every two weeks to discuss and share information gathered, any connections they have made (for instance, if they have found a particularly effective NGO working on their issue), and plans or progress they have made.

• The Community Created Within and Among our Teams – Throughout the summer, our teams live, work, eat and sleep together, yielding incredibly strong friendships, mutual understanding, and team camaraderie.  Even individuals from separate teams tend to become very close, often joining up to travel together after the program is over.