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

• Our Interns are Highly Qualified – Our international volunteers are graduate students, undergraduate students, engineers, physicians, and nurses.  Many interns are studying medicine or public health, as well as peace and conflict, psychology, environmental science, engineering, and political science.  Interns attend (or have degrees from) a variety of public and private institutions of higher learning throughout the United States and around the world.  Our Ugandan volunteers hold or are 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.  We also expect them to abide by our code of conduct to protect our interns, the Ugandans with whom we work, and the reputation of Uganda Village Project.

• Our Inter-Cultural Team Model – We include both international and Ugandan 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 more effectively, drawing on the strengths of both cultures and 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 throughout the summer, working alongside and empowering villagers, as opposed to viewing the villagers as “targest” 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 – Most 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, we expect a high degree of self-motivation, innovation, and independence from our interns, and we have never been disappointed!

• 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.