Volunteer Uganda: Kampala

Kampala is the capital city of Uganda widely known as the city on many hills because it is spread over 10 hills. The name Kampala came out of a Kiganda saying, "Kasozi Kempala" meaning the hill for Antelopes. Kampala has got tremendous charm and remains the greenest city in the whole of Africa. It is the central administrative centre of Uganda and is a big commercial city for nearly all of the East and Central Africa.

The city centre is a modern metropolis adorned with attractive vegetation and surrounded by great parks. Kampala is located on the shores of Lake Victoria, which make it a popular location for water sport activities and fishing. It is also a gateway to most of Uganda's attractions like Safari parks, cultural sites and so forth.

Our volunteers are situated in the villages just outside Kampala, where they can enjoy the peaceful surroundings and embrace the village atmostphere and community and also have the opportunity to venture into the main city for shopping, restaurants and a other home comforts.

Volunteer Projects in Kampala

In Kampala our volunteers have the opportunity to work as teaching assistants, helping the children with their reading and writing skills, art work, music, sports games, and much more. Creative tasks and innovative ideas from the volunteers are always welcomed.

Teacher’s are often overwhelmed by the numbers of the classes and rarely have time to teach more peripheral subjects due to curriculum pressures. Just relating to, and playing with the children is very valuable. There is often repair and construction work going on so anyone with building experience would be highly valued. However, even those not qualified can help with renovation work such as painting, overseeing, and assisting those involved in construction.

We require volunteers to work for at least 4 hours a day, 6 days per week. Due to schools being so large and having so many students, every extra hour is welcomed and much appreciated. However, if volunteers should wish to take a weekend trip, or one or two days off, this would not a problem. Both schools are situated close to a smaller village where you can find a bank, shops and an internet café.

The Mityana School is a school for poor children and orphans. Children often not only study but also live within the school grounds. The school is run and financed by an Indian-Ugandan woman whose father built the school.

Air field School, Kajjansi is a boarding school for poor children. Both schools are funded by charity, students here are aged between 6 and 15 years old.

General Kampala Info

Where Will I Stay?

Volunteers who choose to work at the Mityana School stay in our hostel accommodation and volunteers who choose to work at the Airfield School in Kajansi stay with a local host family. Here volunteers share two to a room. Both our hostel and home stay are equipped with western style toilets and showers, although these are cold water showers.

Food

There are many choices of places to eat out within in the main city of Kampala. You can pick up food from street vendors or dine out at a 5 star restaurant. You can spend as little as 60 US cents to the sky is the limit, all dependant on your tastes and budgets and of course the occasion.

Most restaurants are reasonably priced. There are a variety of restaurants to pick from Ugandan food, to Indian, Chinese, Italian, Goan, Japanese, Turkish Mediterranean, Belgian and French. There are also many places where you can pick up a snack or two when you are hungry late at night, and some delicious ice cream.

Weather

The climate in Kampala is glorious with year round average highs of 25°C(77°F) and lows of 18°C (77°F). Uganda has tropical weather conditions which are moderated by the high altitudes. The hottest months are from December to February but it is still cooler at night. The wet seasons are from March till May.

Free Time

The schools are situated in the countryside that surrounds Kampala. A day trip to this beautiful city, rich in its cultural life, is easy to make and if you wish to stay the night it will not be difficult to find a cheap hostel. If you wish our local coordinator can help you out with various activities such as yoga, massage, boxing and salsa dancing.

An hour and half away from Kampala is Jinja, the source of the river Nile, with a lot of fun adventures such as river rafting, bungee jumping and trekking. If you wish to make a longer trip we can recommend one of the various safaris in the great reserves or a trip to see the mountain gorillas.

Where Is?/ Getting To Kampala

All of our programs are situated just on the outskirts of Uganda’s capital city, Kampala.

Kampala is situated in the south of Uganda on the beautiful Lake Victoria. Volunteers will be met at Entebbe-Kampala International Airport by either our "in country" coordinator, or another member of the T2T team. Many airlines fly direct to Entebbe-Kampala for instance British Airways, Egyptair, Emirates Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines and Sn Brussels Airlines.

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