My last volunteering (for this trip)

After six months in Tanzania, it is now time for an adventure in Uganda. As usual, I decided to start by volunteering, to share time with local people and discover the culture.

banana plantations

Even before I arrived in Uganda, I was contacted on Workaway by Richard. He invited me to come and work with his UK-Ugandan organisation, Joy for humanity, in the Lwengo district. Among other invitations, his was the most serious, so it was my first choice. No regrets!

Parliament in Kampala

When I arrived in the country, I first spent a week a bit caothic in Kampala, the capital. Robbery, money withdrawal problems, difficulty to get a sim card and so on... Nothing terrible in the end, just the risks of the travelling.

I was finally able to breathe when I arrived in the countryside, at Joy for humanity organisation, where I had a wonderful welcome: a bouquet of flowers from the garden offered by the children, a nice clean room for me alone, good full meals every day... In short, the family was very caring.

My breakfast: banana pancake, boiled bananas, omelette

Richard and his family live in the village of Kyazanga and have created an organisation to help their community out of poverty. Their project focuses on three key pillars: health, education and economy. They have already created a primary school and an orphanage, developed a pig farming programme that they distribute to the community, and many other projects that benefit the whole population. They are currently building a health centre.

The house where I was staying

The children playing

It is a very big family, one of the brothers, the founder of the organisation, lives in England. They all have their role to play for Joy for humanity: director, nurse, administrator, engineer, teacher, etc... There are a lot of jobs for this kind of organisation!

A part from the adults, there are also all the children. No time to get borred in this house.

They have 50 hectares of land where the house, the farm, the crops, the school, the orphanage, the health centre... That's a lot to manage, and it's not so simple!

The farm

My role? To help them with their communication. I worked a lot on their website to add a “blog”page, create a registration form and design a basic template for their newsletters. As a photographer, I also took hundreds of pictures. From the nature, the banana trees as far as the eye can see, the animals, the people... It was a real pleasure!

A local family in need of help

To work, I went to the school office almost every day. I could be in peace and have a good connection. To get there, I used to go along the small paths in the middle of the crops and the animals. It was a good opportunity to go for a walk, to clear my head and to develop my creativity.

On other days, I was accompanying the team on their missions to take pictures: visiting local families, meetings, working on the farm, creating handicrafts, etc...

group of women in a craft workshop

I was only supposed to stay for a couple of weeks, but I ended up staying for almost a month. I was very interested by the mission, and the family was very friendly. It was hard to leave...

I am also using this article to tell you about their current project: the new health centre in Kyazanga.

Visit to the health centre

Currently, in the Lwengo district, one in eight children do not reach their fifth birthday. In addition, maternal mortality is one of the highest in the world: about 500 women out of 100,000 die in childbirth...

This is why this project is so important, and the organisation is doing everything it can to remedy these problems!

Thanks to the donations, the construction of the centre will soon be finished. But that's not all, the centre will have to be run afterwards, and for that, it needs money, which the patients won't necessarily have...

Joy for humanity has thought of a waste collection project: in exchange for plastic bottles, patients will be able to receive care. In partnership with Ecobrix, the waste will be recycled and used to make furnitures and build a road to improve access to the hospital. What a wonderful idea to keep the people and their environment healthy!

To start this project, Joy For Humanity is calling for donations on #GinvingTuesday, 30 November 2021.

I invite you to click here for more information and to make a donation.

Of course, you can also help by sharing this project with your friends and on the networks.

Thank you from Joy For Humanity community!

And thank you from me for all those who continue to follow my adventures!

Happy who, like Loulou, wishes you all the best ♥