Uganda is a gifted country with Mother Nature; the lakes and rivers, local markets these and many others attract people to come around and volunteer in Uganda. Volunteer tourism is termed as voluntourism.
Voluntourism refers to a person who travels from one country to another to do voluntary work.
The work is related to agriculture, health care, education, community outreach, and many others. They vary from low-skilled to more professional and high-skilled work with could be for a short time or long time.
Voluntourism in Uganda has something common to giving back to the world. It could be beneficial to the whole world, the non-profit organization, or the community development. Activities range from giving money and goods to schools, medical camps, research and education to the communities, and other technical services leading to community development.
The types of voluntourism in Uganda are
- Teaching
- Work at an animal conservation center or sanctuary
- Cultural immersion programs
- Community support
- Youth development
- Environmental conservation
- Medical
- Research
Expectations of voluntourism in Uganda
- There should be direct contact between the volunteer and the residents working with a trusted partner.
- Involvement of volunteers in physical exertion of the locals or communities.
- Voluntourism in Uganda should empower the local community as the volunteer is learning from the experience.
- Voluntourism is to targets non-traditional venues to benefit both the host community and the volunteer.
- The actual attitude of an individual volunteer should be appropriate meaning its desired for the local community as well as what one can learn from hosts.
What a good voluntourist should keep in mind
- The volunteer should choose a cause that is passionate about and then read and research about it a lot.
- Additionally, volunteers should be led by the strengths but not the weakness. one should not go for teachings if you have no idea about teaching.
- The person should be able to bring about sustainable development in the community.
- The volunteer should be able to choose a charity those partners with local workers instead of taking jobs away from them.
Benefits of voluntourism in Uganda
Voluntourism in Uganda helps one to learn a new culture in the community. You are surrounded by new people and receive first-hand information about the problems faced in the community. You can find solutions to the problem. This widens your mind and your understanding of poverty nature and sustainable development.
Voluntourism helps in boosting the local economy in the community. Volunteers buy things like art and crafts, food, drinks, materials used during their work in the community, and the money used for development.
They provide inferior quality work. volunteers can practice the work she knows best and has skills for. Voluntourism becomes of a large impact on the person doing it and all the people involved in the activity (community).
It causes a long-term impact on the community and the country at large. Volunteers teach English to children, local teachers, and people on the correct use of grammar, reading, and writing hence improving on the teaching skills. The community left with a wealth of knowledge to the current and future teachers and their students can benefit from it.
In the nutshell, voluntourism in Uganda causes a great impact on the communities, people in it, and the country as well but as a result, it is associated with problems of taking up local jobs, unskilled labor that creates more work, and no long term commitment involved.
But still, it also creates an idea of a white savior complex where they think of developing countries and communities are waiting for westerners to come to fix things for them. All this can be solved and worked out