This Summer I decided to avoid the traditional Summer Internship, and instead spend two months on a voluntary project in Uganda.
The entirety of my time there was spent working with a local Ugandan charity called Little Big Africa, whose aim, among many, is to achieve long term, sustainable development primarily within the Manafwa district of Uganda. The charity allocate their resources to villages with the highest level of need for clean water sources, and focus on the basic needs of efficient hygiene and sanitation.
The first week I spent in Uganda was an intensive training one with the charity. We were taught more about the project, and its strands, had an in-depth guide to the culture, as well as lessons in general living and a brief history of the country. Once in the village, the project that myself and the rest of my team carried out was split into different sections. We helped the village come together to protect a water source, built a water tank for the local school, built numerous fuel efficient stoves, and trained members of the community to build them, taught hygiene and sanitation in school to the children, and in the community, and set up and trained committees to maintain and continue all of the work that was carried out.
Seeing the impact of the work that we had put in was incredible. The difference made to the water source was one of the most visibly noticeable. When we arrived, it was really difficult watching small children collecting muddy water to take home for drinking, by the third week of our time in Uganda, this water source was protected and the water which came out of it, clean. It was great being able to see the effects of the work we had helped and facilitated. Not only this, but providing clean water close to a school promotes female education by allowing girls to stay in school after hitting puberty - to be able to provide two resources which will enable girls to be educated for longer was really great, particularly as it is a subject which I feel very strongly about.
The trip was hard at times, the conditions we were living in were unlike anything we were used to – collecting our water from a water source, a ten minute walk away, through a bog, became a part of our everyday lives, as well as cohabiting with our pet chicken, and numerous other creatures that I didn’t really want to know about. Getting to grips with dealing with no electricity, no running water, and a very basic way of life was difficult, but allowed me to appreciate everything that I had left at home, and understand more about the culture I had immersed myself in.
Teaching was one of the highlights of the summer for me – it was completely surreal at times, doing the “soapy soapy” (the hokey cokey, but with a hygiene twist) on the top of a mountain on the Ugandan Kenyan border with 150 children is something I am never going to forget. Neither will I forget some of the friendships that were formed both with the other Oxford volunteers within my group, but also with some members of the community. The time I spent in Uganda with Little Big Africa was incredibly demanding, but something that I am so pleased to have done, and will remember forever.
By Iona Hughes (Third Year Economics and Management student)
For more information about similar opportunities see the Oxford Development Abroad website.