Our Ref: SAF/SB/REC 117 /2013. Date 17th /04/2013.

Your Ref: ………………………………………………………………………………………………

VOLUNTEER PROGRAM INFORMATION

SAF-Teso (Shine Africa Foundation-Teso) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that welcomes volunteers from both Uganda and internationally. We have many programs in place working in the eastern Teso region of Uganda. We want to incorporate in our team volunteers who can bring us fresh ideas, new skills and enthusiasm to our organization.

Our projects are open for all volunteers, and we work hard to tailor a volunteer program to individual skills and preferences. We do not require any specific skills but look for committed enthusiastic people who will be willing to learn, contribute and immerse themselves in life here. Being the official language of Uganda we do require proficient communication in English. We welcome volunteers of all nationalities, faiths and beliefs of 18 years and above.

We have a wide range of activities that volunteers can get involved with from practical field work to administrative and fundraising tasks for both short and long stays. Our team of staff is incredibly friendly and welcoming and they will endeavour to ensure your time here is as enjoyable and worthwhile as possible. Volunteering with us can give you the opportunity to enhance our organisation and the lives of people within the local communities, exchanging experience, knowledge and ideas, together with learning new skills. We would like you to be able to experience some of our Iteso culture and hope to form close friendships so you can continue to support us and return if you wish to do so. We will make sure that as much as there is some hard work during your time here, there is a lot of fun and socializing too.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Shine Africa’s main programs are Public Health, Education, Agriculture and Income Generating Activities, Environmental, Human Rights and Social Justice. Please look at our organization summary or the website for more details on specific projects that we are carrying out.

Regardless of your background or previous experience, there is flexibility of what project/s you would like to get involved with.

We have identified some areas that you may wish to focus on:

  • Medical/ health – those with some medical training/ background/ interest, to help in rural health centres, hospitals and provide health education to different groups within the community and work with our HIV and malaria projects
  • Education/ teaching – education of our Functional Adult Learning and Life Skills groups. We can also link you to local primary and secondary schools where some of the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) we support attend classes
  • Sports – help in setting up and coordinating sport teams/ clubs among our young people
  • Music, Dance and Drama (MDD) – help our peer educators with MDD sessions for both HIV awareness and for general enjoyment
  • Workshops and training – help train our peer educators, staff and community in areas you are knowledgeable in and feel would be beneficial eg IT skills, vocational skills, financial and business skills etc
  • Agriculture – help the local communities with their small scale farming
  • Management and administration – this involves helping our staff with the day to day running of the organisation and any new improvements you can bring. This includes monitoring and evaluation of projects, marketing, advertising, social networking, legal affairs, website designing, proposal writing and staff training
  • Fundraising – both helping us with local fundraising ideas and larger scale proposal writing, fund mobilization and lobbying
  • Business planning and management.
  • Photography, web designing and graphic design.
  • Human resource management and administrative work.
  • Public health internships/volunteering.
  • Project planning and management volunteering/internships field work.
  • Monitoring and evaluation project work of our project work
  • Micro-finance
  • Charity work
  • Human rights promotion-awareness, advocacy ,capacity building and training in human rights
  • Community mentoring.
  • Community empowerment.
  • Environment Management activities-awareness, tree planting(agro-forestry) and training local committees

Some additional internships/volunteering positions required.

We also need volunteers /interns who have skills in; accounting/finance management, photography, and website designing, English teaching, math, science,Art and craft teachers.

  • Volunteers with skills like website designing, photography, making short documentary about our projects in slum areas are welcome.
  • Teachers who can teach English (basic conversation) skills to grown up girls and women are welcome,
  • Volunteers who can teach specific skills to women like making artificial jewellery, paper bags, knitting stitching etc are welcome.
  • Medical volunteers who are interested in learning /observing various surgical procedures, shadow doctors in various departments of hospital s are welcome.

We welcome volunteers to get involved with as many areas of our organisation as they wish and create individually tailored programs. Your input and ideas are valuable to us and if you have a specific new project in mind or skills you wish to share we can try to cater for this. For those able to do some fundraising activities prior to their stay and would like to see the funds go to a particular cause, please feel free to discuss this with us.

On arrival you will have a day of orientation. This will give you time to get settled, for us to show you around, give you all the information you will need and for you to raise any question or concerns to us.

COSTING & ACCOMMODATION

Shine Africa is a non-profit organisation so any costs for the volunteers are for upkeep, transport and personal living needs only. We ask volunteers for a small non-refundable deposit of $60, this will secure your place on the program and go towards project funds for your stay.

This deposit is required to ensure commitment to working with us. Also we ask international volunteers and interns to pay a non refundable of 50,000 Ug shs for membership subscription .No further money from the volunteers will go to the organisation funds unless a volunteer chooses to give a donation which will be much appreciated and utilized in a way agreed with the donor; however we stress that this is not mandatory. Our primary reason for this volunteer program is to benefit from skills and ideas.

There are many different choices regarding accommodation, food and transportation cost that volunteers can choose from and will accordingly affect living costs.

Prices have been given in Ugandan Shillings (shs)

Approximate Exchange Rates: 1$ ~ 2600shs

£1 ~ 4300shs

Transfer from airport (we understand some people maybe be travelling overland from elsewhere in Uganda and neighboring African countries)

We ensure that all volunteers are met by one of our staff members if arriving at EntebbeInternationalAirport. Travel to Soroti options:

  • Special Hire (private taxi) from Kampala to Soroti 450,000Ug shs;
  • Special hire to Kampala 60,000 and;
  • Public transport by bus( coach) from Kampala to Soroti 30,000shs

Accommodation

  • Guest house/ hotel
  • Spacenet (mid-range comfortable guesthouse we have a good relationship with) 45,000shs for a double room. 30,000 for a single room with breakfast and Soroti Hotel (top-range hotel) at 60,000 shs with breakfast;
  • Rented/designatedaccommodation (including night security guard, water and electricity) 600,000shs a month for 2 people;
  • Host family;this is very open to all volunteers, accommodation is free however, we require that volunteers makes some contribution towards accommodation, meals and some administrative costs while in the host family
  • Meals

We will host you for some occational social meals, however; the day to day drinks, breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks will be taken care of by the volunteer. The local rates are as follows:

  • Local restaurants – average African main meal 7000-10,000shs

- More Western Style food 12,000-20,000shs

  • Self catering - good local market and supermarkets
  • Employed cook in rented accommodation – 5,000shs per day not including food

There is a massive range in cost here depending on what you want, and the guest house provides breakfast is you so wish.

In summary the cost of living in a locally rented/designated volunteer accommodation plus meals provided; is about 1,100,000 shs((423$) per month. This includes all costs in a month.

Transport whilst volunteering

This depends on where the projects in which you work are placed. We are looking into getting a project car for the organisation in the near future. We would ask volunteers to contribute to petrol costs; we are estimating that this may be approximately 20,000shs a week for all transport for the average community based program.

Getting around the town in general – walking, boda-bodas (small motorcycles) are very cheap and easy to use – 2000shs max per journey. Our staffs also have personal cars that we use to take you around.

Fuel contribution;

We require that every hosted volunteer makes monthly a small contribution of 80,000 shs to facilitate the organization in fuelling the motorcycles and a vehicle for community outreaches

Communication

  • Mobile phone – the cheapest and most used means of communication with people here. We recommend you to bring or buy cheaply here an inexpensive unlocked phone in which to get a Ugandan sim card. We emphasize that this is essential for your safety and communication
  • Internet – few places are yet to have wi-fi. If you chose to bring a laptop an Orange modem will cost you approx.100000sh, 1GB with cost approx.45000, or you can buy small data packages per use. There are a few internet cafes which charge around 1500sh per hour.

Extras

You should budget for free time, social evenings, leisure activities and weekend trips. Most things in Uganda are inexpensive. (A beer costs 3000shs!)

SAFETY AND WELL-BEING

The safety and well-being of our volunteers is our priority and we work to ensure that this is the case for the duration of your stay with us.

We ensure you are escorted by a member of staff when necessary, that you are informed of all the relevant safety issues within the town and that wherever you are staying there is appropriate security. Your belongings are your own responsibly. We ask that on your behalf you also take responsibility for you own safety by following our advice and guidance. SorotiTown and the surrounding region generally safe and you should encounter no problems if you are sensible.

On arrival you will be allocated a specific person who will act as an informal mentor should you have any concerns, issues or problems you wish to raise.

We hope that this information has been useful and has inspired you to volunteer with our organisation; we would love to have you! Please fill out the Volunteer Questionnaire so that we can get to know more about you and hopefully we can start to plan your stay. More details are available to those wishing to volunteer.

Many thanks,

Yours sincerely,

Michael Anguria

Programme Co-ordinator

SAF-Teso(Shine Africa Foundation-Teso)

VISION:A society in which the local population is empowered to equality of access

to the whole spectrum of quality social services.