Why Uganda?

Last year I quit my job. It’s been a couple of busy years and so I had accumulated two months of unused vacation days. As I didn’t just want to spend my vacation hunting for a new job, being on standby, doing job interviews and so on I decided to focus on a personal project for now. So I started to thinking about how to spend my holidays before getting back to my orderly life in good old Switzerland.

Where to go? I mean it’s a big and beautiful world and there’s plenty of great places to be discovered. I thought about visiting a former workmate in Thailand or travelling to New Zealand.  During my daily workout some idea flashed through my mind: why not doing something meaningful instead of just go travelling? Why not going to Africa, the cradle of man, to work as a volunteer? I couldn’t get rid of this craze during the next couple of days and started to do some research about this topic. Geez, there’s so many organisations offering volunteer jobs and there’s really so much crap going on in this area! Charity turns out to be real big business.

Well I’ve learned a lot from my research and discussed my plans with some friends. I also reflected a lot about the pros and cons. Finally I had to pose a question to myself: Why would I want to do this? Would I want to do it for the right reason and would my work really be appreciated? The answer was: I don’t know, but I knew that I wanted to try it out.

Thanks to Suzie I got introduced to the president of the foundation Stiftung Licht für vergessene Kinder whom I contacted a couple of weeks ago. After a phone call he invited me home to discuss my request and to tell me more about his foundation. The foundation's goal is to support orphans and abandoned kids all over the world. I liked what he told me and what they did for the kids in Africa and India. Unfortunately he also mentioned that there will not be enough work to do for me but he had the idea that I could work for his sister who’s been living in Uganda for a couple of years and is donator for the Foundation for Local Farmers in East Africa. She lives in Chopalwor, near Masindi where she’s running the Eco-Farm and other projects on behalf of her foundation. He told me that he was going to visit his sister for a couple of days. He would discuss my volunteer’s work with her and proposed to meeting again after his return.

That’s what we did and it confirmed my resolution to going to Africa!

Personal project? – Check :-)