An average month in the life a volunteer looks like:

Training: When we conduct new VHT trainings, we spend part of the first week preparing for the training. On the Sunday before training we all load up supplies and get on the truck to get to the training site (or boat if on the islands). The training week is spent camping at the site, usually a church, school , or civic center. Training goes all day, starting with greeting the VHT learners and wrapping up with dinner each night. It is an intense week, but one that gives a good understanding as to how the program works. During the last day of training, we wrap up, give out certificates, and then head back to Makata. When there are multiple volunteers present at a training, we often try to schedule other activities locally. For example, while one or two are involved in the day’s teaching, others go out with Henry, Elizabeth or Edward to conduct a focus group or quarterly meeting. Still others may go out to work on a research project, an upcoming protected water source construction, etc. Everyone should participate in a training while in Uganda. However, as you will see, there is much sitting while others teach, particularly given our emphasis on Ugandans doing most of the training, as they should. Try to plan activities ahead of time to get as much done as possible during training weeks. While out on the islands, there are fewer options, but there is still a need for quarterly meetings, focus groups and research.

For many volunteers, there will be no new VHT training. Over the course of 2014-15, it  became clear to us that we need to concentrate on the VHTs we have trained already and to decide how best to keep them engaged and active. As such, much of the emphasis will be on VHT teachings, new study roll-outs, and our ongoing projects with cookstove and protected water source constructions, the new ITN roll out, and a new Ministry-assisted VHT maintenance program.

Most weeks for volunteers will look like the following: Most VHTs work as subsistence farmers and they are almost all out working on their farms in the early part of the day. As such, we conduct our focus groups, quarterly meetings, and many other activities after lunch. Please recognize that activities will be coordinated by the Omni Med staff in Makata, so the following are merely guidelines to help orient you. Mornings are the ideal time to work on research activities, coordinate Prompt distributions during home visits, or spend time at the Kojja Health Center or other local clinics to better understand how the health systems work locally. The work week is typically Monday through Friday, with some work occasionally done on Saturdays. The weeks are best thought of as morning and afternoon activities. Some volunteers will spend time clinically with either Dr Kabali in his office in Kampala, or at Kojja Health Center IV, coordinated by Dr Anthony Kkonde. Another morning may well be spent helping to facilitate VHT based health education in local schools. One or two mornings will be spent working out details of research related activities. I would also suggest that volunteers spend one morning per week reading. There is a reading list for volunteers to get through during the course of their experience and it is reasonable to use some of the morning time for this. There is no set pattern for how mornings are spent, but this will be worked out during the rotation. Some may well spend more time in a particular program such as teaching in schools, while others will focus more on one aspect of the research or another program. That is fine. We strive to expose all volunteers to all aspects of the programs we are involved in. No one “owns” any particular program. Please recognize that we are all serving for brief periods of time, helping the local Ugandans improve their health.

Afternoons are all spent interacting with the VHTs. Two afternoons are typically spent doing home visits. At least 2, possibly 3 afternoons will be spent conducting quarterly meetings with the ICCM and other training materials. Another afternoon may be spent constructing cookstoves. You may well be involved in other coordinated activities as per Edward, Elizabeth and Henry. Judith and Ruth cook lunch and dinner every week day and Saturdays, and you will find time in the evenings to read, socialize, or watch DVDs rented locally. Weekends are typically off. Please be extremely careful when planning activities outside Omni Med work. The biggest risk you face in Uganda is road travel. Be sure to check with Edward, Henry and Elizabeth about getting around the country. And let someone know where you will be at all times.

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View the volunteer orientation guide here.

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Volunteer feedback on Uganda programs:

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Since our start in 1998, Omni Med has sent close to 300 volunteers to our many programs overseas. We have sent over 80 to Uganda alone. We have always sought to provide a powerful, life transforming experiences to them, while insisting that while with us, our volunteers provide valuable and sustainable contribution to the local people. For years, we have done so. Here are some comments from our volunteers in 2015: 

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James Spratt, MS-1, Georgetown: “I felt a sense of ownership in the work I did in Uganda. We students weren’t just following the outlines of some lecturer or obeying a treatment algorithm; we were discovering solutions on our own and working through the problems that unfailingly arise out of any great solution. I would highly recommend Omni Med to anyone interested in global health. The staff and leadership provide a great structure and framework to help the community, but still allow freedom to take initiative and find creative ways to augment that mission. I have never participated with an NGO that was able to balance meaningful organized activities with independent idea development as well as Omni Med did. I wish that I could have spent more time in Mukono and am grateful for the friends that I made there.” 

Mallette Asmuth, MS-1, George Washington: “This was a great opportunity to learn about public/ community health and sustainable health solutions, to gain exposure to tropical diseases, and to see from the ground the social, political, economic, religious, infrastructural and technological challenges to solving the problem of inadequate health care. I feel that many of the lessons that I learned in Uganda can be translated to work in the United States. The healthcare infrastructure is disjointed, there is gross inequality and there are social, political and economic challenges that I am now more equipped to face.” 

Stephen Stone, MS-1, U-Miss. “I’m grateful for my time in Uganda and am hopeful that I can use what I’ve learned to truly make a difference in the future.”

Sara Porter, MS-1, U Mississippi, wrote about her experiences teaching school children about malaria and talking with the school headmaster afterwards, He told Sara that the volunteers were great role models, motivating the children to succeed. The volunteers taking time to learn about malaria and then travel all the way from the US to teach about it, “was an act of encouragement and solidarity with the people of Mukono District… Sara added, “We inspired the students that want to be doctors to work hard, since they got to see how doctors can help the community. As a future doctor and  a Christian, this struck me as the core to everything that public health and medicine can do… By encouraging and uplifting one another, we have an even greater impact. What we give above everything is a relationship that can be a light in a person’s darkest times. Fir this insight, I am completely grateful for the opportunity to have worked with Omni Med in Uganda.” 

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Corinne McNichols, MPH-1, Tulane: “I was quite impressed with the way Omni Med was designed… focused on training VHTs and building up expertise and capacity from within the communities… the main emphasis is how to supply Ugandan village members with the information and resources to help their own communities and maintain long-lasting health objectives that are going to make a difference in their villages.”