A new project?

Coming to Uganda, I had always assumed I would do a secondary project. And actually, I did have many ideas in mind before arriving my (current) site. However, after arriving and assessing my situation, I came to realize that most of ideas wouldn't pan out (man, I had really wanted to start a swim team too!).

So over the past few weeks, I've still been contemplating what extracurriculars I could undertake and make my secondary projects. This week, I had a breakthrough...

As you know, corruption is common all over Africa. Earlier this week, I had met up with some friends who were volunteering here short term (meaning no more than 6 months, usually 1-3 months) and they were in a dilemma. They had just found out that the organization that they were working for was corrupt and were understandingly upset and looking for alternative options during the rest of their stay here in Uganda. Three of the volunteers had found the organization through another one at home and one through couch surfing. One of the volunteers and I discussed this issue and realized that this could have been avoided had there been proper (or any) research done on the organization before placement (for the ones who went through another org). So together, we decided the following:

There are so many people looking for short term volunteer assignments in developing countries all over the world. But selecting an ethical and legitimate organization to work with can be a difficult choice.

Having seen first hand, volunteers affected by corruption, we want to help volunteers make good decisions and have wonderful experiences.

Our goal is to identify good organizations in need of volunteers and help connect volunteers to these organizations.

As of now, two of the four volunteers have been placed another organization of their choice and two are currently undecided on where they would like to go. There is also one other volunteer coming back from the US to work with me and my organization for a short time. I really hope we can help people who are interested in volunteering connect with good organizations who really need volunteers.

We'll be working more on this idea over the next couple of weeks to further develop it. But..uh first, Christmas!

So in case I forget to write all of you...

Merry Christmas!!!

Cheers,

Tiff