Friendship Week
International Friendship Programme
Next school visits:
- Mustard Seed School June 13-15, 2012
- Isaac Newton High School June 24-29, 2012
A number of our supporters have enquired about the possibility of visiting one or more of the Humanist Schools in Uganda.
In order to facilitate this the Humanist schools in Uganda have established, through their Uganda Humanist Schools Association, an “International Friendship Programme”. We piloted the first Friendship Programme in November 2009, and it proved to be a great success. In July 2010 we repeated and enlarged the programme, which involved 8 visitors from the UK working with staff and students in the three schools.
Past programmes:
November 2009 and July 2010
Participants make their own way to Uganda and meet up at the same Hotel in Kampala, where we hold an introductory briefing. The group then moves on to stay in basic hotels near the schools. Visitors will have an opportunity to contribute to or lead activities – according to their personal interests and talents.
The schools favour participatory activities which give students an opportunity to listen to, practice and improve their spoken English and to learn other skills. The sorts of things we envisage include short illustrated talks on topics of interest and a range of supporting activities, such as discussion groups, debates, music, arts, drama and sports. One idea that has already been proposed for June 2012 is to run a drama workshop over a full week in one of the schools. This would culminate in a performance for parents, guardians and local people. Working on a school newspaper is another option. There will also be an opportunity to discuss the work and needs of the schools with students and staff.
It is clearly a long way to go for a week so we expect people may want to combine the trip with a wild life safari. One possibility is to share an escorted safari, of which numerous are offered by reputable travel organisations. There may also be the possibility of staying on in one of the schools to help out.
You will need to arrange your own travel insurance and flights.
Initial enquiries show that cheapest flights at that time of the year are around £650, e.g. Manchester-Amsterdam-Entebbe with KLM.
A 6-day safari costs around 1200-2000 US Dollars, depending where you go and the standard of accommodation you choose.
Hotel accommodation is around £20 per night. We are willing to make reservations for the “International Friendship Week”, but ask you to pay for the hotels yourself. You will need to make your own reservations for outside this period – we can provide booking details for the hotels we are using. You will need to pay for local taxis to get to and from the schools each day. We will not be able to handle any money ourselves and particpants must come on the assumption that they are travelling independently. Uganda Humanist Schools Trust cannot accept any liability should anything go wrong. You are advised to have adequate travel insurance.
The schools will provide daily lunches with local food, shared with staff and students. We suggest you make a donation to the schools to recompense them for these costs.
Participating in the Friendship Week activities will give you a good insight into rural schooling in Uganda and a feel for their development and funding needs. The students will benefit from having an opportunity to speak with first language English speakers.
If you are interested please get in touch with us.
Best wishes
Steve Hurd
01782 750338
E-mail: uhstinfo@gmail.com