Support disadvantaged children, work with chimpanzees in Uganda
Volunteering with chimpanzees and children
Uganda 2011
1st-27th July 2011
Applications are now open
Who do we support?
Children living at an orphanage
Use your skills to support children from an orphanage based near Entebbe, Uganda. ‘Raising up hope for Uganda’ has 43 children who have been living on the streets for various reasons such as abuse and family traumas. The orphanage is there to provide shelter and food for the children, as well as doing their best to help them with their education. We are now working closely with ‘Raising up hope’. We work with the children at the wildlife/primate centre where we are staying, with primate and animal based communication activities which explore the relationship between us and primates, the behaviours, feelings and traumas that are also linked to humans. You can read more about our activities on this project below
Children living on the streets (in the slums)
Raising up Hope also have several outreach projects that they have taken on. One of those includes working with the children that are still living in the slums. These children have probably never been out of this environment before. Raising up hope aims to give them emotional and clinical care. We are lucky enough to be able to offer a group of these children from the streets who Raising up hope work with, the opportunity to work with us at the animal sanctuary/conservation/ primate/wildlife centre with the activities that we run. This is an amazing experience for everyone involved to try and make a difference in these children’s lives.
Children living in the community
Another of Raising up Hopes programs works with children who are still living with their families in the community, but who need extra care and support. Raising up Hope provide them with pratical support with food, washing and clothing, as well as organising social days where they meet to play sports and other games. We also work with these children at our wildlife centre, where we run activities with the children. All of these children are amazing and very inspirational to be around. We work with them to support them with discovering their feelings and traumas and to experience wildlife, with a focus on chimpanzees.
Primate activities
Our aim is to relate human feelings and behaviour to that of primates (our closest relative) enabling the children to express their feelings and family situations in a safe and non-intrusive environment. Primate based communication activities allow children to use creative skills to express their feelings with art, role play and music activities. They will have the opportunity to learn about the behaviour similarities between us and them and the traumatic experiences that many of them have in common with primates to give them self esteem, build self confidence and aid communication and relationship building along with a therapeutic benefit. We also use communication aids such as primate faced feelings boards. The activities also aim to give a subtle educational message to the children about primates in Africa.
The children are able to visit the chimpanzees at 2 primate sanctuaries whom we work with, and have the opportunity to be part of some of the educational programs that the sanctuaries run. These are adapted to our aims, so that we can incorporate some of our Yebo activities into them. This is supported by Ngamba Island, CSWCT and The Ugandan Wildlife Education centre. Our other activities are aimed at each individual group of children we work with, depending on their needs and ages. We look at discovering feelings, story telling and drama plays about chimpanzees and animals, that can all be related to their lives in some way. The children will often express how they are feeling about a subject in a non-direct way. This is fascinating as it comes out in their creative work.
Other activities
Activities such as puppet making, art work, drama plays, costume making, music, creating instruments and tree planting are just a few activities that volunteers and workers will be able to get involved in with the children by working hands on with them. Creative Activities are brought together by the volunteers, working as a team to compliment each individual they are working with. Activities are used such as art, drama and music, and other creative moments, inspired by both volunteers and children. Volunteers will be developing new and existing activities as the project goes along, continually evaluating and observing the impact they are having in the work they are doing. The volunteers are an intrinsic part of the project development of the activities, and the observations that go with them.
Primate and wildlife support
Yebo aims to also support the animal sanctuaries and conservation projects in the local area using education and awareness. The children will work with volunteers at the sanctuaries. The volunteers will be working alongside the primate keepers observing and learning about the individual chimpanzee stories, behaviour and trauma. As we are staying within a sanctuary we will be observing and learning about the chimpanzees in their care, learning about behaviour, feelings and traumatic experiences that the primates have gone through that may have caused them psychological trauma. Again this also aims to have a further conservation and educational message. Children and volunteers will not have hands on contact with chimpanzees . This is due to conservation aspects and the safety of you and chimpanzees who are susceptible to illness such as coughs and colds that is passed onto them through humans.
Local culture and safaris
During the trip you will have a chance to be part of the local culture by getting involved with the magic of African dancing and cultural evenings dancing around the camp fire. You will also get time to visit national safari parks and the beautiful scenery near by such as the many waterfalls surrounding the area. Your skills and interests will always be matched to what you enjoy or are interested in so we are able to help and support the children and organisations as best we can.
“Chimpanzees are 98.7% like humans. They get sad,happy,jealous, angry and they can even be very stubborn. Sometimes you forget they are not completely human
Training
The training that we provide students in Africa focuses on the following;
- Play therapy with children
- working with children with disabilities
- Working with children who have suffered abuse
- Primate behaviour and conservation
- Music therapy
- Activity planning
- Activity coordinating
- Project coordinating
Download our information pack for volunteers now that details the following;
- Life as a volunteer
- Yebo Activities
- Supporting children in Africa
- African culture
- African primates/wildlife work
- Traveling in Africa/ information
click here to download. Please note that some details may have changed in the guide
All prices include the following;
£1100 for the 4 weeks
- accommodation on site
- Food (3 meals a day)
- Car transport to projects during the day (but not to and from airport)
- Volunteer training on the above subjects
- Project materials
- CRB checks
- Entrance to sanctuaries (but not safaris)
- Food and transport for children in the project
- Donations to the sanctuaries and children’s homes
- Extra materials such as necessary stationary and books needed to support volunteers
Please note that prices DO NOT include flights Here are a few extra things we would like you to know
- Our coordinators do not take a wage from your money and are also volunteers.
- We are a non-for profit organisation which means all monies raised goes into the running of the support projects.
- As much as we would like to support students with funding for their trips, we are unable to at this present time, due to the focus of our support. No excess funds are left over from any of these trips.
To apply now fill in our application form above or for more information please email our team at;
info@yeboyes.org
Please note that prices do not include flight tickets.
The following video was taken at Ngamba Island Chimpanzee sanctuary and U.W.E.C in Uganda and aims to show the similarities between primates and humans.