Testimonials

Just Go for It

My husband Mick and I arrived on Boxing Day 2005 - an anniversary trip, as we‘d met in Africa 10 years before! We had planned on working with Soft Power for a week, then having a week's holiday, but in fact we worked the whole time - weekends excepted - and we'd be back tomorrow if possible. It was just fantastic!

We saw first hand how the money is going directly into the local economy, and into the refurbishment of the primary schools in the region. They are a small charity and every penny goes to buy materials in the shops and markets, and employ local builders. To get to work we'd hop on the back of a boda boda (moped taxi), and bomb along the gorgeous red earth roads. We were constantly covered in red dust! We did some varied work: painting exterior and interior walls of Kyabirwa's new Medical Centre and Kyomya school; painting blackboards and teaching aids onto the walls of classrooms; and Mick helped knock down an old mud house, and install solar panels and a water tank for the new Medical Centre.

The wonderful kids were the highlight. They were on holiday from school so would stick around us the whole time, watching, trying on our sunglasses, hats etc.... wanting suntan lotion if we put some on... singing and playing! And sometimes grabbing a paintbrush to try and help, which wasn't always welcome, colour matching and straight lines not being their strong points. They were aged about 1 to 10, always really sweet and ready to laugh - and ready to pose. If a camera was produced they would all rush into a group and stand still, often quite seriously, then scream and shout and laugh when you showed them the pic you'd just taken on the screen!

Uganda is such a lovely place, so lush and green, and the people are just wonderful - so open, friendly, funny, welcoming. This trip was the best thing we have ever done; we really enjoyed it all, and we hope our donation (thanks to all our family and friends) will help with the construction of the new Education Centre. My advice to anyone dithering is, just go for it!

Hands Of Help

By David Gordon (Hands of Help Sydney, Australia)

Working as a Hands of Help Volunteer (a charity from Australia) in conjunction with SoftPower Education in Bufuula was the greatest experience of my life. I’ve travelled to over thirty countries, but Uganda claims first place in my heart. It was amazing to be submersed in a culture and way of life so vastly different to home and have it come to feel like home. I will never forget the throngs of children jumping up and down and screaming “MUZUNGU!!!” (their word for “white person”, but not rude) whenever we passed, and lining up to play with us at the end of our day’s work. I will never forget my local friends, who invited me to see their homes and way of life so different from my own, and the way they would engage me in meaningful conversations regularly, with true eagerness to hear my thoughts and share their own ideas. I will never forget the piles of gifts of fruit, the dancing and singing, the smiles, or the words, English or Lusogan (local language) that made me feel more welcome and appreciated than I have ever felt before. I want to thank the wonderful people at Soft Power for facilitating such a fantastic experience and helping to make things run as smoothly as possible in a continent where nothing runs smoothly!

Smarties For Africa

By Sheila McCormack

I want to share with you an example of a successful fundraiser...

In January 2005 i did a presentation to 140 first year pupils (11-12 year olds) in Saint Dominic's School in Belfast. During the presentation i told the girls about Soft Power's history, aim and objectives, achievements, facts and figures about Uganda and the day to day work i carried out in the Special Needs Unit in Kyomya Primary School.

I showed them powerpoint pictures of the children in the Special Needs Unit, their classroom before and after SP and the children having their hearing tested.

The photographs from Bwenda Pre-School for Orphans were a big hit!! The girls loved them!

I wanted the pupils to see a little snippet of my life in Uganda so i showed them photos of Jinja Market, flowers, fruit trees and my banda. The pupils asked so many questions they were so egar to learn about this little part of Africa.

At the end of the presentation we gave the girls a full tube of smarties each, they were so excited to recieve free sweets! We asked them over the following two weeks to collect 5 pences, 20 pences and 1 pound coins, basically any coins that would fit in the tube. We worked out that 15 Pounds worth of 20pences filled the tube.

When the pupils returned the filled tubes we gave them a bookmark with the British Sign language Alphabet as a thank you for their hardwork.

In total they raised 785 Pounds, just under 2.5 Million Ugandan Shillings for Soft Power Education .... A big thanks to Miss O'Hare and all the first year pupils of St Dominics School!!

Kept Coming Back

By Dirk Leysen

In October 2003 I passed Jinja on the way back from the gorilla's in Rwanda. I volunteered one day for Softpower (painting at Budondo PS). After I got home in December of that year I decided to return to volunteer for 6 weeks.... but I ended up staying almost 5 months. Meanwhile I went to Belgium twice, but every time I returned after a couple of weeks. I have spent here 12 months since January 2004. At the end of last year I bought a plot at the bank of the Nile and at this moment I am building my house there with a great view on the river... so, you never know, I might end up here....

The beauty of Softpower is that it's a "small scale" organization. Sometimes it needs some improvisation to keep it running. But this also means that all the money is going where it should go to. The whole idea to run the projects with overland volunteers who pay to do some work, is quite unique.

I came in touch with a lot of nice people, meaning people with a warm heart, coming to Softpower as long term volunteers....Chris and Georgie, Graham, Jacky, Andy, Madame Sinseea, Sheila and Una, Sherrie, Emilie, Sarah, Louise, Dan and Laura, Georgie and Posy and many many more... sorry Paul for forgetting you... I wonder why only a few "boys" come to stay and to help for a while.

I also made a lot of local friends, mainly in the schools where we are working.
Anyway, thank you all, especially Hannah, for giving me the opportunity to have a great time in this beautiful country.

All Over To Soon

By Una Ferriss

What can I say about volunteering with Softpower. I've loved it so much I even threw my wallet away to defer my onwards travels. However the evil force that is visa has sent me a new credit card and what was initially a 4 week stint, but turned into a 9 week one, is now coming to an end.

For the time that I have been here I have been based at a school called Kyomya Primary with a couple of other volunteers, Sheila, Emily, Amber and Sarah from time to time. Sheila has been teaching in the special needs class whilst the rest of us have been painting the new classrooms that Softpower built. We start our day at about nine o'clock, jumping on little scooter taxis for the twenty minute journey to school providing we dont break down/ run out of petrol/ crash into a goat. When we arrive there is about half an hour of saying hello and asking how are we and how is there then we get busy making the school lovely and destroying ourselves in the process. There are always lots of little curious eyes following you about and plenty of kids to play with at break and lunch. The teachers are amazing and so hospitable. Have never eaten so much in my life and they will do anything to make your job easier for you.

We have now painted the inside and the outside of two blocks of classrooms including some beautiful murals. If you get the chance to come out the ship and the donkey are mine and the mouse definately isn't.

The special needs unit is a great place with the most lovely, and energetic, kids you will ever meet. Margaret and Magdelene are the two wonderful teachers and they have been lucky to have Sheila helping for the past 2 months and introducing such wonders as glitter and paint. We threw a little christmas party for the class and their parents on monday and the fact that twice as many parents turned up to that as to the opening of the unit indicates the progress the unit is making in encouraging the parents to take their kids education seriously. Either that or the free food.

Aside from the refurbishing of schools Softpower has also started up a number of other projects including the building of a new health centre and a local kiln, the broadcasting of a weekly children's radio hour, and the promotion of a woman's cooperative. Which is where the beauty in Softpower lies. It's a relatively small organisation but is getting more and more involved with different projects all the time. They really encourage volunteers to find an area that strikes a chord with them into which to channel their time and donations and are constantly open to new ideas. You would not believe how quickly projects get off the ground here and it's fantastic to be able to pinpoint exactly where your efforts went into. For example, Sheila was very keen to get hearing tests for her pupils and spent a couple of days in Kampala negotiating for a team of audiologists to come up. That happened last week and a few of the kids will hopefully now benefit from hearing aids.

Another point in its favour is that Softpower really doesn't attract one single type of volunteer. I have just finished a post grad but we've had a school leaver, students, career breakers and then the oldies Cynthia and Dirk who are really more badly behaved than the rest of us put together. We've all had a blast and formed very strong friendships.
You can also pick from completely different types of accommodation to suit you. Two Ausralian girls chose to rough it by camping out at one of the schools with all the delights of no electricity and drop toilets. Others stay in town, Emily stayed with a local family and the rest of us have been divided between the three campsites at Bujagali Falls where you can be ensured of a good party at least three nights a week. Our time off has been spent white water rafting, on a road trip out to the west to see the gorillas, on an island further down the nile, and for a sinful amount of time by the pool at a lovely hotel on the way to town. So it has been a great combination of doing some fantastic and very worthwile volunteering, having great fun and meeting some crazy people and seeing Uganda which is a stunning country.

Soft Power Rocks

By Emily

Have just returned to the UK after two months working as a volunteer for Soft Power and it was AMAZING. You only have to speak to the teachers and children at the schools (and the local community) to understand the massive difference it has made to their lives.

I learned about the project by passing through Jinja on an Overland truck, and was so impressed that I came back!
Soft Power works closely with the community so if you want to see Ugandan life as more than a tourist it's ideal - I lived with a family in the village, who treated me as their own daughter, and taught me how to cook like an African (in theory - whether I'm any good time will tell!).

If anyone is thinking of volunteering, DO IT WITH SOFT POWER!!!