World Challenge Independent Expeditions: Project Destinations!

The summer of 2011 will see the very first Independent teams going on a project based expedition, and they will be travelling to "the pearl of Africa"; Uganda! Although the school programme within World Challenge has been running project expeditions for years, we have traditionally run expeditions with only trekking or ones with just a few days spent on a project site. However, as Uganda has been met with such high demand we have looked into what it is that makes these expeditions so popular, and what this means for our expeditions in 2012!

One of the World Challenge
community projects

Back in 2007 I spent time working in Uganda for an NGO (non-governmental organisation) called 'Straight Talk', a charity promoting HIV/AIDS awareness and sexual health education amongst young people throughout the country. They do this through publishing newspapers, leaflets, posters, their very own radio station and teaching in schools. My time there, although often hearing about very tragic situations and difficult circumstances was extraordinary, as we all met such fun and friendly people and saw and experienced amazing things (the white water rafting in Jinja was pretty good!!).

The local children at one
of the project sites

So when a group of students asked if we could run an expedition to Uganda so they could work on a project out there, I was really excited! The World Challenge projects in Uganda are usually based in very remote communities, often ones which aren't reached by bigger non-governmental organisations. The teams work on education based projects and in conjunction with the local people: builders, plumbers, the children and their parents. There is also plenty of opportunity for cultural exchange as there is lots of interaction with the children and families through teaching and organising group activities.

A challenger helping
construct a classroom

As two teams are heading to work in Uganda this summer, we have launched the same expedition for 2012 with the hope that more teams can continue to offer help to the communties we support, and have a great experience in such a beautiful country!

School children in Sri Lanka

We have now also launched another project-based expedition for next summer to somewhere a little different...Sri Lanka! Many of the schools out there have basic facilities, so we hope our teams will work with the communities to help construct desks, chairs, do maintenance repairs, and help out in the classrooms. Our Product Team are heading out to Sri Lanka in the next few weeks to also source out some brand new project sites...so watch this space!