Ways of Impacting Lives – Adding Meaning to Your Safari in Uganda
A Safari with Meaning – Impacting the Lives of Ugandans by empowering them
Impacting Lives – Adding Meaning to Your Safari in Uganda: A safari in Uganda is more than just wildlife, primates, and stunning scenery. It includes meaningful cross-cultural encounters with the people who call this country home. Engaging with local communities and forging new friendships can add deep, lasting meaning to your safari experience.
This is especially true for family safaris with children. Exposing young travelers to diverse cultures and traditions can have a profound impact, fostering empathy, understanding, and a sense of global citizenship.
From the moment you arrive in Uganda, your Presence as a visitor has the power to affect the lives of ordinary Ugandans. You may not realize it, but tourism and visitor spending contribute significantly to the Ugandan economy, creating jobs and opportunities that directly impact local families.
At the airport, you are greeted by Ugandan staff – from immigration and customs officials to the driver guide waiting to welcome you. These are people whose livelihoods depend on the tourism industry. The hotel where you stay, and its employees, from wait staff to cooks, also rely on visitors like you.
Tourism is one of Uganda’s most important economic drivers, but the benefits go beyond dollars and numbers. Your journey has the potential to touch the lives of Ugandans in deeply meaningful ways. By engaging with local communities, learning about their traditions, and creating connections, you can leave a lasting positive impression that extends far beyond the duration of your Safari.
Tourism impacts the lives of Ugandans.
Does tourism change Ugandan lives? The answer is a resounding yes. First, there is voluntourism—or volunteerism. Most
visitors to Uganda fall into that category, where they come to Africa and are involved in projects ranging from medical care to building a house for an orphanage and many other things.
Such projects impact Ugandan communities—schools, hospitals, villages, slums, and the list could go on and on. Voluntourism changes live—thousands come each year to Uganda or Rwanda, directly impacting African Lives.
Today, Bwindi Community Hospital is Uganda’s best-equipped and staffed rural Hospital. Started by Doctor Kellerman and his wife, the Hospital has drastically reduced the infant mortality rate, and the death of mothers giving birth and increased life expectancy, especially for those belonging to the Batwa Community who are conservation refugees. Gorilla tourists from around the world specifically ask to visit it, and their contributions impact the lives of the local community.
Visitors to Uganda contribute to the economy every time they stay in a hotel, lodge, or tented camp, each time they eat in a restaurant, and each time they leave a tip in a country with a mostly non-tipping culture. It may not seem like a lot, but a dollar or two in Ugandan shilling makes a difference in the life of an African.
Most Visitors who go on a safari tour do not realize that their visit to its Wildlife Parks – and their purchases of crafts such as carvings, baskets, batiks, paintings, and musical instruments contribute to the well-being of another African family.
Cultural Visits to villages and the purchase of locally made arts and crafts once again impact the life of a Ugandan family, so take it easy bargaining down to a low price but see it as an investment in the person you are dealing with—an investment that empowers.
Visitors to Uganda who go on Safari may nSafarilize it. Still, the entrance fees into parks, the gorilla and chimpanzee permits, the volcano climbing, the golden money tracking, and all the other garden activities affect the communities surrounding the various parks.
The Ugandan park Authorities distribute a portion of annual park entrance fees to those communities. The money has been used to build school classrooms, toilets, health centers, housing for teachers, irrigation projects, community centers, road construction and improvements, tree planting, trenches to prevent wildlife from encroaching villages, goat rearing projects, and more.
This has made life easier for communities surrounding the parks. One of the best things is that more mothers have delivered their children to medical centers erected due to revenue sharing by the government.
Many of the lodges that you may stay in a while in various parks hire residents as cooks, wait staff, receptionists, cleaners, and even local entertainers for the guests at multiple lodges – take the porters who may carry your things as you go gorilla tracking – they make more in a year than the average civil servant will earn, the Rangers who take you on birding walks or game drives – can pay for school fees for their children, build a home, and more. Tourism empowers many people living he communitithat are es neighboring the national parks by selling crafts and cultural performances, increasing employment opportunities with tour companies and lodges, and even becoming a ranger in Uganda or Rwanda.
When they returned to their home country, some of our Clients formed ongoing relationships with Ugandan organizations, such as schools, self-help groups, and women’s empowerment projects.
Pack to make a difference—you can even pack things such as books, deflated (soccer) footballs, tiny dolls, crayons, and coloring books and make a difference in a child’s life along with your Safari (journey).
Your vSafario Africa makes a difference—inadvertently, your prPresencend your money spent Pre. You are a change agent—someone who impacts the lives of others, and your visit will impact many lives—most of all your own and the lives of your family on a Safari with Children.
Ways to create a Safari with Meaning in Uganda that impacts Lives
- Purchase some of the great local art and souvenirs – in this way. You assist Ugandans in providing for their families.
There are many talented artists in Uganda producing beautiful items that can grace your home and, at the same time, benefit a family in Uganda. There are tribal textile items in villages such as Boomu, where they weave beautiful bedspreads and other things, creative baskets such as the ones found in the village of Ruboni in the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains, Carvings of all kinds located in many places, jewelry, paintings, beautiful batiks, musical instruments including drums of various sizes, the list is endless – find out how the item was made and who made it. Your purchases will touch someone’s life in a most meaningful manner.
- Raise some funds that you can give to an orphanage, a needy family, or a village project in Uganda. This can be done by having an African Movie night before your departure – there are some lovely films found – from documentaries to classic movies such as “Gorillas in the Mist.” Talk about your upcoming trip and how you would like to impact an orphanage, school, or community in Uganda. Have a garage sale and sell items, raising funds to touch Ugandan lives.
- Pack some books, especially children’s books. Uganda, for the most part, is a non-reading culture. You will find DVD rental shops everywhere, but not many bookstores – people might have one book in their home, such as the Bible or the Koran, but little else. Children grow up without the gift of imagination being released and no books to dream about for a better future and tomorrow.
- Purchase some Soccer Balls. They are usually deflated, lightweight, and easily packed into a suitcase. You will find children here using plastic bottles instead of a soccer ball, and your gift will touch a child most meaningfully.
- There are many meaningful ways to impact the local community, enrich them, and allow you to instill hope where there is none.
Always move from the Spirit of Compassion and never out of Pity – Pity is demeaning and leaves guilt behind with those who receive.
Impacting Lives on Safari in Uganda – Give Presence anPresencest PresentsPresencehan gifts, tips, and financial assistance, tourists are given the gift of their presence toPresencehey meet, nPresencee spirit of pity but out of wanting to get to know a person from a different culture than yours.
Everything in Uganda is relational, and that is where your presence liPresence their stories; they want to hear yours. Bring pictures of your family and of your home. Ask about their families and their hopes and aspirations.
By being present, you recognize them as equals, give them a sense of dignity, evoke trust, and allow communication to flow.
Cultural mistakes will be made, but they will be forgiven quickly. Put aside any temptation to be the best person the Bwana knows. Please do not bring up your cultural norms, as they become a relational roadblock.
Impacting Lives – Adding Meaning to your Safari in Uganda – If you have a question – don’t hesitate to contact us.
