We support International Students doing their Medical Electives. They work both at our Clinic and the nearby District Hospital. We also take our elective candidates on outreach in the villages.

Qualified medics on placement may also like the opportunity to train local staff as well as working with them, they can also offer some basic health advice to local villagers. To make the most of the placement we strongly recommend that such volunteers stay for at least a month but preferably longer, although shorter periods may be available subject to negotiation.

Successful candidates will stay at our Uganda Lodge guest house which is literally directly opposite the centre for a daily fee (£20 pp) including all food, facilities, and accommodation with hot showers in each room. If you would like to register an interest, please contact us using the form providing as much detail as possible. All candidates must speak English and applications are welcomed from any country. There is an admin fee of only £100, accommodation costs £140 a week, or £20 a day. There are lower rates for extended stays, please talk to Ann or Denis about this, either in person or when you fill out the form on this contact list.

“As a junior doctor I attended the local district general hospital – Itojo, which is 0.5miles away from the lodge, easily travelled to either by foot or by hitching a quick ride. This experience gave me a great insight into the workings of a local hospital, and I got some great opportunities to be quite hands on in the emergency department.”

“I returned to the lodge in 2017 as a GP and spent some time in the McNeil medical centre – situated in the grounds of the community project. It provides primary health care services to the local community and school. There were opportunities to screen and treat the children in the consulting rooms, and has a small dispensary attached to it as well with a few basic medications.”

“Both trips to this community project provided me with not only a great holiday (the safari is a definite ‘must do’) but also an opportiunity to develop my skills as a medical professional and to do some charitable work. In the process I have been lucky enough to meet some of the most beautiful people not only in the locals but in fellow volunteers who have become lifelong friends.” Amna Ahmed (November2017)

Volunteers from around the world have worked within the rural setting of Ruhanga in south-west Uganda for several years helping develop community projects that support young people, and their families establish a better future. The projects to date include a successful development school, now attended by over five hundred local children, workshops and a gravity well bringing clean, piped water into the community. A volunteer can take part in multiple projects whereas in other organisations a volunteer is often stuck to the one thing they sign up for.

Since 1990 the Human Development Report has published the Human Development Index (HDI) which provides a composite measure of three basic dimensions of human development: health, education and income. Uganda’s HDI is 0.456, which gives the country a rank of 161 out of 187 countries with comparable data, placing Uganda below the regional average.

By volunteering, visiting as a tourist, completing a medical elective, or donating. You will help improve the health, education, and income of people in the region. This is because the McNeil Medical Centre is a project within a Ugandan NGO called ”Stand on Your Own”, which consists of: The Ruhanga Development School, an expanding vocational training centre; tourism generating projects and workshops run in the local fishing villages and Queen Elizabeth National Park safaris. Stand On Your Own’s website is here: http://standonyourown.org/ and talks about these projects in more depth.

Volunteering and placements are usually done by International applicants, because this is not a job offer –there is no payment and in addition volunteers will pay their own costs for accommodation, meals and all travel.