Hey everyone, we hope all of you are doing well and are keeping your enthusiasm for this summer. In this post we wanted to go over some general information that all of you should take into consideration.
-First of all if you have not had a financial planning session with one of the office staff we would highly recommend you schedule one as soon as possible. We have been able to speak with Mike Duthrie (HELP’s accountant) lately and he is awesome at elaborating effective methods for fundraising and how to go about it.
-Volunteer Training March 25-26. More information to come, but please put these dates down on your calendar if you haven’t already.
-The next issue is that of passports and visas. We hope that all of you already have a passport. If you do not we will have to expedite the process. The visa will be issued to us in country upon arrival, all you have to do is bring $60 US dollars and buy it at the airport.
-Get your immunization shots! Check out
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/uganda.aspx and schedule an appointment with a travel clinic (most college campuses have these) to make sure you’re covered in terms of immunizations. Travel clinics can provide
additional handy health-related travel tips as well. Do not wait until the last minute to do this. Sometimes it takes weeks for immunizations to take effect.
-Booking flights. It is recommended that you use the travel agent through HELP International for two reasons, 1. You pay the money to HELP and they in turn by your ticket, which means you can fundraise the total cost of your flight and 2 HELP’s travel agent is savvy on traveling through Africa and will avoid any unwanted layovers in less than desirable airports.
-SMART goals. It is assumed that of all you will be setting goals before we arrive in Uganda. These goals will be shared with us and we will help one another to achieve not only to help those in Uganda but us as well. SMART goals are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. We can go over this more in person. On a similar note, this is a part of HELP that we highly admire and often goes unnoticed, the fact that through HELP International we are becoming aware of citizens on a global level and our experiences in Uganda will impact our lives forever, hopefully with a positive influence and the ability to make positive change. We think that Smart goals are a great way to improve ourselves.
-2011 Lugazi, Uganda team get-together. We want the team to have a get together sometime this month if possible. Alissa mentioned that there is an Ethiopian restaurant in Salt Lake, that would be good. Let us know of any suggestions and lets get something organized. Also we think it would be cool to do a team fundraising project of some sort. Let us know if anyone has any ideas for that as well. For the fundraiser we could pick a project of something we know we will probably do
and advertise that specific project at our fundraiser.
-Travel Insurance. we think it is very important that we all have some type of insurance. So far the best thing we have found for our situation is called the ISIC card if you are a student. We will attach the link to the web site so you can easily access it, but if you have further questions let us know.
-Lastly, more as a note of interest, the Ugandan elections are still ongoing and it looks like it is a close race. President Yoweri Museveni has been the President since 1986 (about as long as most of us have been alive), however he is facing stiff competition from Former Col. Kizza Besigye from the IPC/FDC. In the most recent poll by the state paper “New Vision” Besigye has a five point edge (Besigye 45%-Museveni 40%). Mr. Museveni has bolstered his campaign by introducing a new tactic, rapping, yes that’s right rapping. Mr Museveni despite being 66 has turned into a Ugandan rap sensation (Jay-Z beware!). It will be interesting to see how the elections turn out and we are sure that even as we arriving there people will still be talking about it.
Hope all is well, we are very much looking forward to this summer.
Ari & Jesse
ISIC Card
