About Us

Our volunteers build relationships with ordinary Ugandans working hard to improve our society

Back in 2005, The Real Uganda launched with a simple but powerful mission: to channel skills and funding into small, locally-led community-based organizations. Nearly two decades later, it has evolved into a dynamic network of Ugandan leaders and international volunteers working together to uplift rural communities.

How do we do it?
By immersing volunteers in the richness and complexity of Ugandan culture, and fostering meaningful connections with everyday Ugandans committed to driving positive change.

The Real Uganda thrives because our approach centers the voices of local communities. We prioritize their goals and empower them to define and assess the outcomes of our programs. Volunteers are not just helpers—they are learners and collaborators, supporting grassroots solutions to homegrown challenges.

And along the way, they gain profound insight into the realities of life in Uganda.

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International Volunteer Impact in Uganda

After more than two decades of working exclusively in Uganda, The Real Uganda continues to deepen its understanding of what truly motivates local organizations to host international volunteers.

It’s not about financial gain or achieving total self-sufficiency. In fact, none of our partners imagine a future without volunteers actively engaged alongside them.

What drives them is something more powerful: solidarity, collaborative teamwork, and the spirit of shared leadership.

Discover what our partners say about the impact of international volunteers in their organizations.

Group Solidarity

“The biggest excitement for the communities is to share their lives… All their lives, nobody is interested to know how they live, why they eat the food they eat. And when they get somebody who is interested in such information, they start valuing their lifestyle better.”

Asia Kamukama

“Volunteers come from different cultures, and we also have a different culture from them. But they don’t force us to follow their culture, and we don’t force them to follow our culture. But we advise one another, which is very good.”

Liz Mukiibi

“Even if a volunteer has spent a week, it changes some kind of thinking, some kind of doing things… somewhere there is a point touched. There is no one who has come around that has not made a change.”

Judith Lutaaya

Team Building

“You add more hands on the work. It’s like carrying one log of tree, if you are 10 then it is light work.” –

Robert Dibya

“What matters mostly is sitting together and coming up with a solution together as a team. We draft a plan we are going to follow together as a team. We cannot serve when we are separated. We can only serve when we are a team.”

Travis Bogere

“Through volunteers, the communities we serve get a different perspective on how the world runs. They learn different cultures, and are able to value living together with other people and learning from them. Usually volunteers’ approaches to community activities are different from our staff. Our communities understand there are other ways of doing things, other ways of living.”

Asia Kamukama

Shared Leadership

“We are now engaging men and boys to end violence against women. It was an idea brought by a volunteer. Even right now, we are still using it… we don’t pick everything they tell us. We decide what works… We still have the same mission, goals, everything, but volunteers have helped us to make sure we really achieve them.”

Travis Bogere

“It’s like when a panga [machete] is not cutting properly, you use a lot of energy. But when it’s sharp, you use less energy. The volunteers reduce on my energy.”

Liz Mukiibi

“We are a team. We are having problem X. Let’s solve it as a team. Help us. Then they begin. I don’t even chair the meeting because we are all leaders now.”

Travis Bogere