My Account
Last summer, local board member Caitlin Watson went to Uganda withPurpose Projects – an organisation that works in developing communities to provide help where it is needed most. Here’s what she found. Travelling overseas is exciting, whether it involves amazing sights, experiencing a different culture or embracing new foods.
But from my experience the travel that has been most valuable and eye opening is that which involves connecting with the local community.
Over the summer I said a nervous ‘yes’, to what would be the adventure of a lifetime. The trip to Uganda was to help build a primary school in a rural village community, with a newly established organisation called Purpose Projects which seeks to provide long term support in developing communities.
While working with a local building team on the school, we also ran kids’ holiday and medical outreach programmes, and a women’s group that taught new skills to help women become economically self sufficient.
The combined fundraising efforts of 30 young adults raised $70,000 to build a school for up to 2000 students. This will go a long way towards providing an education that will help break the cycle of poverty for generations to come.
My time was enriched, not so much by eating the local speciality (banana stew), but by learning about the culture and language, singing and dancing with neighbourhood kids, attending vibrant church services, and being humbled as the ‘homestay’ guest of a village family.
For me, travelling combined with sightseeing alone does not fully satisfy. Travel comes alive through developing intercultural relations as well as transcending language and cultural barriers through acts of service, laughter and of course playing the sport that has no borders – football!
Furthermore, travel of this sort, gave me renewed appreciation of the unique qualities of our Coast community and the opportunities we are blessed with in Aotearoa that need not be taken for granted, but rather used for the betterment of our local and international communities.
Applications for the next Purpose Projects trips are now open. The next one will focus on building a secondary school for the Kkoba community. Info: purposeprojects.org.nz/register/
