Volunteer with Conservation Through Public Health!

During your visit in Buhoma Village/Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda you are welcome to volunteer with one (or all) of our integrated programs below. We recommend staying at our Silverback Gorilla Camp in the heart of Buhoma Village where 100% of the proceeds benefit CTPH! Contact volunteer@ctph.org for more information.

Our three integrated programs:

Wildlife Health Monitoring: Work alongside park rangers, trackers, HUGO and other volunteers as weekly and abnormal mountain gorilla fecal samples are collected in order to establish an early warning system for disease outbreaks, where results are shared with local health clinics. Over 4000 fecal samples have been collected and analyzed.

Human Public Health: Observe or teach alongside CTPH experts as they educate the community about the importance of taking care of themselves and improving their local healthcare. The Population, Health and Environment approach is being used to reduce threats to mountain gorillas, by establishing community based health care through volunteer networks to promote family planning, and prevent and control TB, scabies, HIV and dysentery, thus building strong links between the community and local health centres. So far over 2000 home visits have been made by the community volunteers to people’s homes where over 30% are to homes at the park boundaries that often interact with gorillas.

Information, Education and Communication: CTPH’s community Telecentre addresses the problems of poverty, isolation, poor health practices, lack of knowledge on sustainable environments, and limited access to education and job training in and around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Members of the local community are taught to access the internet opening up them up to the outside world. Over 180 community members, 40% women have received training with certificates in Microsoft office packages from Makerere University Department of Women and Gender Studies.

Volunteers speak about their experience:

- Katie Losey, New York City, June 2009

If you are interested in volunteering with Conservation Through Public Health in Uganda, please contact Volunteer@ctph.org