Pearls of Africa Special Needs Centres staff and children have always enjoyed visitors to any of the centres. If you are visiting Uganda and would like to call in for a visit then please let us know or just call in. Kanyanya is a short distance from Kampala city Centre & Seguku Centre is about 30 minutes drive from the city centre.
PASNEC would particularly welcome people who come to stay for a while as volunteers, whether short term or for a longer period of time. Then experiences, information and fun can be shared, alongside practical work with the children or buildings. Visitors can get to know the children and find out their likes and dislikes, discovering what they can do and join them in their activities. We love having people to join us.
People with specific skills can also be used directly or indirectly- whatever they are. We choose not to write a wish list of volunteers with specific skills since we would encourage anyone to come and spend time with us. If you have a particular area that you are specialised in and are unsure of your usefulness, then please get in touch with us. 99% of the time, I am sure your help would be invaluable.
Over the years, we have also had teams who have come to help us, often with a specific project. There are always things that we would love to do to expand our work with the children. If you would like to get a group of people to come out and volunteer with us, then please let us know and we can suggest small PASNEC projects that you could work upon.
We have also had both international & national students on placement with us. These have been mostly teacher, social worker or occupational therapy students. So, if you are a student, particularly in one of those areas, then please think of coming to do a placement with us.
In our two centres Kanyanya in Kampala has very limited accommodation but there are rooms nearby at Greenfield Gardens, which does B&B currently at about £15 a night. At Seguku Centre, we have more beds and we can accommodate a team of people.
Working at PASNEC has truly been a life changing and inspiring experience. At the best of times, working with special needs children and adults is always a huge challenge and especially when African countries like Uganda have such limited resources. The resource that PASNEC does have a great deal of is their care and devotion to the children and their creativity in using what little they do have to the fullest. We have always felt very welcome and included at the Centre. We have had the opportunity to do a variety activities including painting a mural on the outside wall of Kanyanya Centre with the help of staff members, supporting the teachers, interacting with the children in the classrooms and at play. We have been involved in some of the children’s academic activities, their vocational and life skills classes and this year we had so much fun working with staff to paint a mural on their driveway wall. Most importantly, our years of volunteering at PASNEC have afforded us the opportunity to develop rich lifelong relationships and we have been touched so profoundly by these relationships. We are truly grateful and feel privileged to have participated in some small way at the Centre.
Best wishes and may God bless you all.
Lionel and Donna