Volunteering with Reach Out

I joined Reach Out in December 2001 while the clients were still being treated in their homes. I had never thought of helping people living with HIV/AIDS, my intentions was to help the church. I didn't know that I would stay this long but the joy and respect that I got from the clients kept me committed. The founders of the project that I was working respected, appreciated and loved me more over I wasn't a doctor or a nurse. This gave me courage and hope that maybe I was in the right place. They trained me form translating and counting pills to many other fields up to today when I coordinate the community network. My learning daily and the love and smiles from many volunteers showed me I was part of a family. I discovered I had to struggle hard together with the others for the survival of the family of Reach Out. This is the reason why I am thanking all individuals both locally and internationally with special consideration to the community whose efforts have made Reach Out what it is today.

Eric Robert Kamunvi
Kampala, Uganda
December 2001 to Present

Reach Out - Mbuya Prish HIV/AIDS Initiative……I still remember the sermon on Easter night in 2001, where the priest kept stressing that the message of Easter was to reach out - reach out to your neighbour, to the people in need, to the lonely, the suffering .. reach out, reach out. That's it, I thought to myself, this is the name we are giving our little sprout of a programme just starting in Mbuya Parish helping people living with HIV/AIDS. Little did I know at that time that the next five years working with Reach Out Mbuya Parish HIV/AIDS Initiative would be the happiest and most satisfying years in my 25 years of professional life as a doctor.

Initially, we were a handful of volunteers caring for 12 clients using the principle of ‘Do what you can, with what you have, where you are’. I could say that we had nothing – but that would be a mistake – we had something – we all had a heart and a will to make life better for the people living with HIV/AIDS. Once we got started many people – in particular young people from Mbuya Parish but also foreigners living in Kampala - came and said that they wanted to help. Many said that they had no relevant skills – often thinking that an education or even high degrees in the field of health, planning or finance were required. They were all welcome if they had a heart.

My five years with Reach Out has been a tremendous learning experience – as a professional, but most of all on a personal level. I have seen people in the most difficult situations reach out and help others, I have seen people find the last drop in the glass of water and forget about the empty part, I have seen faith in God through the hardest possible times. I have so many times been humbled when observing the tremendous strength of the people in the community. I have seen love in action and what can happen when people are given a second chance.

Reach Out taught me the power of love and thus gave me my second chance for the future. Could anybody ever ask for a better gift?

Margrethe Juncker
Reach Out Volunteer
May 2001 – June 2006

In 2004, we volunteered through the AJWS for 3 months at Reach Out. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of our lives. We have volunteered in many countries in the developing world and have been fortunate to experience the best of people in often the most difficult of circumstances.

Reach Out is a program that gives a lot more than it receives. It does more with less than man programs around the world we know of.

While we not only helped develop a medical record and reception protocol, a food distribution and storage system, a client identification procedure and a good deal of capacity building and training, we developed life long relationships with many of the volunteer, many of whom are clients themselves.

While we have helped to improve the quality of life of some Reach Out clients we have been more richly rewarded by knowing and working with those clients and volunteers who have changed our lives forever.

We are very very proud to have been, and still be a part of the Reach Out family, and we want to thank Reach Out for allowing us the privilege of helping. While we wish that Reach Out will keep on growing and helping more people, our deepest wish is that you and others like you will, sooner rather than later, be so successful, that there will no longer be the need for Reach Out Mbuya, and other similar programs to exist any longer.

Peter and Hinda Schnurman
USA
January to April 2004