Our Kyampisi Backpackers Home is your first touchpoint to our community. This will be your home during your stay with us in Uganda. Eat farm-to-table, join activities, workshops and projects, or just relax and recharge… We’ll see you at the home! We own our accommodation facility and we grow our own foods!
Ssamba Foundation started the Kyampisi Backpackers Home as a place to host volunteers and to start offices for the organization. In addition to foundation offices, the home includes a guest house, mini-homely bar, Gifts & Souvenirs Stand, meeting area and tours and safari desk under the Wanderlust Adventures.
All volunteers based in Mukono (up to 10 at one time) will live together in a warmly gated home. Delicious 2 meals are provided each day, which consists of local foods, such as matooke (mashed plantain), posho (cornmeal), potatoes and rice or noodles. They are generally served with beef, fish, peas, beans or groundnut sauce. Bread, eggs, vegetables and fruits are available for breakfast, vegetarians are also accommodated.
Volunteers staying at our Kyampisi Backpackers Home are assigned a bed based on capacity, arrival time and length of stay. All beds have good mosquito nets and you don’t need to bring your own sheets etc. Accommodation at this home is in shared dorm styled bedrooms and shared twin bedroom, accommodating up to 10 people when full.
Note: Couples can request their own room if they give us a “Volunteers advance notice”. The emphasis at the home is placed on a relaxed friendly family like atmosphere. Friendships forged here regularly last a lifetime.
The home is primarily aimed at volunteers, but other travelers are welcome to stay (expats, tourists and travelers of all sorts). For volunteers, it is a place to relax after the intense experiences of the day, and to discuss these with other volunteers. From the home, we can help arrange trips and expeditions around the country including wildlife safaris, mountaineering, white water rafting and so many other activities.
Staying here for non-volunteers, you pay a minimal nightly fee that covers your bed and breakfast. All income from this facility is used to support the projects of Ssamba Foundation. There are between 2-4 beds per room depending on the size of the room and the time of year you come.
Most people who stay here are travelling alone and so it gives an opportunity for people to live with and make friends with other travelers and volunteers. We offer in-country assistance by collecting you from the airport and unravelling some of the more complicated cultural issues you face when entering Uganda for the first time.
LIVING AT THE VOLUNTEER HOUSE
Ssamba Foundation volunteers enjoy an extremely unique experience not only in the work they do but also in the atmosphere they live in. The hard work volunteers put in during the week undoubtedly warrants some fun and relaxation during evening free time and on the weekends. During the week we organize a variety of activities for volunteers in the evenings. We often play football (soccer), cards and board games or chill out around the home bar or go out for a dance getting to know fellow volunteers from around the world. Musical ballads are known to break out from time to time as well as the always entertaining pub-quiz nights.
Yet one of the biggest perks lies in the plethora of weekend outings we organize through Wanderlust Adventures. Our home is located just 60 minutes from either Jinja or Kampala where day tours can be organized to visit the source of the mighty river Nile, white water rafting and Mabira forest which showcase incredible biodiversity, including hundreds of birds and nature walks. No matter what your interests, there is always something for everyone to enjoy!
ACCOMMODATION LOCATION
The location is quiet and there is little traffic or noise at night from outside. Located in a humble neighborhood of just few meters away from Kalagi town, we are nestled away from all the noise of the big city, but close enough to ‘quickly’ get you back to downtown to sight see or party at the pubs and clubs until the birds are chirping.
We are just about 20 minutes’ drive from Mukono town on an all-weather tarmac road. In Kalagi, the road from Mukono forms a T-junction with the road from Kampala to Kayunga. Mukono the nearest major town is a rapidly expanding city about 45 minutes from Kampala and 60 minutes away from Jinja town- the adventure capital of East Africa.
The home offers:
- Limited Wi-Fi
- Roof-top mini bar
- Breakfast & Dinner
- Tours & Safari Desk
- Laundry Services (at a small fee)
- Arts, Crafts, Gifts & Souvenirs Stand
Whenever you choose to stay at Kyampisi Backpackers Home, even if you are not directly volunteering with any of our projects you are supporting one of our projects and programs, because proceeds from the facility go to train the vulnerable, support education for orphans and so many of our humanitarian development work. If you are looking for a place to get away from it all, you will love it here.