Join Us for the 2025 Uganda Volun-tourism Lacrosse Coaching Trip 

May 29th- June 8th, 2025 [Optional Rwanda Add on Available]  

Embark on an incredible journey with Signature Foundation to Uganda, where you’ll have the opportunity to coach, develop, and empower over 200 local children through lacrosse. In partnership with Kids Lacrosse Africa, this volunteer experience blends hands-on coaching with cultural immersion, providing life-changing support and skills development for the youth of Jinja.

Trip Highlights:

• Coaching & Development: Spend days on the field coaching lacrosse, sharing your passion, and making a direct impact on young players. Your mentorship will equip local children with new skills, teamwork strategies, and confidence.
• Cultural Engagement: Beyond lacrosse, engage in a fully immersive cultural experience. You’ll connect with the local community, visit local schools, host meals for the community, explore Jinja's vibrant scenery (including many excursions around the Nile River), and learn about Uganda's rich heritage.
• Safari Experience: Stay on the Kazinga Channel where Hippos walk past your door each night and you're steps away from your safari experience in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Queen Elizabeth National Park is one of the most famous parks, home to 95 mammal species, including elephants, lions, leopards, buffalo, and rare tree-climbing lions. It also boasts over 600 bird species, making it a prime spot for birdwatching
• Gorilla Trekking Experience in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park: Venture into the lush jungles of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park for a once-in-a-lifetime gorilla trekking experience. Your $800 trekking permit is included in the trip fee, allowing you to witness one of the rarest wildlife encounters on earth. Trekking through dense forest, you'll come face-to-face with these incredible, endangered creatures, creating memories that will stay with you forever.

Be a part of this transformative experience where sports meet service, and passion meets purpose. Make an impact on the lives of children while enriching your own through this unique volun-tourism adventure.

Everyone Arrives to Entebbe International Airport

Hotel Check-in

Dinner & Cultural Briefing 

We will start with breakfast at the hotel, before loading in the cars for our drive to Jinja (home of Kids Lacrosse Africa). Along the way, we will visit Kampala, the capital city and zipline along the equator in the Mabira Forest. 

We will check into our hotel upon arrival in Jinja, and gather for dinner and our cultural briefing about Kids Lacrosse Africa and the clinics, games, and training we will provide to the Kids Lacrosse Africa kids and coaches. 

We kick off our day with a delicious breakfast and the hotel and then head to the Kids Lacrosse Africa Fields! 

We are on the field from 9-12PM Leading clinics for players, sharing education with the coaches, and connecting cultures through lacrosse. We use the donations (included in your trip fee) to provide lunch for all 150 Kids Lacrosse Africa players and coaches. 

We then cool off by tubing on the Nile River. After some splashing around, we meet for dinner, and then gather around the campfire to close out a busy day. 

After breakfast, we go out to the field! We host another lacrosse clinic and lunch for the KLA community! 

After closing out a day of lacrosse on the field, we head back to the hotel to either relax by the pool until we host dinner for the KLA Coaches, or go Bungee Jumping! 

Today we start in the water: We kickoff with a half day of rafting on the Nile and end our excursion with some lunch. Feeling refreshed, we hit the Kids Lacrosse Africa field for an afternoon of more clinics, lacrosse games, and time spent in the Community. 

After dinner, we walk into town to support a local nonprofit ice cream shop, which is an all-inclusive employer, specializing in providing opportunities for people who are deaf. This is Uganda's first sign-language ice cream shop! 

Today we are spending the day visiting the KLA-partnered schools, and the students there! Volunteers go into the schools, learn about the education system, and teach a lesson/ play games with the students. 

We also visit the families of Kids Lacrosse Africa with children in the Sponsorship Program. This means that KLA & Signature Foundation are sponsoring these children for education, meals, and lacrosse. We hear the stories of these families and learn about the impact of the program. We then host these families for a dinner!! 

Today we say goodbye to Jinja and head to our next part of the trip: Safari-land! We fly from Entebbe to Kasese (a domestic flight that is included in your trip enrollment). 

Upon arrival, we have lunch, check into our hotel, and then head out to an afternoon boat ride through Kazinga Channel. From the boat you can spot Elephant families bathing, hippo's, and so much more!! 

Queen Elizabeth National Park is one of Uganda's most famous and diverse wildlife conservation areas, known for its stunning range of ecosystems (from savanna plains to lush forests, wetlands, and volcanic craters)... home to over 95 mammal species, including elephants, lions, leopards, buffalo, and the rare tree-climbing lions. 

We trek in the morning and then head back to our lodge (we stay in the National Park) for lunch before proceeding to Bwindi Impentrable National Park (where we will go Gorilla Trekking tomorrow).  

Gorilla Trekking Experience in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is world-renowned for offering one of the most intimate and rare wildlife encounters on earth. Here’s what makes it so special:

1. Home to Endangered Mountain Gorillas: Bwindi is one of only a few places in the world where endangered mountain gorillas live in the wild. It hosts nearly half of the world's remaining mountain gorilla population, making it a vital conservation area for this species.
2. Once-in-a-Lifetime Wildlife Encounter: Trekking through Bwindi’s dense forest to observe gorilla families up close is considered a life-changing experience. Visitors often witness gorillas interacting in their natural habitat, a humbling and awe-inspiring sight given their rarity and endangered status.
3. Intimate Group Sizes: Gorilla trekking permits are limited, and groups are capped at a small number of visitors each day to minimize impact and ensure a more personal, immersive experience. The $800 permit not only provides access to this experience but also supports crucial conservation efforts (this is included in your trip price)
4. Spectacular Biodiversity and Terrain: Bwindi’s rugged, mist-covered landscape is as captivating as the gorillas themselves. The UNESCO World Heritage Site spans dense forests, steep valleys, and thick undergrowth, requiring a bit of a physical adventure to reach the gorillas.

Our last day! We have breakfast at the hotel before having one last cultural encounter with natives of this area of Uganda. 

Then, the group members who are staying to do the "add on" trip to Rwanda will proceed to that travel plan. Our group members who are heading back to Entebbe will proceed there. This day is mostly dedicated to domestic travel, meals, and getting back to Kampala/ Entebbe for flights out tomorrow. 

We thank you for you contributions to sustain an amazing lacrosse program (Kids Lacrosse Africa), which is truly making a huge impact through lacrosse in their community. 

As we take a look back on the trip, we provided two lunches for over 200 locals, we hosted four community dinners, we connected to different cultures through lacrosse, we supported local nonprofits, we supported local tourism (and used a local touring company for all domestic logistics). We participated in multiple safaris at two amazing National Parks, trekked some of the rarest mammals (the Gorilla Trekking), swam/rafted/floated in the Nile River... and most importantly: made lifelong connections and friends that span cultures, all through Lacrosse.