What do I need to know about health & safety?
As with travel anywhere, within the US or internationally, health and safety are greatly impacted by context, awareness, and personal decisions. The information below is presented to help each individual make a decision about whether or not they feel comfortable traveling to Uganda.
General Context
- An estimated 1,500 to 2,000 US citizens currently live in Uganda.
- More than 1.2 million tourists visit Uganda each year, with an estimated 150,000 of those being US citizens.
Specific Context
- Several US citizens reside full-time at Uganda Christian University.
- Every spring and fall semester, Uganda Christian University hosts 10-15 students from North American Christian universities.
- Over the last 4 years, UCU Partners has hosted 1-2 US church groups per year for Uganda pilgrimages.
Health Information
Here is a link to the CDC page for travel to Uganda. While we welcome any questions you have, our generally recommendation is that you refer to the CDC information and consult your primary care physician or a travel clinic with specific questions.
Following is information related to the most common health questions we receive:
- Uganda does not currently have any COVID-19 vaccine requirements for entrance.
- The only vaccine required by Uganda for entrance is Yellow Fever.
- Due to the specific side effects, we generally recommend against using mefloquine/lariam as your malaria prophylaxis.
- We do suggest taking seriously the vaccine recommendations on the CDC travel page.
Safety Information
Here is a link to the US State Department page for travel to Uganda. You will read that the US travel advisory is a Level 3 – Reconsider travel to Uganda due to crime, terrorism, unrest, and laws targeting persons based on sexual orientation. Each potential participant needs to determine if they are comfortable traveling to Uganda given this information. We assess and mitigate risk through our extensive relationships with Ugandan individuals and institutions. In addition, the study abroad program for US students that operates at Uganda Christian University provides ongoing risk assessment and crisis management strategies that we also apply to our pilgrimage groups. Despite the risks listed by the State Department, we assess the most significant safety risk during our pilgrimage trips to be road safety–and we are very proactive to ensure safety during our road travel in Uganda.
We welcome any questions you have about safety during our pilgrimage trips.