FAQ

Absolutely! You can add on additional weeks for £250/week. This includes three meals a day, placement and accommodation.

You can opt to take part in the community experiences free of charge but we can only provide transport to those currently on their 4 week rotation (if there is space on the transport – feel free to squeeze in).

Additional weeks do not include any of the activities.

Your departure transfer will be provided on the Fridays at no extra charge. If you depart on an alternative day, you may need to pay additional fees (£50) for us to accommodate this.

We have 10 TOP activities included in your 4 week elective package. We rotate them  on a weekend basis, So as long as your with us for the 4 week minimum, you’ll get to do everything

First weekend of every month – Jinja Day!

• Rain forest trekking with conservation talk
• Lunch on the River Nile – Boat Cruise
• Bicycle Tour around Jinja

Second Weekend of every month – Cultural Kampala Day!

• Tour of the capital city of Uganda, including Uganda National Museum
• Markets – Trip to the largest market in Uganda and Local craft Markets
• Cultural Dance Show and Dinner

Third Weekend of every month – Safari Weekender!

• Rhino Trekking (Saturday)
• Safari Park (Sunday)

Fourth Weekend of every month – Action and Adventure!

• White Water Rafting in the River Nile
• Quad Biking adventure

We’ve managed to negotiate a HUGE discount with our tour providers because we are able to guarantee them a steady stream of students ready and rearing to discover the beauty and adventure in Uganda. This means we are unable to give you a refund on the activities you choose not to/or are unable to do. The activities come as one package which cannot be divided. Please make sure that your travel insurance covers all the listed activities (which most insurance providers do). Activities usually take place on a Saturday, Sundays are your day of rest to recharge for the week ahead. 

£2399 is a lot of money, but we feel you are getting a lot for your money!

Comparably, we are much lower in price than most of the leading elective companies out there. We are able to lower our prices as we cut expensive overheads like offices, buildings, hi-tech-long-titled-expensive-optional employees. We are a young company, who embraces millennial thinking and we like to keep things LEAN!

Here at PEA we have a strong, supportive culture and invest in our workforce. Our workforce repay us with their hard work and loyalty. They go over and above to help bring you the BEST elective programme at the BEST price.

Here is why we feel we offer more than our competitors

• Three meals a day – read closely, most companies offer only breakfast and dinner. Our lovely chef prepares all your delicious meals including a tasty packed-lunch to take with you in the mornings. We include water at no additional cost. In many developing countries, tap water is often undrinkable. So factor in the purchase of all your drinking water!
• No additional fees – £2399 is all you will pay. No cheeky additional deposits or transaction fees. no processing fees or form-filling fees. NO random fees that fall from the sky only to hit you square on the nose once you’ve booked
• Transfers – Both arrival and departure transfers are included, most companies only provide  transport to pick you up from the airport when you first arrive, but we look after you from the moment you step off the plane, to the moment you step back on!
• Activities – We include All your weekend activities including a 2-day weekend safari which alone will cost around £700! Also get ready for white water rafting (£175), River Cruise (£100), Quad biking (£95), Cultural show (£89), local bicycle tour (£69), Kampala city tour (£109), Rain forest trekking (£79), tour guide and transport for (all 4 weekends = £800), the hassle of trying to organise activities/transport/tour guides in a foreign country (PRICELESS).
• Experiences – We include community experiences every Friday at no additional costs. This includes helping out at the local orphanages, painting classrooms, sustainable farming initiatives, healthcare outreach projects. Most companies offer these experiences for an additional fee.
• Donations – We use a percentage of your fee and donate to the hospital and local causes at no extra expense to you.
• Support – We offer 24/7 support both within the UK and Uganda
• Rooms -We offer you a room to be shared with only one other person. Most companies cram as many students into one room, this can lead to a loss of privacy and a lack of space. Only at peak times do we open our dormitories where 4-5 students will have to share a room. But we will notify you on our website prior to booking.

We welcome healthcare students aged 18+years worldwide. We would need proof that you are studying a healthcare course.

If you don’t meet this criteria and still would like to go on our elective programme, please give us a call, I’m sure we can accommodate your request.

This is the guarantee that you are entitled to a full refund if your electives are affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to the uncertainty, we feel its unfair to ask you to book with the risk of losing your deposit or fees. That’s why we’ve come up with the ‘Corona (com)promise’. We ask you to pay the £399 deposit, this tentatively books you a place on our programme. We send you an email to confirm that we are ‘holding’ your place (as we also cannot guarantee anything at the moment).

For whatever reason, (COVID, airlines, university regulations) if you are unable to travel, we will refund your FULL amount (no admin or other ‘small print’ costs deducted).

Here at PEA we feel this is the right way to go forward and are able to offer this guarantee for a number of reasons:

• We operate ethically. We cannot expect you to pay a large deposit in such uncertain times.
• We have great relationships with all our providers and team members. They understand the situation we are in so they do not expect any payments until everything is up and running again!
• We understand that as cash-strapped students, the last thing you need is the possibility of losing a large about of money. However, you also don’t want to leave booking an elective until the last minute. We get that. So by paying a holding deposit  – you can pencil in your elective for now!

Important points to note

We will be accepting bookings from today for electives starting from 1st September 2020. If the evolving pandemic situation shows that things are still unlikely to be resolved by then, we are happy to give you a full refund. We will not be collecting full payment until we are certain the situation has resolved.

Our chef cooks up a variety of tasty and tantalizing meals . We can cater to vegan, vegetarian, halal and gluten free diets, just let us know when booking. See below for typical menu items:

Breakfast: Cereal, Toast, Eggs, Sausage, Fresh Fruits, tea & coffee
Lunch – Packed lunch for you to take to placement – samosas, quiche, sandwiches, wraps, salads
Dinner: Vegetable rice, chips, Salad, Grilled fish, Fried chicken, beef stew, Spaghetti, Beef burger, Pizza, BBQ
Safe filtered drinking water is available at the accommodation – we advise to to bring a refillable bottle (to reduce your carbon footprint!)
There are also many restaurants within walking distance in case you fancied a change.

Yes, EVERYTHING is FULLY REFUNDABLE. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty that comes with it, we feel its unfair to ask you to book with the risk of losing your deposit or fees. That’s why we’ve come up with the ‘Corona (com)promise’. We ask you to pay the £399 deposit, this tentatively books you a place on our programme. We send you an email to confirm that we are ‘holding’ your place (as we cannot guarantee anything). For whatever reason, (COVID, airlines, university regulations) if you are unable to travel, we will refund your FULL amount (no admin or other ‘small print’ costs deducted).

Here at PEA we feel this is the right way to go forward and are able to offer this guarantee for a number of reasons:

• We operate ethically. We cannot expect you to pay a large deposit in such uncertain times.
• We have great relationships with all are providers and team members. They also understand the situation we are in so they do not expect any payments until everything is up and running again!
• We understand that as cash-strapped students, the last thing you need is the possibility of losing a large about of money. However, you also don’t want to leave booking an elective until the last minute. We get that. So by paying a holding deposit  – you can pencil in your elective for now!

Important points to note

We will be accepting bookings from today for electives starting from 1st September 2020. If the evolving pandemic situation shows that things are still unlikely to be resolved by then, we are happy to give you a full refund. We will not be collecting full payment until we are certain the situation has resolved.

Under normal circumstances

Normally, the deposit (£399) is non-refundable. You will get a confirmation email to confirm your placement within 24 hours of payment being received. If for any reason we are not able to offer you a placement, the deposit and any additional fees will be refunded in full.

Full payment is needed 90 days prior to your placement – if we do not receive the payment by then, your placement will be cancelled and your deposit forfeited (As this has already been used towards accommodation, reserving activities and placements etc)

You are entitled to a refund of:

• 75% of your placement fees (minus the £399 deposit) if you cancel 90 days in advance
• 50% of your placement fees (minus the £399 deposit) if you cancel 60 days in advance
• 25% of your placement fees (minus the £399 deposit) if you cancel 30 days in advance
• 0% of your placement fees (minus the £399 deposit) if you cancel less than 30 days in advance

Before you leave we will email you a PDF sheet with all the contact details of our team. It will include details of  your home country embassy, all of our contact details, the contact details of the police, ambulance, fire brigade, the contact details of the hospital and accommodation.

There is a dedicated 24/7 support number you can call/text/message if you require urgent assistance, someone is on-call overnight, EVERY night. This includes any assistance with health, welfare, financial issues etc. Also our UK and Ugandan team are available during office hours for you to contact.

So don’t worry, we’re with you every step of the way!

No, English is widely spoken in Uganda.

The accommodation and placement staff all communicate in English. Swahili and other native dialects may be spoken by the locals in very rural regions. So if you have a good level of spoken English, your all set!

Our accommodation is wonderful! It is based onsite with 5 PEA houses, a swimming pool, restaurant, sun loungers, and and plenty of outside space if you wanted to chill and chat. There is also space for camping if you wanted to try sleeping under the starry skies. It is an incredibly sociable space and you’ll always find someone milling around that you can talk to. What’s even better is that the staff are based onsite during the day if you need anything and there is security at night times for your extra reassurance.

4 of the PEA houses have 3 rooms each which sleep a maximum of 2 people to a room. There is also an ensuite shower/toilet per room. There is a kitchen, dining room and living room for you to hang out in or prepare extra meals. You would mostly be situated in one of these houses.

In peak times, we will open up the single-sex dormitories to  accommodate more people. We will advise you if its only dormitory accommodation remaining. That’s why we encourage you to book sooner rather than later as you are able to obtain your choice of living arrangements.

The dormitories accommodate 4-5 people each, in bunk beds. you will still have access to the social spaces in the other houses. Bathrooms are shared – 1 bathroom per 4 students.

We are in a great location, just 20 minutes walk from the main hospital, or 5 minutes walk from some of the other hospitals. This makes it easier for you to go and come as you please without having to rely on public transport, group coaches and other people to keep you company.

Currently we have only 42 spaces at any one time.

Our programme is exclusive. We like to keep it that way, as it means each student is warmly received and their contributions highly valued. We don’t want you to feel like another number lost amongst the sea of other students. We want smaller, intimate groups to allow relationships to grow, bonds to form and connections to be established.

OK, enough of the mushy stuff! On a serious note, we want to provide you with the best experience possible, so we have purposefully limited the number of students in a room and on a ward to ensure you have the opportunity to experience as much as possible.

We are always working to identify new places which meet our strict criteria. We are hoping to introduce more amazing destinations and extra spaces in the very near future.

Elective placements start with arrival on a Friday. At the airport you will be greeted by our PEA coordinator Moses in his BRIGHT ORANGE PEA T-shirt (because orange is the new black right?). The drive from Entebbe airport to Jinja is about 2.5 hours. So you can sit back and watch the beautiful scenery as you drive by or crash out and catch up on your ZZZ’s.

Once you reach the PEA accommodation, Moses will give you a brief lowdown of the facilities. You will also be issued with a Ugandan sim cards (pre-loaded), have a house orientation, get introduced to your new housemates and left to relax, unwind or to start exploring!

There are always free planned activities on the Saturday so get enough rest as you wouldn’t want to miss out on the African safari or white-water rafting,  its a scream!

The following Monday your placement begins and you be taken to your placement and introduced to your supervisor. You will then have a quick tour of the hospital and orientation before getting stuck in!

Our booking process is as simple as 1,2,3….quite literally

1. Pay your deposit of £399 or full amount (10 seconds!)
2. Fill out our 2 simple forms (we will email this to you once your deposit has been received) (10 minutes)
3. Send us your details (we will send you a list of the documents we require, usually; university letter, CRB check, professional indemnity (1 minute)

Don’t worry, you don’t have to do this all at once, as long as you supply us with the documents and forms 6 months prior to your travel dates. 

And Voila! Your good to go!

Most certainly! However we do try to divide groups as much as possible so you get to meet lots of lovely, brand new shiny people! We feel this adds to your experience and pushes you out of your comfort zone. But if you prefer to stay together, that’s also fine with us! Just let us know at the time of booking and we’ll make it happen. We advise you all book on the same day as spaces are allocated on a first come first serve basis

You will receive an email within 24 hours to confirm your placement. We will also send you a welcome pack of information and next steps.

Anything is possible! We work closely with the heads of department who can support you with your project. They know their departments inside out so they can help you generate some fantastic ideas for projects or point you in the right direction.

Absolutely! Depending on your healthcare degree you can choose the departments would would like to be placed in.

We always advise to spend a minimum of 4 weeks within each department. This gives you time to really understand the department, form meaningful connections with the staff and patients and get the most out of your experience.

We understand that as enthusiastic healthcare students you would like to try everything! But this often leads to a poor outcome as there is really not enough time in 1-2 weeks to fully integrate within the department. Ultimately the choice is yours. If you have a burning desire for particular departments, just let us know and we’ll try our best to accommodate.

Elective programmes start every Friday. Please book your ticket to arrive in Uganda – Entebbe International Airport on a Friday. We will ask you to send us a copy of your travel details closer to the time so we can log it on our system in order to keep up to date with your travel arrangements/delays etc.

If your finding Friday arrivals slightly difficult, talk to us. We will be able to accommodate any arrival date but this may come at an extra fee ( £50) and depending on your arrival you may miss out on some of the pre-planned activities. Always remember, anything is possible!

Yes, there is FREE WiFi in all the PEA houses. We also supply you with a temporary sim card (ready and pre-loaded) for you to use once you land and throughout your placement duration so you can stay connected to your loved ones!

We collect it once you have finished your elective programme so we can pass it on to the next PEA-er in line.