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Lubigi Wetland is on the radar again, will the church speak?

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More than a decade ago, A Rocha Uganda attempted to conserve and restore the Lubigi wetland but did not succeed given threats from those who had a hidden agenda and personal interests in the wetland.

Last month, Nature Uganda invited A Rocha Uganda’s National Director, Dr. Sara Kaweesa to a stakeholder meeting to plan for biodiversity assessments in the Lubigi and Rufuha wetlands. 

These assessments will be for higher taxa including birds, mammals, insects, plants, and herps. The data collected will be vital for the conservation and management of the endangered species in both wetlands and supporting sustainable wetland use, including eco-tourism and implementation of government programs such as the establishment of Eco Parks.

According to Dr. Sara Kaweesa, the church is God’s agent of development and in all honesty, should spearhead this move. “We as Christians are supposed to be tending the earth, we are supposed to give direction and solve conflicts, the church should come up and speak clearly concerning this matter of restoration and conservation.” 

Many entities are interested in this wetland, the government claims full ownership, while some people say that part of it is Kabaka’s land. There are private entities that have an interest in the wetland too. Amidst this chaos and conflict, what does the church say?

Psalms 24:1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.

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Cut one tree, plant one tree approach: Celebrating the International Day of Forests

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“It is easy to cut a tree, but to think about replacing it with another one takes a heart that respects nature,” said Mr. Kawooya Godfrey Musoke. This was in his speech at an event organized by the Wakiso District Farmers Association (WADFA) to celebrate World Forests Day 2024.

He advised the attendees to plan and focus all their energies on their pieces of land however small they were. According to him, many people might not be able to plant a forest but through agroforestry, they can change the climate in the areas where they stay.

Mr. Kawooya shares that no matter how strong the sun shines, his home always has cold and fresh air because of the many trees he planted. “Make sure that you plant trees which are not dangerous to the soil,” he advises.

In this era of excessive land grabbing in Uganda, the chairman of WADFA, Mr. Mukiibi Saudi Byekwaso advised the attendees to plant trees for boundary marking.

Plant trees as much as you can, and plant fruit trees because they give shade, fruit, money and mitigate the dangers of climate change all at once. Before you think about cutting a tree, think about its replacement. Whenever you cut one, plant another so that no damage is caused to the environment. Practice the cut one, plant one approach in your area.

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Community Clean-up

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Proverbs 22:6 KJV Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

We are working to train the school-going children to be good stewards of their environment through the activities we engage them in like cleaning the community.

 

Susan Nankya Kasiita, the E.E. department head says, “We opted to have a cleanup as an advocacy tool, sensitizing community members about the dangers of open waste disposal with the emphasis on plastic waste.”

 

Under the Eco-Schools program, we have an output of schools reaching out to their communities for advocacy and demonstration of the Eco-School program. Also, as a member of A Rocha International, we were participating in the Annual Plastic Free February campaign together with other A Rocha Organizations in Environmental Education.

 

Nakyesanjja Primary School, St. Aloysius Primary School, St. Boniface Bwenkoma, and 4Stars Junior Schools cleaned their communities.

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Plastic Free February campaign in Eco schools

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“The way plastics are disposed of in the urban setting is alarming. They end up clogging the drainage system which often causes flooding,” says Benard Musamba the Research and Conservation Officer, A Rocha Uganda.

Benard thinks that the cause for huge tones of single-use plastics in Uganda is that most beverage companies use bottles to package their drinks which are never reused or recycled.


According to the United Nations, Plastic waste can take anywhere from 20 to 500 years to decompose, and even then, it never fully disappears; it just gets smaller and smaller.


This year we have focused on teaching children the alternative ways they can use plastic in their schools to make dustbins, school gates, and later for urban farming. Every classroom has made its dustbin, and the creativity of the children in a way has been boasted.  St. Boniface Bwenkoma, Sacred Heart Jinja Kaloli, Gombe Prince Suuna, Kanyange, Tikalu Umea, St. Balikudembe Nabinaka, and Busikili Umea are the primary schools that participated in this activity.


Since plastic pollution does not only happen in February, this campaign and vigilance should be our way of life. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refuse, and Return.

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Refresher Training on the Eco Schools programme

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14 Eco schools committee teachers from 4 schools have attended the refresher and capacity building training as they oversee the environmental activities in the schools were they work. This training was organized by the Environmental Education department of A Rocha Uganda together with The Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS) at our offices in Gayaza Kyetume.

They went over approaches like the Eco schools 7 steps criteria which involves formulation of the Eco- committee, environment review and identification of advocacy issues, development of eco codes among other steps and IVAC (Investigations, Visions, Actions and Change) a teaching approach which helps teachers to deliver lessons effectively. The schools represented were Mugwanya Preparatory school, Kabojja, Gayaza C/U primary school, Kiira C/U primary school and Kitende C/U primary school.

Why the children? “It is the young trees that make up the forest. Whatever you teach a young child sticks with them for years. The teachers were tasked to however familiarize themselves with the children’s rights of Uganda and to endeavor to teach the children their responsibilities.

Proverbs 22:6  Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

The Eco schools programme is an integrated approach that encourages learners, teachers and the community to actively participate in protecting the environment through instilling responsibility and cultivating sustainable mindsets to create more environmental impact.

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Save more for less with a Bio sand water filter

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Kasuswa Lydia a 35-year-old resident of Bamba village is singing praises of the Bio Sand water filter after having used it since 2017, over 6 years now and still counting. The enormous benefits she has so far got from it have made her an able ambassador of the same.

“I don’t remember a day when I did not boil drinking water,” Lydia recalls. Lydia says that before she got this filter, she daily spent over 15000 UGX on charcoal to cook food and boil drinking water for her big family of about 13 people.

“We used to spend a lot of money on hospital bills because my children regularly suffered from diseases like diarrhea, flu and typhoid on top of skin diseases and rashes as I speak now, I only spend 10,000 UGX on charcoal to cook food.” She says.

They filter every jerry can of water that is fetched from the tap and because of this, the water they use for every chore is filtered, be it bathing, cooking and washing utensils.

She has gone ahead to gather 31 fellow residents whom we have trained and distributed to the recently abandoned and later repaired filters from the Climate Stewards project.

As you read this story, you might realize that you too needs this water filter and if you don’t, maybe someone that you know needs it. Walk to our offices in Gayaza Kyetume and get yourself or gift someone.

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Comms Collective Training in Kenya

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It is always exciting for me to know that I am traveling to a part of the world that I have never been to. I start to imagine how life will be like, how the people dress, what they eat, how the weather will treat me and those kinds of things. This was the same exact experience I had when the year started to draw to a close because I knew that I will be traveling for a Comms Collective meet up to Watamu in early January come 2024.

My excitement at one point was mixed with feelings of anxiety, pressure and fear for the unknown but I did not allow that to ruin my moment. An opportunity for growth had presented itself.

As the communication department of A Rocha Uganda, we desired to grow in every sense of the word, we desired to be excellent at the work we do but there was not so much around us that made for this to be possible. I wanted to practically see how things are done in other AROs and to physically sit with somebody (specifically a practicing Comms person) who would tell me how things are and should be done.

The Comms training at A Rocha Kenya was the best starter of the year, it presented an avenue to learn and unlearn certain things, to openly express myself and there in receive guidance, to hear and be heard and to be taught (some of the things I had never known they existed), to me it was more than an answered prayer for my department.

Some of the things we tackled are but not limited to: building our websites using elementor & WordPress, e-news designs using mail chimp, branding and working with Flickr. We also got resources links to case studies, a filming guide and making a 60-second film.

During these 5 days, we had an opportunity to visit places where A Rocha Kenya works to see the amazing work and impact the team is creating in the community. I had so much to take back for my team in Uganda for example the nursery beds, kitchen gardens, residential facilities, increasing the base of our volunteers among other things. I cannot forget my experience of riding in a TUKU-TUKU.

This has been both a refreshing and learning moment for us all. It has also broken the barrier of space as we can now work easily and productively with people we have met before. I would say yes to more of these travels because again, my journalism background warrants for that.

A special thank you message to Jo Swinney and Dan Nolloth both from ARI Comms team for their exceptional skills and their willingness to share their knowledge and expertise with us. They labored to see that we make progress and that each one of us left satisfied. Thank you to all the ARK team for their hospitality and specifically to Alex Simiyu from A Rocha Kenya for endeavoring to share everything he knows with me.

 

By Mrs. Shanitah Nalukenge Mukisa,

Communications Officer, A Rocha Uganda.

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Training of Farming God’s Way practices in West Bugwe.

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The families around West Bugwe forest have been trained to farm the way God intended. We have given them this resource to equip the poor and break the yoke of poverty. FGW is easy, fast, requires less labor, gives high yields and retains soil fertility and water.

FGW is a type of conservation agriculture (CA) that re-interprets the CA principles of no tillage, mulching and crop rotation using biblical metaphors such as God doesn’t plow, God’s blanket, and the Garden of Eden.