Archive

  1. Unidos Social Innovation Centre

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    Unidos Social Innovation Centre was created in 2018 by a group of refugees living in Nakivale refugee settlement in Uganda. This settlement is home to around 120,000 refugees from neighbouring countries and cultures, such as Congo, Burundi, Somalia, Ethiopia, and South Sudan. Of these 120,000 people, around 14,200 are farmers.

    Unidos Social Innovation Centre assembled together to help create livelihood-opportunities and food security in the community, after food rations were drastically reduced for refugees in Uganda.

    The organisation seeks to create solutions to some of the big challenges people face: poverty, climate change, war, and political suppression from home countries. All activities are based on inclusive education and empowerment through entrepreneurial skills.

    The centre teaches different courses, such as:

    • Ecological farming techniques
    • English
    • Business and leadership
    • Female empowerment

    While practising permaculture in various external locations, the organisation constructed its own education centre, in 2021.

    It has since supported nearly 700 people from Somalia, Congo and Burundi to successfully graduate as farmers in ecological farming.

    The organisation is now interested to regenerate the soil through education and demonstrating to thousands of people how to do vermicomposting and its utility to grow more food through being a solution to the infertile soil in Nakivale refugee camp. It also sees the potential of commercially sized worm composting systems, and has constructed one such system near its education Centre in Nakivale

  2. NILE Journeys

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    NILE Journeys was established in 2016 as a platform for Nile communities. Its work unfolds through community hubs across Nile Basin countries. There are currently eight hubs, and they are expanding.

    Communities across the Nile Basin suffer inequalities and limitations in their natural, human, or technological well-being, which renders them vulnerable to climate change and its effects. The word NILE refers not only to the Nile’s energetic field of the majestic river but also serves as an acronym for what the platform aims to do “Nurturing Impulses for Living Ecosystems”.

    The NILE Journeys vision is to nurture life-affirming actions in the Nile bio-region through participatory and experiential learning spaces rooted in indigenous knowledge and regenerative practices.

    NILE Journeys has so far:

    • Engaged more than 97,000 people
    • Provided direct support to eight Community Hubs
    • Established three dialogue spaces
    • Established three agroecology demonstration sites
    • Set up a library
    • Co-established a restaurant in a rural co-working space
    • Co-established a moringa oil press unit
    • Sponsored the education of 83 children
    • Sustainably regenerated 168 hectares
    • Trained 35 community leaders on dialogue facilitation

    The NILE journeys’ goal for 2026 is to become a model of trans-local collaboration in the Nile basin with regenerative practices that can be replicated in other fields and other parts of the basin.

  3. Tree Talk Plus

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    Tree Talk Plus began in 2014 in Uganda, and has a particular focus on youth and children, both in and out-of-school.

    Its Vision is to have ‘nature Based Communities with good quality life’. It works towards shaping the minds and attitudes of communities in Uganda for: better land-use practices; increased resilience towards climate change catastrophes; improved living-standards for ordinary people.

    Tree Talk Plus utilises a Communication, Education, Participation and Awareness (CEPA) approach. CEPA is about raising awareness on values and functions and creating an environment for pedagogical approaches that enable learning, through advocacy, public awareness and communication, media and journalism engagements and on-and-off field demonstrations.

    This approach encourages the promotion of training in the fields of advocacy and lobbying, research, responsible management and supervision of resources in the environment and natural
    resources sector.

    Since 2019, Tree Talk Plus has been the secretariat for the Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) Network in Uganda, a network of over 50 organisations. The network aims at scaling up the FMNR model in the country. The FMNR model helps in regeneration of important indigenous trees on farmlands and in natural degraded forests and landscapes. In the past two years, the FMNR network has supported regeneration of over 98,350 hectares of agricultural and forest land.

  4. Rwamwanja Rural Foundation

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    Rwamwanja Rural Foundation is a Ugandan based, refugee-led grassroots organisation. It works specifically with communities in refugee camps and other marginalised communities affected by climate change in East Africa.

    Refugee populations the foundation works with are at high risk of hunger and malnutrition, exacerbated by high prices caused by the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In addition, ecosystems that supply refugees with food, medicines and other livelihood needs are no longer providing their full services because of overexploitation through intensive agriculture, mass irrigation, overfishing and deforestation for firewood and charcoal needed for household energy.

    These degraded ecosystems are less resilient to climate change impacts, creating a vicious cycle that amplifies the climate vulnerability of refugees and other displaced populations, by affecting livelihoods and health.

    The Foundation was established to empower refugee youth to fulfil their potential and enable them to transform their lives. It aims to ensure these communities can restore local ecosystems, increasing climate resilience and biodiversity, while benefiting from regenerative agriculture activities that improve access to nutritious food. It brings together permaculture, Indigenous farming techniques, local languages as well as modern, affordable and easily accessible digital technologies to enhance reach and overall impact.

    The Foundation is:

    • Providing training programmes in regenerative agriculture and reforestation
    • Developing hubs to conduct training
    • Turning refugees and other members of local communities, particularly women, into entrepreneurs

    It hopes to reach 9,000 people in the next five years through its 12 training hubs.

  5. Nourish All

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    The Nourish All organisation is based in Hawai’i but works globally, with a special focus in the Rwamwanja settlement in western Uganda.

    The organisation’s work is rooted in the permaculture principles of people care, earth care, and fair share. Its guiding vision is nourished, resilient, connected communities, made possible through the power of food. Its latest initiative ‘Change the Paradigm’ seeks to transform the way that knowledge is shared while building food security and livelihoods for refugees.

    Through its collaboration with existing local permaculturists and activists, Nourish All recognised the need and opportunity for dried food products in Rwamwanja, coupled with the opportunity to spread knowledge. It seeks to develop a project which elevates refugee leaders, demonstrates what is possible with limited resources, and shift our collective perspective of who we see as experts.

    As such Nourish All aims to:

    • Develop a line of solar-dried value-added food products, owned by refugees
    • Build an online educational platform

    The line of dried food products will begin by establishing a co-op, which sells naturally dried products like mushrooms and jackfruit.

    The online platform will spotlight educators and practitioners in the Global South, in under-resourced and often overlooked environments such as refugee camps, and help spread their wisdom to the Global North. It will cover permaculture and food cultivation, but specialise in training on solar-dried value-added products. It will begin by sharing trainings by Bemeriki from Rwamwanja Rural Foundation, a resident refugee permaculturist.

  6. Karambi Group of People with Disabilities

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    Karambi Group of People with Disabilities (KaGPWD) empowers persons with disabilities, their families, and communities in Kasese district by ensuring inclusion and fighting for fairness in driving sustainable community development. It was founded in 1995 by a group of people with disabilities (PWDs) in response to both the discrimination, isolation and exclusion faced by PWDs and the environmental management crisis within Uganda.

    They use inclusive holistic community development approach as a pathway to:
    Empower communities with permaculture ethics, principles and practice;
    Ensure that children and youth with disabilities acquire formal education to break the cycle of illiteracy and poverty;
    Ensure that PWDs access affordable rehabilitation, are cared for and fully participate in developmental activities fairly;
    Ensure access to affordable clean water for drinking, sanitation and irrigation;
    Support the empowerment of PWDs through entrepreneurship.

    Achievements include training 2450 people in permaculture design, agroforestry and regeneration, with 85% of trainees already practicing permaculture, agroecology and regenerative agriculture; constructing four community boreholes benefitting 2300 households; restored 59 acres of land; and continuing to produce organic food through their six-acre food forest.

  7. Permayouth Kitgum

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    Permayouth Kitgum is a community based organization which aims to empower the vulnerable and at risk youth in the post insurgent community of Kitgum, Northern Uganda through permaculture trainings and pro-activism.
    The permaculture need tailored trainings and vulnerable communities empowerment project was borne out of the experience in a surging food insecurity, poverty stricken communities with degradability environment, soils and untapped youth potential to regeneratively repair, rebuild and transform itself while recovering from a two decade insurgence.

    Through this project, Permayouth Kitgum organizes monthly full permaculture practical trainings for the at risk and vulnerable youths in the various communities and after the program, they are empowered with seeds and tools and other kits to venture into their self help initiatives and others join in the teaching apprenticeship program.

    In the last one year, Permayouth Kitgum has trained over 300 youths in practical permaculture who together as a team implement various community building projects to tackle food insecurity, poverty , environmental and climate challenges. We trained households in kitchen gardening installed 150 kitchen gardens and planted over 500 fruit trees in our effort to eradicate food insecurities in the community.

  8. Karambi

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    Karambi Group of People with Disabilities was founded in 1995 by a group of people with disabilities in response to the discrimination, isolation and exclusion faced by people with disabilities (PWDs) within Ugandan society.

    Karambi Group of People creates a model of inclusion for persons with disabilities by promoting human rights, accessibility to social services for PWDs, economic empowerment and skill development; ensuring availability of food and increased income among persons with disabilities; and respecting nature by involving them in environmental conservation.

    It has rehabilitated 350 PWDs, economically empowered over 140, and trained 75 in permaculture.

    On its six acres of land, it has established a food forest, permaculture gardens and an irrigation system that is enabling it to produce organic foods in all seasons throughout the year.

    It also operates a skill training and demonstration centre and has scaled down permaculture to primary schools, so that young people can learn how to work with nature while producing the needed nutritious foods.

  9. YICE Uganda

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    YICE Uganda works with refugees in Bukompe refugee settlement and the neighbouring communities, seeking to provide smallholder farmers with access to regenerative agricultural training and flexible financial services to reduce hunger and poverty.

    Bukome Refugee camp is one of the smallest camps in Uganda and attracts little attention from local government and development partners. The camp is home to over 2800 refugees, 75% of whom are women and children. Over 90% of the households survive on small-scale farming and  grow on the same pieces of land every season.

    They are consequently forced to use fertilizers and dangerous pesticides on their farms, which affects local biodiversity, degrades the soil, reduces food productivity and has led to food insecurity, poor child feeding and a lack of income. Massive deforestation for charcoal burning has also occurred in the area.

    YICE Uganda has been working in Bukompe refugee settlement to engage the camp’s residents around sustainable farming techniques (including Permaculture, tree planting and the production and use of organic fertilizers). Over 100 women farmers have been trained in Permaculture farming, and 20 Permaculture gardens have been established.

  10. SCOPE Uganda

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    In September 2014, several Ugandan organizations came together to form the Schools and Colleges Permaculture Program (SCOPE) Uganda. In doing so, they aimed to create a ‘common space’ that encouraged information sharing and collaboration between like-minded organisations.

    It was hoped that Permaculture’s principles could be taught nationwide, better preparing Ugandans for the challenges presented by climate change.

    In a nation where 70% of the population is under 25 and nearly 50% is under 14, it was clear that schools had to be the entry point into communities.

    Now a network of 23 organizations, SCOPE Uganda works with schools to ensure youth gain the practical skills education needed to foster ecological, climate-smart and sustainable landscapes. Integrated land use design and Permaculture education is used to create food forests on previously barren school compounds. By targeting rural areas (as opposed to urban areas), its work directly supports areas that feel the burden of food insecurity more.

    SCOPE Uganda has so far worked with 3766 youth and 159 teachers to create, maintain and monitor eleven Food Forests in seven different districts.

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