A part of the East Africa Leadership Program Series
This year, TPP entered a new stage of its East Africa programming. Focusing specifically on grantmaking to burgeoning community leaders in Kenya and Uganda who have the potential to make real, lasting change, TPP and its East African Leadership team—all TPP grantees themselves—mentor and support these early-stage changemakers to help ensure their success.
Here are four grantees of the program who are working to address environmental degradation in East Africa through conservation and education.
The following grantees’ projects better the environment in Kenya and Uganda and showcase their amazing passion for and commitment to a better world. TPP thanks them for their vision!
Rev. Jozeti Baluku – Kampala, Uganda
Tree Planting for Environmental Conservation
Taking place in the southwest district of Kasese, Uganda, Tree Planting for Environmental Conservation aims at restoring the lost beauty of the green environment in the foothills of the community. It helps prepare nursery beds for tree and fruit seedlings, and–since the hills in the community have become bare resulting in soil erosion which has led to landslides that have destructed property and claimed the lives of more than ten people every rainy season since 2010–the work aims at sensitizing the community about the importance of planting trees.
Reverend Baluku Jozeti was motivated to do this project when he visited Rubirizi District and found out the people there had done a lot by ensuring that all their hills are covered with trees. The environment there is green and cool and does not experience serious landslides, floods, or soil erosion. From learning from his neighbors, he hopes to make impactful and sustainable change.
The grant funds will assist to setting up the nursery bed that targets to have 20,000 tree seedlings supplied to the community.
Cleon Otieno – Migori County, Kenya
South to South (Dasud)
Among the first of its kind in the region, South to South (Dasud), is a community-based organization dedicated to facilitating access to sufficient nutritious foods and fruits for the old and vulnerable members of society.
Located in the Nyanza region of Kenya in East Africa, Dasud provides communal awareness on the need to adopt technology-based farming methods. Led by Cleon Orina Otieno, Dasud partners with schools, churches, and structured self-help groups in disseminating information on the need to embrace a variety of short season food crops in order to be food secure and have surplus for sale in the spirit of economic empowerment.
The grant from The Pollination Project will support this work by economically empowering the community, securing a community seed bank, and helping community members to adopt to technology-based farming.
Francis Musinguzi – Fort Portal, Uganda
The African Cherry Orchard
The African Cherry Orchard project was started by Francis Musinguzi with the intent of establishing a conservation site for the Prunus Africana Tree (African Cherry) in Fort Portal, Uganda by planting an orchard. This project’s objectives are twofold in that it will 1) raise awareness on the priceless value of Prunus Africana as an anti-prostate cancer medicinal plant and 2) reduce the tree’s fateful dwindling of its wild population caused by unsustainable harvest.
Musinguzi was inspired to begin an initiative that addresses the above challenges in a small but deliberate way: to reverse the tide of prostate cancer in men and to increase the population stand of Prunus Africana and ensure its sustainable harvest in the future. With TPP funds, Musinguzi and his project partner, Joshua Mbakania, will establish a Prunus Africana orchard at a conservation site and raise a nursery to facilitate the supply of planting materials to other farmers, foresters, and landscapers, which they believe is the first step to ensuring the safety of the orchard habitat.
Simon Muia – Josu, Kenya
Recycled Car Tires to Make Furniture
Recycled Car Tires to Make Furniture is located in Githurai, Kiambu County, Kenya. This work, led by Simon Muia, came out of the immediate need to address environmental degradation. Most car tires are disposed carelessly, resulting in clogged sewers which become a breeding home for Malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Muia’s work empowers young men and women to be financially independent while expressing their creativity. Through funds from TPP, Muia will purchase machines that will make his work easier and efficient, alongside with securing a space to recruit and engage more local changemakers.
