top of page

Community Development in Uganda

This past week I traveled to Kisoro, Uganda to compare and contact community development within the volcano national park area to Red Rocks Rwanda social enterprise. My goal was to understand how this social impact organization is running and how Red Rocks Rwanda could improve on their current projects within the community.

Anna and I arrived in Uganda by car and was approached by a driver and a guide whom would accompany us to the first location in Rwanda the community center and campsite called Amajambere Lwacu Community Camp located on the slopes of the Mgahinga National Park. In fact, this social enterprise is different than anything I have experienced in the past. As the campsite is owned by the community, who were affected by the Ugandan government expansion of the Mgahinga national park in 1991. The government forced people living in the park to move out. As a result, they lost their homes, lands, and livelihood as they had to defend for themselves with no support from anyone. To bring income into the community and utilize the national parks the city created the Amajambere Lwacu Campsite.

When I first arrived here, I was amazed at how many projects this campsite has done and how it has affected the community. The first day, Anna and I went to the primary schools that were opened by the social enterprise called Mgahinga Community Development Organization (MCDO) another organization which I was studying in Uganda. They started with primary school with the only preschool, and today they have expanded to P-7 which is equivalent to 7th grade in the states. After this, the children would attend secondary school in a different town due to not having an education available near them. This school is a private school, and thus children pay a small fee for teachers, books, uniform, and lunch. They also have a boarding school for the children who were being neglected in government schools due to not having access to clean water, food, and shelter. Thus, they live at the school with one of the teachers.

I visited this school two times, and I was amazed that the community and volunteers made the school building. After discussing the differences between the United States education system with the headmaster. Anna and I walked to the second school location which holds the P-5 to P-7 classes. We went to wish the P-7 class good luck on the national exam. This exam will determine who will go to secondary school, however, getting a high mark is not the only thing a student must achieve to secondary education. The class of 13 must compete to get the highest score as the two with the best marks will receive a scholarship with MCDO. After learning all this information, I was standing in this small classroom my guide told the students to compete, and the best two students will go to a private school. As he said this, I almost started to cry because I knew at that moment that only 2 out of the 13 would have the finances to go to school. The other children can still attend school if they get high marks but they would go to a public school that could have classes as large of 100 students and would need to bring their food and water. Once I left that class, I began to tear up. It was challenging for me to know that not all of them will have the opportunity to go to high school.

The rest of the trip was less emotional and very surprising. As we were walking, we bumped into the Warden of the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park who offered us to hike any volcano we wanted. We chose Sabinyo as this volcano would allow me to be in three countries at once.Before we went on this hike, Anna and me visited yet another project owned by the MCDO an eco-tourism campsite. After discussing business and different ways to improve this tourism campsite the people built us a boat to go to punishment island on Lake Mutanda. This island was used up till the 1940’s where the community would send unmarried women who got pregnant to die here. Today this island has a campsite where tourist can come and learn about the history of the island. Notice in the picture that the campsite is not finished yet!

Lastly, before we returned to Rwanda, we got up at 5 am to

hike Sabinyo when I first started this hike I did not think I was going to make it to the top. I was told that most people who are not physically fit would not get to the third peek of the volcano. However, I was determined to make it to the third peek! It was the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life as it challenged me physically, mentally and emotionally to keep moving as I fell multiple times hanging on to this volcano for dear life. This hike took everything from me as I had to fight even though I damaged my knee I kept moving! There was no other option for me as giving up was simply not an answer! When I got to the top, I was in the DRC, Uganda, and Rwanda all at the same time! At that moment in time I again...... yes again teared up this hike took 8 hours and it was the most difficult thing I have ever done in my entire life!

Note in the picture below that I am pointing at the third peek I had to go up! Those where the stairs that I climbed up on!

Overall the take away from this trip was that I am much more resilient than I thought. I could hike over 3,669 M above sea level with no training what so ever! I also learned how to implement community development and the importance of creating sustainable projects that will work long term.

To learn more about MCDO and how to support them check out there website here.

-April

bottom of page