KYEGEGWA COMMUNITIES VOW TO RESTORE THE ENVIRONMENT

 RWECO is a membership organization of KALI, GHFRD, RIDE AFRICA and RIC-NET implementing the Citizens Manifesto in Action  extension project with CEW-IT  with fund support from  Oxfam Novib. The project is based on four thematic areas of; Education, Health, Water and production (NAADS). While focusing on the promotion of good governance, livelihood improvement, establishing and strengthening platforms for citizens to engage with their leaders, and mainstreaming cross cutting issues such as gender, peace building and co-existence and human rights in all its interventions geared towards improved service delivery for the citizens. RWECO  together with RIDE AFRICA  implementing in Kyegegwa and Kyenjojo districts, supported 4 CBOs in  training and  enterprise selection under a project supported by Oxfam Novib through CEW-IT.  Sixty members from the 4  CBOs were identified, trained and equipped with basic entrepreneurship skills, on how to select a viable project that can boast on their livelihoods and increase their household incomes. The groups that were trained included Kakabara peoples voice, Kyenjojo peoples voice, Bufunjo peoples voice, and Nyankwanzi peoples voice a total of sixty CBO members was trained in Kyegegwa and Kakabara the number of women was less than that of men though the participation was active for both of them. While in terms of gender responsiveness representativeness of all age categories was observed the reason for the inclusion of all age categories in their opinion was that the youth could emulate good practices and behavior from the elders.

CBO	Kakabara peoples voice	Kyegegwa peoples voice	Bufunjo peoples voice	Nyankwanzi Peoples voice
Male	11	13	09	09
Female	03	06	07	05
Total	14	19	16	14

To  show their commitment towards the initiative the CBOs were tasked to present work plans and the budget and highlight on how much they would co-fund to the project.

DISTRICT	CBO/GROUP	ENTERPRISE	CO-FUND
Kyenjojo	Nyankwanzi peoples voice	Poultry & Soil conservation through tree planting	Land, labor and farm tools.
	Bufunjo Peoples voice	Soil conservation through tree planting & Poultry	Land, Labor and farm equipments.
Kyegegwa	Kakabara peoples voice	Poultry keeping(Local breed) and soil conservation	Sensitize  and train group members about local chicken disease management , feeds Cages or shelter and labor
	Kyegegwa peoples voice	Local chicken keeping(Poultry) and soil conservation	Provide cages ,feeds, Labor and vet services

The total value of the co-funded contribution totaled to Ugx 1, 800,000/= ( Shillings one million eight hundred thousand only) , this would help keep the commitment and sustain the project.

The lessons learnt were:  a. Enterprises selected basing on what the beneficiaries were well versed with in consideration of the already established structures for instance it was realized that the groups had basic knowledge and skills in local chicken management, each of them had at least ten heads of chicken in their homesteads thus needed a simple top up to boast it further.

In terms of the gender dynamics all age categories were represented and all sex took both the membership and leadership roles.  In terms of improving house hold incomes and mainstreaming work the CBOs were bound together by SILC (savings and internal lending communities) while at household level the project was hoped to improve the nutritional and livelihoods of the beneficiaries. The initiative was a good one especially in responding to the gender needs for example on the tree seedlings project it was said to address the need for collecting firewood for the mothers, children, address environment(Soil conservation) and in terms of access the women would access by collecting fire wood though the control entirely remained the males responsibility While for the chicken project it was realized that it would increase the women’s participation in decision making at house hold level, access and control over the proceeds and in terms of visioning between the past, the current and their desired destination participants were able to refocus on the major mail stones that they wanted to achieve in the short and long run. In the short run they hoped to generate firewood and eggs while in the long run they hoped to get better incomes at the collective marketing, offer their sights for other organizations to learn from their success stories, link with national and international organizations in addressing environment conservation issues,(NEMA,NFA,NAADS) increasing the house hold incomes.

By,  Agnes Kyakimwa

RWECO