Kasese Municipality kick starts a project to conduct a land cover and land use mapping of the municipality

Uganda is experiencing significant impacts of climate change, which include changing weather patterns, drop in water levels, and increased frequency of extreme weather events like floods, mudslides, as well as drought, whose social economic impacts make communities very vulnerable.

It is already widely accepted that extreme weather events have been increasing and have been more severe in recent years. It is estimated that the risks are likely to increase in the future in large parts of Uganda. The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) State of Environment Report (NEMA, 2012) estimates losses and damage to the tune of US$47 million to crops, which is equal to about 3 per cent of the value of all cash and food crops in that year. Other extreme events have resulted in even bigger losses, possibly as much as 30% of the sector’s normal output and recently even worse.

Kasese District has not been left the same after several catastrophic climate change events have happened. Kasese and surrounding areas have had repetitive floods, mudslides among others due to the several rivers that have burst their banks nearly every year. Kasese Municipality has either not been spared by the famous Nyamwamba river and other neighbouring streams that have burst their banks causing losses worth millions of shillings and lives. The most recent has been the Kasika mudslide that claimed about 16 lives and millions worth of property, crops destroyed. This is a clear indication of nature striking.

One of the major causes of these catastrophes is the continued cutting down of trees, bad farming practices especially at the river banks among others. Hills have been left bare that make them prone to mudslides.

It is against this back ground that Kasese Municipality is implementing a land cover and landsuse mapping project with focus on forest cover, developing an urban forest management action plan and a practical implementation strategy and   build local capacity in GIS and urban forest management.

The project is implemented Under the Covenant of Mayors for Sub Saharan Africa Initiative with financial support from Expertise France.

Gender-Environment and Development action was incorporated in the project implementation to first of all refine a clear terms of reference for implementation but also to foresee and supervise the entire project implementation.

The key activities of the project will include but not limited to;

  • Developing a GIS map of Kasese Municipality showing land cover and land use highlighting forest cover and open spaces by Ward.
  • Developing 3 Satellite images showing land cover and land use of Kasese Municipality from 2000 using the five year interval, Statistical tables showing the trends in land cover and land use, An Urban forest action plan for Kasese Municipality.
  • A clear urban forest management implementation Strategy developed with practical and feasible interventions in consultation with key community stakeholders
  • Classification of the unplanted area in the municipality by ownership, intended use and recommendation of interventions for the identified and classified unplanted areas and solution for mitigating or resolving conflicts between farming operations and incompatible land uses
  • Established dedicated green belts/community woodlots around/within institutions (schools, churches, etc.) for carbon neutral development and provision of sustainable wood supply for their needs
  • Train Kasese municipality staff in GIS packages and equipped with GIS tools to enrich planning and monitoring of climate adaptation and mitigation interventions.
  • TOTs equipped with practical skills in urban forest management on a one acre model demonstration to improve the tree survival rate.
  • A one hectare modal of tree planting and management will be part of the project and thereafter other practical interventions to avert climate change hazards will be implemented.

Speaking at the project inception meeting, the managing Director Gender-Environment and Development Action emphasized quality and timely work by the project implementing team and assured full support and guidance to the team.

The town clerk Kasese welcomed the project and emphasized that the slogan for Kasese Municipality “Where nature meets” is indeed real where you will find the lakes, Kazinga channel, wild life among others in just one place.

The Expertise France Country coordinator Ms.Caroline Sawe thanked the stakeholders for having turned up and promised continued support to Kasese Municipality. She said that this kind of support is only extended to a few urban centers they work with. In Uganda for example she said Expertise France only supports Kasese Municipality and Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCCA). She emphasized full utilization of the opportunity.

Ms.Caroline Sawe-Expertise France -Uganda representative addressing the Kasese Municipality stakeholders during the inception meeting.

The representative of the mayor Kasese Municipality pledged support to the project but also emphasized that planting of trees must be compulsory to every individual.

An incorporation of another project on WETLAND ACTION PLANNING & INVENTORY FOR KASESE MUNICIPALITY will soon commence to supplement the first project.

Some participants after the inception meeting.

GEDA Uganda joins the world to commemorate the International Youth Day (IYD)

21 billion. That’s how many young people between 15 – 24 inhabit the earth – 15.5 per cent of the global population, according to estimates in the 2020 United Nations World Youth Report.

To better the world they stand to inherit, this socially conscious group has unleashed their collective will and might, raising their voices to demand that CSOs and governments address such issues from gender, racial and socioeconomic inequality to climate change. Without waiting for an invitation or permission, youth activists rally their peers, start and fuel movements, shift loyalties to entities that align with their values, call out political leaders and defy the status quo to help shape a world they want to live in – one in which all can thrive.

Since being endorsed by the General Assembly in 1999, 12 August has marked the International Youth Day to acknowledge and amplify the importance of youth participation in current affairs.

This year’s theme is “Intergenerational Solidarity: Creating a World for All Ages” to combat ageism and build bridges between generations. From the wisdom of youth to the energy and idealism of the elderly, we must welcome and leverage the gifts people of all ages bring and ensure no one is left behind. The world’s problems are too vast for entire generations to be absent from helping address them.

As Gender-Environment and Development Action, we work closely with the youth and more especially the teenage mothers.

A cross section of teenage mothers celebrating after completion of their training.

During the Covid-19 pandemic when schools were closed during the lockdown, the burden of pregnancies ravaged the whole world and Kasese where we operate was not spared. As an institution we brought hope back to a number of them through skilling, counselling and referrals among others. The issues of menstrual hygiene have not been left behind by GEDA-Uganda. It is your responsibility, it’s my responsibility to encourage the youth to demand for their rights.

Happy IYD.

Celebrating the elephants-Happy world elephants day

Every August 12th is World Elephant Day, but for you and I every day is a day to celebrate elephants. African forest, and African savannah elephants among others are some of the most inspirational and royal creatures on this planet earth. Seeing and learning about elephants helps us improve our understanding of our world and inspires us to take actions to protect it.

Queen Elizabeth national park that lies in the region where Gender-Environment and development Action works has quite a number of elephants; over 2500 African elephants. They are indeed unique African elephants because they have their ears shaped as the map of Africa, and this fact is an attribute to the name “African elephants”

Elephants play many important roles beyond their obvious majestic presence. They are ‘ecosystem engineers’ helping to shape, modify, and maintain their habitat through their actions. They are a ‘keystone species’ meaning their presence in an ecosystem serves to define that ecosystem to the point where their absence would dramatically change or even destroy it.

These elephants are however threatened in the communities especially poachers, those that look for firewood within their habitat and those that look for their ivory. These are illegal acts that may lead to the extinction of elephants if no serious measures are set forth.

As Gender-Environment and development Action we are doing a number of engagements to save the elephant among which is working with champion primary schools to appreciate the value of Elephants and wild life as a whole through wild life debates and tours for them to appreciate elephants and other animals, awareness raising about the importance of preserving these elephants, working with teenage mothers living adjacent to the national park in alternative livelihoods.

Our call to everyone is to preserve the beautiful elephants as they are good for our ecosystem, tourism among others.

A happy international elephant’s day.

World breastfeeding week 2022

As we commemorate the world Breas feeding week. GEDA wishes to remind all mothers that breast milk is the first “Vaccine” you give to your child. We urge all mothers to do breastfeeding for at least 2 years.

#WBW2022 is focusing on strengthening the capacity of actors that have to protect, promote and support breastfeeding across different levels of society. These actors make up the warm chain of support for breastfeeding, Target audiences including governments, health systems, workplaces and communities to be informed, educated and empowered to strengthen their capacity to provide and sustain breastfeeding-friendly environments for families in the post pandemic world.

Listen to this powerful message from our Food and Nutrition Director at GEDA Uganda.

Message on Breastfeeding-GEDA Uganda

GEDA Uganda joins the entire globe in commemorating the World Food Safety Day

Today the 7th June 2022,GEDA joins the entire globe in commemoration of the World Food Safety Day (WFSD).
As GEDA, we promote food security and Nutrition for all however we are cognisant that there is no food security and nutrition without food safety.


We implore all food handlers including producers, processors,transporters,marketers,food vendors and consumers to ensure that food for human consumption is safe at all levels of handling to improve their lives.

Unsafe food is a very huge risk factor to increases food borne illness(diarrhea,cholera, Typhoid, dysentery etc).reproductive challenges like (miscarriages,still births,impotence among others),intestinal problems,Some non communicable Diseases like cancers (Liver,kidney, colorectal cancer etc).All these health concerns will increase the risk of death if not treated.

On the other hand unsafe food doesn’t only affect the health sector but also the economy and trade in such a way that unsafe food has always been banned from the export market leading to loss of huge incomes,high cost of health care which in a way contributes to risk of poverty.
Food contaminants are numerous that range from biological(Viruses, bacteria,mold among others) they can also be physical( sand,stones,hair, beads,nails, debris,metal fillings among others) others can be chemicals such as heavy metals,formalin, Aflatoxins etc) all these make food unsafe for human life.

Therefore we call upon all people to handle food with care and ensure it is produced,transported,stored,marketed,supplied,cooked and eaten safely.

May this WFSD be a reflection of the contribution you have towards improving the quality of food towards food safety so as to improve health of the population.

Happy WFSD

GEDA Uganda joins other partners to offer humanitarian work at Bwera holding center-Kasese

Asylum seekers from the Eastern DRC-North-kivu crossed into Uganda through kitholhu, Karambi and Mpondwe sub-counties in Kasese District on Sunday 3rd-Apr-2022. About 3,220 individuals/asylum seekers crossed to Uganda through various porous borders and temporarily resettled in Villages of Kisolholho, Busigha, Kasinga, Kisebere, Kiraro etc. in Kasese district. Major reason of flight was attributed to brutal attacks allegedly by ADF rebels on civilians in DRC.

Shortly after that OPM and UNHCR quickly swang in action and established a holding center at Bwera Primary Teachers college-PTC to offer emergency response services to these POCs. Several partners including GEDA Uganda also followed suit to offer services at the holding center. The other partners included but not limited to UNHCR, UNWFP, OPM, CAFOMI, MTI, ALIGHT, URCS, ICRC, AIRD, Kasese Scouts, DLG, UPF and NRC. Greater efforts have been made and coordination directed towards ensuring safety and wellbeing of everybody at the center.

 

GEDA Uganda staff sorting reusable sanitary pads for Distribution

GEDA Uganda’s core assignment,

Menstrual hygiene management, GEDA Uganda has been charged with supply of reusable sanitary pads, sensitisation of the POCs on how best they can use the pads, several FGDs have also been conducted to get feedback on how the reusable sanitary pads are working.

Pyschosocial support and GBV awareness, GEDA Uganda in partnership with ALIGHT and CAFOMI have been charged with these services that have been offered deligently.

GEDA Uganda has continued to support the Persons Of Concern (POCs) with these necessary services to make their life comfortable at the holding center.

 

Buffalo teenage mothers receive a grant to kick start their business ambitions

Through our continued commitment to supporting the teenage mothers and other vulnerable youth in Kasese District, GEDA Uganda has partnered with Children Conservationists program –CCP an organization aimed at facilitating sustainable conservation through empowerment, leadership development and educational support for the children and Youth to continue reaching out to the vulnerable Youth within the region.

Virtual meeting with CCP to harmonize on M.O.U prior to the grant

This comes shortly after GEDA Uganda had trained these teenage mothers in different life skills of craft shoe making, tailoring and knitting to give them a second chance of life. GEDA Uganda had earlier on given these teenage mothers start up kits for them to kick start small businesses in the different fields in which they had gained skills. This however wasn’t enough and it was the reason GEDA continued searching for more opportunities to support the teenage mothers.

After an MOU with CCP, buffalo teenage mothers group will be receiving USD 556 from CCP through GEDA Uganda to buy start up materials for their business in tailoring and craft shoe making. This will be a big boost to the earlier on given start up kits and tailoring machines donated to them by GEDA Uganda.

A Cross section of the buffalo teenage mothers in a meeting preparing for the grant.

GEDA Uganda is also supporting other teenage mothers groups in Kasese Municipality to realize their potential amidst having given birth at a tender age. These groups will be trained in Youth savings and loan schemes –YSLAs for them to start small savings from the proceeds of their business for sustainable livelihoods.

Gender-Environment and Development Action: Statement on the 16 days of activism

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is an international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls. The campaign runs every year from 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December. This day was initiated in 1991 by the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute, held by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) at Rutgers University.

There has been a lot of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the whole world and there has been lots of statistics about this and so the 16 days of activism were adopted to create awareness about these challenges of VAWG, engage leaders and different stakeholders in the fight against VAWG among others.

According to the latest estimates, nearly 1 in 3 women aged 15 years and older, around the world have been subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner, non-partner or both, at least once in their lifetime, indicating that levels of VAWG have remained largely unchanged over the last decade (UN Women). These numbers do not reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and would be even higher if they included the full continuum of violence that affect women and girls including sexual harassment, violence in digital contexts, harmful practices and sexual exploitation. COVID-19 has exacerbated all the risk factors for VAWG, including unemployment and poverty, and reinforced many of the root causes such as gender stereotypes and harmful social norms. It has been estimated that 11 million girls may not return to school because of COVID-19, thereby increasing their risk of child marriage.

According to a survey by UBOS and UN Women (2020) in Uganda https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/uganda_rga_full_report.pdf , it found out that gender-based violence victims are largely being violated by people they live with/other household members, This includes spouses (33%), father (9%), mother (4%), other relatives (4%), sibling (2%), and daughter/son (1%). Therefore, awareness about the law, guidance and engagement with different actors is very key especially during these 16 days of Activism.

Gender-Environment and Development Action Uganda stands with the rest of the Partners, CSOs to commemorate and participate in making awareness through media about VAWG. GEDA Uganda currently works with teenage mothers in Kasese District to skill them in Knitting, tailoring and craft shoe making as a way of giving them hope.

Teenage mothers practical training session in craft shoe making

GEDA Uganda envisions “A world where gender equity and environmental sustainability prevail, in which women and girls have the power to harness their full potential”. We are committed to contributing towards SDG 5 and we would like to encourage each and every one to do their role to end Violence against Women and girls. Together we can orange the world and end VAWG.

Teenage mothers tailoring classes

SUCCESS STORY: MITSE NIGHT

By Bonita Masika-GEDA Uganda.

Mitse Night is among the teenage mothers that underwent the crotchet shoe making training exercise that was implemented by GEDA Uganda under its skilling project. Before she underwent this training, she had neither acquired any skill nor had any job or source of income. When GEDA Uganda intervened by extending the Crochet shoe making training to the teenage mothers under the MSF program, Mitse Night had the opportunity to take up this training. When she was still a trainee, she showed a lot of interest and took her training seriously.

Mitse Night (3rd right, wrapped with stripped cloth) receiving her start up kit.

After the training was completed and even before being given the startup kit package, Night took the initiative of utilizing the skill and the small resources she had acquired during the training to make close to two pairs of shoes which she was able to sell at 10,000 Uganda shillings (About $3) each thus being able to make a profit of 20,000 since the training materials had been offered by GEDA Uganda at no cost. “I was lucky for having been part of this training and am grateful that i already made some money however little it is. Am very hopeful that this is going to change my life, thanks very much to GEDA Uganda” With these humble savings and the additional startup kit that was provided to her, Mitse believes that she will be able to meet the basic needs for herself and her family and also boost her small shoe making start up business.

Night has a number of challenges but they don’t keep her from moving forward. Her main challenge is lack of enough capital to rent a room and also buy more materials, she has also faced a challenge of low customer turn up and low unfavorable prices from the customers. But all the same she still believes there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Mitse Night appreciating GEDA team.

Teenage mothers receive their start up kits.

Teen mothers pose for a photo after receiving their kits.

After their skilling program, teenage mothers have finally received their start up kits to start on a new life with the skills attained. Gender-Environment and Development Action has been equipping these teenage mothers with different skills.

The first batch of teenage mothers that were trained in crotchet shoe making received their kits at their different training stations. The MSF group received their kits at the MSF training center while Nyamwamba Division teenage mothers received their kits at the Division Headquarters.

Teenage mother receiving her kit from GEDA Uganda Officer

Speaking at the function the Division Community Development Officer appreciated the efforts of Gender-Environment and Development Action in equipping the teenage mothers and giving them hope. He promised maximum support to the teenage mothers and GEDA Uganda for the services they are rendering. The MSF representative encouraged the teenage mothers to use the start up kits well and continue behaving well not to have a repeat of what has already happened to them but think of their future to be a bright one. He thanked GEDA Uganda for the partnership in skilling this team they have been offering reproductive health services. He said this was good combination of services to the teenage mothers.

Display of some kits

Speaking at the same function the GEDA Uganda representative Baluku Omar also advised the teenage mothers to use the start up kits to enrich the standard of living and promised continued follow ups and mentorships. He said the start up kits may not be enough but worth starting a new life.

Meanwhile the tailoring group of teenage mothers is still going on with their training that lasts utmost 3 months, they will also be awarded start up kits as and when they complete their training and so it is to the knitting group.

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