Impact Blog: Creating Positive Change in Uganda
Impact Blog: Creating Positive Change in Uganda
Not long into my permaculture journey back in 2021, I met an inspirational young woman called Ansima Casinga Rolande at a Permaculture Education Institute online session, run by our (also inspirational) tutor, award-winning global educator, Morag Gamble. Rolande is a refugee living in Uganda, having fled from her home country in 2018. To help her family survive, she had to give up studying to sell fruits on the roadside as well as teaching primary and nursery school aged children. In 2021, she met Morag who offered her a place on the Permaculture Educator’s Programme. As well as completing her Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) and Permaculture Teaching Certificate (PTC), she also studied human nutrition and did a mentorship while traveling and teaching permaculture at different refugee camps and host communities in Uganda.
Roande is passionate about climate action and environmental solutions promoting community resilience through permaculture design training, as well as women’s empowerment, arts and permaculture for children in schools. She includes the permaculture principles and ethics – Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share – in all aspects of her life. As part of a youth group of six volunteers, she teaches how to design kitchen gardens at home, different methods of making compost, and natural pesticides as well as integrated pest management and a deeper connection with nature. She has hosted as a trainer and assistant trainer at 12 Permaculture Design Courses around Uganda and she holds open spaces for women to discuss important topics such as menstruation, reproductive health, financial security, food and nutrition.
Last September, Morag hosted a live online session with Rolande at Lush headquarters in London, where she talked about the Women’s Pad Project. She explained how women in Uganda can be prone to infections and how girls miss school because they don’t have any sanitary protection. Rolande said, “The rate of infections are growing, we don’t have access to clean water and we only have two jerry cans of water per day per family, which is about 40 litres and that means there is a higher rate of diseases growing because of poor sanitation.”
She also highlighted the lack of sexual education, which is a taboo subject, and told us how young women often leave school and marry before completing their education. She said, “Many girls don’t know how to embrace their womanhood and build their confidence.” To provide a solution, she and a team of women make and donate reusable sanitary pads to girls and women in the refugee camps. When they deliver the pads they discuss menstrual health and hygiene, menstrual cycles, early pregnancy prevention, knowledge about birth planning and more. Rolande says, “We share our experience, which helps with the trauma.”
When I spoke with Rolande about this blog, she’d just returned from South Africa where she’d attended a three-day Youth in Climate Change Summit as part of the Bevisioneer Fellowship. She said, “The Summit provided an amazing platform for exchange and growth, as I engaged with peers from diverse backgrounds and cultures. It was inspiring to see how much we could learn from each other and the collective wisdom that emerged from our discussions.” Through this Summit, Rolande and the other youths who were invited from different parts of Africa have access to a mentor for one year, who supports them in building projects through leadership and project management.
Recognising her incredible achievements, Rolande was recently included as one of the #100voicesforourplanet through Impactoverse. As Impactoverse highlights in its LinkedIn post, Rolande’s impact includes, “Tree Campaign: over 6,000 trees planted in Nakivale (refugee camp), with ongoing efforts in schools and communities to grow green spaces and raise environmental consciousness. Education and Training: providing permaculture design courses that include nutrition and entrepreneurship, and engaging in discussions about gender equality, menstrual health, and women’s reproductive health. Impactful Outreach: trained 126 adults, donated reusable sanitary pads to 300 women, created over 400 kitchen gardens and reached 16 schools, touching countless lives along the way.”
Rolande has been asked to speak at IPC15, the 15th International Permaculture Convergence #IPC2024 in Taiwan, which takes place in November and December this year. As her bio for the event says, “She’ll discuss her six-year experience as a refugee, how she came to learn about permaculture and began training, her journey, the difficulties she’s faced and how she overcame them, and above all, the improvements permaculture has brought about in her camp and the other camps where she has trained. And how it can still make a difference in marginalized communities.”
Morag and her daughter Maia, another incredibly inspirational young woman, have set up a CrowdFunder to raise money for Rolande’s trip to Taiwan. This will cover her travel expenses from Uganda and her stay. The money goes directly the Ethos Foundation and 100 percent of the money raised will go to Rolande. I cannot think of a more deserving person to support, please, if you can spare any size of donation follow the link and let’s get Rolande to Taiwan so she can share the hugely important permaculture work she’s doing in the refugee camps in Uganda.
Kate Ford