Sustainable Disaster Risk Reduction in Kasese

The funds are being raised to support the project titled sustainable Disaster Risk Reduction in Kasese following the vulnerability of many communities to the effect of disasters like floods, landslides and heavy winds among others.

Kasese district if found in South Western Uganda and has always experienced floods and landslides almost annually since 2011 leading to deaths and displacement of hundreds of people, loss of properties and infrastructure with an example of the Kasika floods that left 18 people dead and many others injured and displaced. I realised that many projects have less impact because the community/indigenous people are not engaged during the planning and implementation process then they lack sustainability. Therefore as a concerned youth together with my fellows started an initiative "Youths Action for Culture and Environmental Conservation" to promote culture environmental conservation for sustainable development. As i talk now, ovver 200 families are still staying in a camp in Muhokya town council after the flood of 2020 that occured in Kanyangeya, Kasese Municipalty and displaced over two hundred house holds. This has resulted into gender based violence due to poor standards of living, early pregnancies, children dropping out of school, poor health (mal nutrition, poor hygiene among young girls). We do the following activities among others.

• Planting indigenous trees to prevent soil erosion and floods
• Collecting plastic materials for proper disposal to prevent pollution
• Advocating for girl child education especially the disaster victims
• Community sensitization for sustainable nature protection
• Engaging youth and school children
• Creating awareness
• Advocating for collaborations between stakeholders to achieve sustainable DRR
• Capacity building for nature protection through training schools and community clubs
• Music, dance and drama
• Carrying out carrier guidance seminars to encourage children to go, stay and complete school
• Empowering communities with good farming practices that are friendly to the environment

This project will create community awareness through the community and school clubs, printing and publishing conservation messages, conducting community public events and radio talkshows for wide spread of the message.

The community members will own the project since they will be engaged in the planning and implementation process to utilize their knowledge for sustainability.

The funds will also be used to establish and maintain a tree and vegetable nursery bed to be able to supply free seedlings to the target groups every season.

We look forward to working together with the indigenous people, leaders, scientists, youth and women led initiatives, government and non government organizations, cultural leaders towards improving the standards of living among the communities that are vulnerable to the effects of disasters.