In pictures: Green Schools projects evaluation — Karamoja region

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 GREEN SCHOOLS INITIATIVE PROJECTS EVALUATION 

📍 KARAMOJA REGION

 Two teams of evaluators are visiting schools in different regions of Uganda to assess their climate change projects as one of the activities of the Green Schools Initiative, which is in its second year of implementation by Vision Group in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and funding from the Embassy of Sweden in Uganda.

It is a two-track initiative: One is debate on climate change matters and the other is innovative projects aimed at mitigating or adapting to climate change. For the debate competition, 30 schools from 10 regions — three per region — qualified for the national championship that will take place this August. The schools behind the best innovative projects will also be rewarded alongside the top debating schools.

The top projects will be selected from the evaluation exercise going on now. Five schools per region made the cut for evaluation, which makes it a total of 50 schools.

Take a look at our selection of pictures from the Karamoja region evaluation visits:
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 NAPAK SEED SECONDARY SCHOOL 

The Karamoja region projects evaluation began with Napak Seed Secondary School in Napak district on July 16.

The school is engaged in tree planting, smart agriculture and waste management.

The students asked the school to buy shade and fruit trees.

Some of the trees are providing shade enough to conduct classes under.

Meanwhile, the school's smart agriculture involves the use of solar power, hybrid crop varieties, mulching, strip cropping and row planting.

Below, agriculture teacher Emmanuel Owoyesiga demonstrates how they use smart farming.

The students plant vegetables, which they feed on as a school community as well as sell part of it to generate income.

Eggplants, tomatoes, green pepper and spinach are some of the vegetables grown in the school garden.

The school applies overhead and drip irrigation methods using a solar system to water the crops in the smart garden.

Students repurpose discarded plastic bottles by making models out of them.

 LOLACHAT SEED SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Another school in Karamoja visited by the evaluation team was Lolachat Seed Secondary School in Nabilatuk district.

Visible signs of tree planting in the compound.

Here, headteacher Lazarus Hyuha shows some of the trees planted under the Green Schools project.

Students are encouraged to keep the copound clean by properly disposing of waste materials.

Lolachat has a six-acre garden of sorghum and other crops.

The school has an improved kitchen with energy-efficient stoves.

It is from this nursery bed that the students get vegetables for planting in the garden.

The students tend the school garden, including weeding.

Meanwhile, one of the innovations at the school is students making bags out of polythene bags (kaveera), like this 'Go Green Bag' displayed by Patience Kakai Namujju of Senior Three.

A look at the other items produced by the students of Lolachat.

Liquid soap is one of the them.

A trash bin made out of used plastic bottles.

 MOROTO HIGH SCHOOL 

Next stop for the projects evaluation team was Moroto High School in Moroto district.

The school has generous cover of trees.

The school is also keen on harvesting rain water.

The members of the Environment Club plant a variety of vegetables in the school garden.

Tomatoes are some of the vegetables grown here.

Leafy vegetables keep the students nourished in the nutritional area of vitamins.

Moroto High School uses energy-saving stoves for cooking meals, which in turn cuts down on the emissions into the atmosphere.

Every Thursday, members of the school's Environment Club get down to general cleaning, with their main target being the collection of polythene bags and plastic bottles.

After sorting, they make a variety of products out of the discarded materials, as seen in the pictures below:

 NAKAPELIMORU ARMY BOARDING SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Next stop: Nakapelimoru Army Boarding Secondary School in Kotido district.

Under the Green Schools Initiative, the students collect discarded plastic bottles from the nearby army barracks and use them to decorate their compound.

The school has four projects: recycling of plastics, smart agriculture, tree planting and liquid soap making.

The students are learning to make energy-saving stoves, which they plan to encourage the surrounding communities to use.

The students have adopted the water bottle dripping technique, which they use for the growing tomatoes, planted in sacks and placed in different locations around the school.

Last season, the members of the Green Environment Club harvested four basins of tomatoes and sold three tomatoes at sh500.

The money was supplemented by the school to buy for the club ingredients for another project: liquid soap making.

 ABIM SECONDARY SCHOOL 

The final school visited by the projects evaluation team was Abim Secondary School located in Abim district.

Tree canopies...

Talking compounds...

Tree planting is one of the school's Green Schools Initiative activities.

The school grows a number of crops, including bananas.

The trees are a welcome presence in the compound of Abim Secondary School.

Some students sit under tree shade to read as well as cool off.