New Vision rewards Ugandans making a difference in society

Jun 29, 2008

SELF doubt. You cannot help following your heart anymore. You can no longer stand by and watch things continue the way they are. You cannot deny the fact that you do not exactly fall in the ‘rich’ bracket.

By Harriette Onyalla

SELF doubt. You cannot help following your heart anymore. You can no longer stand by and watch things continue the way they are. You cannot deny the fact that you do not exactly fall in the ‘rich’ bracket.

You decide to start a project to change your community and many times you want to give up but your heart will not let you.

And then someone comes along and says your efforts are, indeed, great. You are making a difference in your community.

That was the mood in The New Vision conference room recently. Here were 10 Ugandans whom other Ugandans thought were making a difference in their communities in different ways.

Francis Kigobe chose to build a library. Catherine Mwesigwa, The New Vision’s Features Editor put it aptly: “Kigobe chose to donate to other young people an opportunity he did not have when he was young.”

Four years later, performance in the nearby schools in Malongwe has greatly improved. Young people can now revise and research what is taught in school because they have the resources at their disposal.

For this, Kigobe won the top prize of Ugandans Making a Difference, which came with sh2m and a certificate.
Vincent Waiswa Bagiire was the first runner-up.

He was recognised for developing a website where Ugandan farmers can share information on best agricultural practices.

The password to this site, www.brosdi.or.ug, is the requirement that before you get any tips you must leave a tip. For this innovation, Bagiire’s prize was sh1m.

Bagiire also moved to make a difference in the life of disadvantaged children whose parents cannot afford to send them to university on private sponsorship.

He started a fund under his son’s name, Tyler Paul Bagiire. Every year, the Tyler Education Fund enables three students to join university.

Pastor Martin Ssempa of Makerere preaches sexual restraint and abstinence to young people. He says sex is a beautiful thing if it is done at the right time in the right place, that place is called marriage.

“If you want a child to take their medicine without a fight, make it look beautiful that is why most syrups are pink, add there some sugar to make it sweet. That is why I am now a ‘cool’ guy. Young people now know abstaining from sex can be fun,” he says.

Ssempa emerged second runner-up, taking home sh500,000. While parents and the youths at Makerere University, who flock Pastor Ssempa’s Prime Time evenings every Saturday appreciate his message, some people, especially the donor community, think he should preach condoms as well.

Not bad, one would say, but how do you preach condoms and abstinence using the same platform?

Mwalimu Musheshe, a champion of change is a household name in Kagadi town, in western Uganda. His passion for the community saw him moving from being a volunteer with the Uganda Food and Peace project to form the Uganda Rural Development and Training programme, which trains farmers in better farming methods and equips girls with skills for income generation.

People in his community nominated him for the Ugandans Making a Difference award. And as he rises to speak, the confidence tinged with humility that bounces in his voice seems to come from that knowledge that the people believed in him.

“What is different with this is that this is a government corporation recognising people in the non-governmental sector. The New Vision is creating a strong bridge between the Government and the people because it is the people who nominated us,” he said.

Musheshe believes that awards like the Ugandans Making a Difference are signalling the beginning of an African Renaissance.

“For long, we have been at the receiving end. But now, we, Africans, are having visions of what we want our continent to be. And we are transforming these visions into actions to cause positive change.

Maria Baryamujura also got a certificate. Her project, Community Based Tourism Initiative, came up with sites in Buhoma, the village where Bwindi Impenetrable forest is located, and a walk was created. Funds collected from the walk benefit the community.

“After the story ran, I got calls and emails from as far as China, Australia and the US,” she says.

Baryamujura lamented that the international media portrays Africa as a backward and dark continent riddled with disease, poverty and wars, which is disheartening and many times untrue.

“Uganda is a beautiful place and we need to start telling our stories by ourselves,” she says.

Jesse Okot borrowed her co-champion’s tone. “It is unfortunate that Karamoja is still treated like it is not part of Uganda,” the widow of Justice Arthur Oder, says.

For efforts to ensure that adults in Karamoja get a second chance at education through adult literacy programmes and teaching vigilantes alternative ways of making a living other than cattle rustling, this university of Cardiff graduate got a certificate.

Meddi and Ibrahim came to receive their father’s posthumous honour, a certificate. And these sons, who are following in Musa Wakibi’s footsteps by holding the torch of the Musa Body University of Technology, looked indeed proud to live their father’s legacy. The university teaches welding skills and general machinery.

Like the two brothers, Abdu Lutaaya chose to leave the talk to the elders. This social work student runs a band where street children and others learn how to play band instruments, earn a living and go to school.

Andrew Rugasira, a coffee entrepreneur who believes that ploughing back part of his profits into the community is a viable venture, could not make it here.

And yet the fact that he ploughs back 50% of the profit he makes from his Good African Coffee into the coffee farmers in Kasese and pays them better than other coffee buyers was on everyone’s mind.

And that is what actually makes a champion, for you do not have to be there to be remembered. Your acts will always be there for you…

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