Gabula Royal Foundation has teamed with CivSource Africa, CivLegacy, and other organisations to pave the way for proper and effective transformation of Busoga sub-region. These are in Jinja City conducting several activities, including a fire chat conversation and giving back to the community.
The group first conducted a 6km walk on Saturday, June 8, 2024, engaging with community members to share experiences, needs, and challenges disturbing the region. The walk that started in the wee hours at around 6 am, was led by the Gabula Royal Foundation chief, Mr Isaac Imaka.
They passed through Kivubuka, Bugula, Nawangoma, and Buyala before reaching the destination at Kivubuka primary school. Stop overs were being made on the way, giving courtesy visits elderly individuals and widows.
While at the ageing Kivubuka primary school located in the Northern division of Jinja city, over 500 school going children were empowered with different scholastic materials, including books, pens, pencils, and shoes. Whereas over 50 elderly women and men were among the beneficiaries of the donation.
Brand new gomesi, blankets, and bedsheets provided to the ageing grandmothers and fathers. Mr Imaka said it was a signal that the elderly are not discriminated against by young people.
Eyeing for Jinja North constituency, Mr Imaka said the initiative favoured Kivubuka primary school, being the fourth historical school in Busoga. This aimed at motivating and inspiring the continuing learners on the importance of education and the significance of the old school and has nurtured many important persons in the country.
“We have walked around to exactly witness and observe the situation our people we lead go through. We interacted with the locals, and we have had their issues that need to be addressed. As leaders coming to interact with the community is very essential,” Mr Imaka stated.
“During the walk, we have spoken to the elderly, the young one, the teenage mothers, and others, and we heard their issues. We want to see the Busoga we want to represent how exactly it is. What do people really lack and what needs an address. Instead of staying in offices, we decided to come to group,” Imaka noted.
He highlighted that the donations serve as gifts to the community members they interacted with. He quoted the African sayings of gifting a longtime friend when you visited them.
“In Busoga, when you come and visit your longtime friend, it is always good to give them a gift, especially these grandparents. They are happy because they have interacted with their children,” he said.
On donating re-useable sanitary pads, Imaka said Busoga school going children, especially the girl child, have been challenged by the inaccessibility of sanitary pads given the household poverty issues. He noted that the majority of the students are unprevigiled, leading their to the rampant school dropouts in the regions.
Early this year, girls from a Jinja based secondary school were recorded using pads made out of the soil. This according to Mr Imaka was an indigenous method to the young girls of the digital era.
“These colleagues from Kampala we are collaborating with today watched that video of the girls using pads made of soil. They said we have companies manufacturing pads and had to reach out to this area. They have therefore come with those items and our girls at Kivubuka primary school are now safe,” he said.
Imaka said; “For sanitary pads, Kivubuka primary school serves as a starting point but more projects will be brought in and a number of schools shall be reached out in the near future.”
To mark the world environment day, 25 trees were planted at the school, which the Gabula Royal Foundation CEO emphasised that they 1,000 tree seedlings pending to be planted in the Busoga region. He called on residents to seek the trees from the foundation to plant them and preserve the environment.
However, he said that the camp fire summit to be organized at Tusubira Village cottages in Jinja city will feature various Busoga veterans, including political, religious, economists and academia to share significant knowledge about how they have served the motherland.
“The youths have been challenged with unemployment but we are going to face with elders to see where the problems are. They shall tell us of how they smartly served Busoga and how we [youngsters] can serve our motherland,” he said.
Allen Asiimwe from the CivLegacy Foundation said the importance of the summit is to interact with leaders to share ideas on the growth of communities. She added that leaders need to be connected to resources and also obtain capabilities of leadership, stressing that the summit would be the solution.
