DEVELOPING A NEW PROJECT – Vision for Uganda

My name is Ssuuna Francis.  I am a member of the Butterfly Project Pioneer group and I am aged 16.  This is my second blog – you can read the first one here.  I said change was coming in Uganda and I talked about some things I was doing, but I did not explain how I thought change would happen and so this is my reason for writing this post.  I have changed since I joined this project and below are some pictures of me that were taken before and just after I was picked for the project.  At the bottom are some pictures of me recently.  I have developed this idea for a project to develop the vision of children in the village, as I want them to be able to develop like I have.

This is me the day I was spotted at my school in Kawungu - I knew very little.

This was a few months later. I might look confident, but this was my first time on a computer

VISION FOR UGANDA PROJECT:

—Vision for Uganda is a project for young people of Uganda.

—It will be a project that helps the young people develop their aspirations and what they are good at.

—It is a project to develop young leaders of Uganda.

—It is a project to develop young change makers of Uganda

—It is a project to develop the thinking skills of young people.

—It will also involve ICT  in order to widen the minds of young people.

—It will be a project to help young people know their problems and how to  overcome them.(problem solving )

—This project will help young people share ideas and develop small projects for their Community.

—Members will be doing sports  which will help them develop their talents and fitness

REASONS FOR THE FORMATION OF THE PROJECT.

To  develop young children who know their future vision.

To develop young people who are very good in Information and Communications Technology.(ICT)

To help young people to develop on their problem solving skills.

To develop selfless young people.

—To help young people develop on their thinking skills and mental work.

—To help young people know their role and their rights in an environment

—To Develop young change makers.

—To develop creative young people.

ACHIEVEMENTS EXPECTED FROM THE PROJECT.

—Improvement on ICT.

—Having good leaders in the future.

—Project creation because members will learn how to set up their own projects.

—Reducing of poverty and ignorance in people from the villages.

—Selfless members.

—Creative members.

—This project will produce people who are having great thinking skills.

—Many people will get to know a bout their vision around Uganda and  the entire world.

—Positive change will be made by the members in there community.

—Members will teach other people  about vision and a bout making change.(community development)

FUTURE PLANS:

We will make sport clubs, for example Running teams, football teams basketball team board game team.Computer games team.

—Visiting places which are already developed in odder to develop ours.(Katende Harambe and the Fish Farm in Jinja.)

—Visiting places which are not yet developed and see how we can solve the problems  facing those places.

—Forming projects which  will earn us some money for project development.(Chicken for Change.)

Every member will be given a Certificate from the projects. (According to what he or she has done)

Buying some computers for ICT.

Getting Mentors for the members.

Supporting small projects started by the members of the project.

Visiting mass media place like radios ,TV stations in odder to share what we are doing  with many people around the word.

We will try to put young people’s visions in news papers.

HOW THE PROJECT WILL WORK.

—it will be mostly focusing on  village young people and those who are living in the slums  areas around Uganda.

—In this project members  will join by interviewing them.

—As this project develop, it will have 20 members in each area, those, will be 10 boys and 10 girls. But I will start with 10 members in the areas which I will manage to reach the project.

—In this project I will try to co-operate  with  old people to help me to run the system very well.

—This project will be allowing the members aged from 9-17 from lower classes.

—This project will not be for school sponsorship but it will just be helping in terms of vision and ideas.

—As the project develop young people will be visiting different place and describe the problems the area has got and how to solve them.

I returned to my school in 2011 and I started up a new running club there, like the one I have in Kireka

You can support this programme at the Social Entrepreneurship site Start Some Good.

I have also written a blog a bout all my projects and here is the link.

 CHANGE IS COMING IN UGANDA « chrysalisuganda

ssuunafrancis@yahoo.com. my email.

 some photos of my project on facebook.P roject Circulate 

you can also find me on Facebook-Francis Ssuna

Thanks for reading I appreciate your attention.

Thanks to the Butterfly project my founder.

My feature in the Razor newspaper this year

Is this Uganda – stealing a clothes hanger?

Clothes Selling at the Makindye Flea Market in May 2011

This is Gilbert again from the Butterfly Project and I want to talk about the clothes business we have been doing this year.  To be a changemaker, I will need support and funds and so on the Butterfly Project we learn entrepreneurship.  The Butterfly Project has started its own businesses already – the water melon business in the north, chicken rearing at the centre and the second-hand clothes selling business which I call the CSB, as I am one of those people running this business. this business which we started this year, we sell second hand cloths sent to us from abroad and next year we hope to receiving much larger quanities.  We managed to  sell the majority of the clothes but since it was our first time some of the items were more difficult to sell.   This was because in Uganda pricing and quality are not the same and you will find that very good and nice things still sell cheap in Uganda, especially the first two places of selling the clothes that is Bugolobi and Banda markets.  Because the Banda market was a local market people really didn’t consider quality, just price.  We found a better place at the FLEA market in Makindye though even here the majority of people in Uganda were caring less for the quality but the price and this is what it is llike in Uganda.

We were selling clothes all day and one of our last buyers before we left the market a lady bought a very nice shirt at a very low price which was on a hanger.   She held it and started looking at it, then she paid off the money and walked away with everything, including the hanger, which was worth as much as she paid for the shirt.  This made me angry because I called her a number of times as she was walking but all she did was increase her walking speed.   I chased after her and asked her to give me the hanger but still she resisted and even lied that one of the sellers had told her to take it, which was not true and this just symbolizes Uganda’s impression about things.  I was angry because even a hanger can hold back our business somehow because we needed to buy another hanger.  She confidently took what was not hers, knowing that because I was only 15 then no one would take notice of me.

That day, though, we made 85,000 shillings and we used that money to bring about more change, buying materials for activities or allowing people to travel from place to place.   So entrepreneurship is important for us, helping us live a better life where we can somehow provide for ourselves as an entrepreneur.  Also with entrepreneurship a person is respected and also recognized by the people and the society which plays a big role in making the work of a social entrepreneur or change maker successful.

If you want to support us, you can do so here

Through Singing and Acting People can Heal and Change

Byamugisha Gilbert

I am Byamugisha Gilbert, a Ugandan of 16 years of age and I am a member of the Butterfly Project Uganda, actually the Butterfly Pioneers as of the present. I have been on the Butterfly Project since 2009 and with in all that time up to day I have been receiving training and I have learnt a lot of things and seen a lot that I would have missed if I wasn’t on this project.

The Butterfly Project is a project empowering gifted and talented young youth to become change makers and social entrepreneurs. On this project I have gained a lot of experience and been given training which has also enabled me to start up my own projects. As helping children achieve their potential and capabilities is my passion I am taking on projects for young people.

I am talented in  Music, Dance and Drama, Art,  script writing and I can cook. All of these areas of capability have been developed in me during this project, by centering activities around the same areas, especially Art, where there have been art projects like IMAGINE US HERE and OUR PORTRAITS OUR PEOPLE (OPOP), where we learned first to paint our environment, then people and their portraits.   We have also given show performances where we have a chance to dance sing and act and I have been the one to manage our link with the National Theatre of Uganda were we have performed many times, sometimes on their main stage.  For cooking there have been a number of occasions where I have learnt recipes from the internet and cooked the food for everyone on the Butterfly Project and also the local slum kids.  We support international food here and over time I have become a chef.

I am Ugandan and I know how Uganda is really one of those countries that needs change because of the poor leadership, corruption, dishonesty, unemployment and all those kind of things but passionate social entrepreneurs can bring an end to this leading to an improved standard of living.

I do believe that through empowering the young talented boys and girls of this nation we can bring about change.  Through singing, acting people can heal and change both physically and emotionally because of the information and advice given to them through the songs and films or dramas and I have been developing projects myself to make this happen and will set up more!

Me in Nambere with some of my music group

I started up a music project in a remote rural area called Nambere in Luwero where my mum lives. The Butterfly Music Project consists of 24 members and with an equal number of 12 boys and 12 girls, the project was set up with a main objective of bringing about change in this village area. We held shows singing and acting inspirational songs and dramas, enabling the young people in the community to develop their skills and talents.  It’s not just about music but also about developing  self confidence in the children.  Art helps their creativity, story telling and reading helps them to improve on their English language.  Since I live in Kampala I left the project in the hands of adults in the village and from there it moved from strength to strength.  Without the self confidence from the Butterfly Project I would not have been able to approach those adults.

In Kireka, Kampala I also set up another project – the Chrysalis Music Club. This is the one that I have taken to the National Theatre, performing both traditional and modern dances on stage there.  I hope during also this holiday to start a cookery project which is to raise the issue of diet for the people of both the Acholi Quarter and Nambere. It is going to train people on how to cook good delicious food which they and their children rightfully deserve and is good for their nutrition.  People in Uganda eat one type of food day by day and normally their complaints are that it is the cheapest. and this cookery project is planned to train the people on how to use the same money which they use daily to buy much nicer and new food like eng rice, vegetable biriani and also meat biriani, if they can afford it.

I will also be implementing a film project and this project will be run in every district of Uganda. The project will move in to villages, communities and towns showing both educational and inspirational films like Narnia, Freedom Writers and “We need Your Attention”, a film I directed myself, to try to put across the needs of children who are neglected by their parents. The movies will be shown with an intention of inspiring people and educating them and I hope this will lead to change in people’s hopes and aspirations.

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Young People in Uganda Aim to Eliminate Poverty in Ten Years

This year twelve young people between the ages of 12 and 15 have taken the ambitious step of growing their own crops in a bid to eliminate poverty inUganda.  Melon growing is one of the numerous projects run by The Butterfly Programme, and which has the potential to completely transform the lives of villagers and also create the country’s future leaders.

The Butterfly Programme was devised by social entrepreneurs inNigeria and the UK to empower young people and train them to overcome social problems, including poverty.  The Butterflies come from some of the most impoverished areas in Uganda and have to pass a rigorous selection process to assess their potential to become change makers. Once on the Butterfly programme, they receive free senior school education and specialist entrepreneurial training.

Project member Morrish planting melons

This year the Butterflies have learnt how to grow water melons, which is a high value crop.  They negotiated for the land in the village, prepared it and planted it.  And while they have been attending the Chrysalis School for Young Social Entrepreneurs, a part of the Butterfly Programme, their family members have looked after the crops and harvested them. In future, the extra income will help the families during the dry season.

The Chrysalis School teaches many skills in addition to Uganda’s education curriculum.  The young people also learn about ethics, problem-solving, international studies and activism and practical entrepreneurship.  All the subjects are designed to equip students with the skills for positive action with a social conscience.  During their holidays they are given support to create and implement their own social entrepreneur projects.  These include theatre activities, computer training, HIV/AIDS advice for women and children, sports programmes, and entrepreneurship projects for other children more disadvantaged than themselves.

Francis teaching his runners

“The Butterfly Programme taps into the inherent youthful positive thinking that many young people have,” says Ben Parkinson, Director of Social Enterprise Africa, who founded the project in 2007 with Ashoka Fellow, Emmanuel Nehemiah.  In 2009, Ben started extending the project in Kampala’s slum districts but he located Ssuuna Francis, then 14, in a village he visited in Western Uganda.  Francis is a typical example of a “young changemaker” and has quickly become one of the stars of the programme.   A feature written about him last year in a National Ugandan newspaper describes his work in developing an Athletics Club for boys in the Acholi Quarter slum in Kampala, and his achievements in taking the children to the Stanbic Bank International Fun Run in Kampala earlier this year where they scooped most of the medals.  Ssuuna is passionate about change in his country and writes about his experiences and plans for the future in his blog – https://chrysalisuganda.wordpress.com/2011/09/25/change-is-coming-in-uganda.   One of his plans is to set up a biogas training centre to help children learn how use animal waste to generate gas for cooking.  A second project he titles “Vision for Change” will train other children how to develop a vision for their home community.

The young people are now working on a ten year Poverty Alleviation Plan devised by Social Enterprise Africa with influence from Paul Polak’s “Out of Poverty” bestselling book.  The Plan will expand sustainably each year by selling watermelons to support itself.  In six years the vision is to have a young person from every corner ofUgandaworking on projects that will help to eliminate poverty in their region, and thus throughout the whole country.

“A ten year plan to eliminate poverty inUganda is hugely ambitious,” said Ben, “but these young people have shown an amazing entrepreneurial capacity for projects that have creativity, flair and sustainability at their heart.  They really are proving to be passionate change makers, and I’ve no doubt that they will soon  become respected leaders and role models for their community.  In time they will be the change their country needs.”

You can support this programme at the Social Entrepreneurship site Start Some Good.

Out of Poverty?

The boys from Chrysalis School sharing a few melons!

We’d like to thank people that come and visit our blog regularly.  Sorry we’ve not posted much this month – it’s not because we have little happening – perhaps the opposite – but we have had service problems with our internet and therefore some of the planned blogs have not been possible to deliver.

Firstly, we’ve really launched “Chicken for Change”.  This is the project that works with children working at the quarry in Kireka and Nyeko has been responsible for looking after the chicks and also the rostering of the project members, who have so far been diligently looking after the chicks.  I hope that Nyeko can update you before he leaves in a couple of weeks and I know he has some photos too of the chicks and the ex-quarry-workers.

I have also talked to Martin, who is looking after the Western Uganda part of our melon-planting project.  We’ve had some technical difficulties here again, but we think that we may have neglected to pollinate the flowers and with an absence of bees, this could have caused our problem.  He will able soon to update on the melon project.

This week I have been reading “Out of Poverty” by Paul Polak and I have been comparing our project to Paul Polak’s vision for ending poverty in the world.  For those of you who have not read the book, Paul is interested mainly in smallholder farmers and his priority has been Asia – India and Bangladesh, though he has worked too in Zambia and Somalia (and probably other places I am unaware of).  What he says is powerful.  Imagine you are a banker and you are taking a risk with somebody’s money.  If you make a mistake with your investment, then probably no one will notice, as bankers do this all of the time.  If you make a larger mistake you would be cautioned or possibly even lose your job and then you would sit back on what bonuses you have been making when you got the job right.

In contrast, a subsistence farmer often makes too little food to feed (usually) his family.  They suffer a bit that year and  they hope things will be better next year.  So far, he has made no mistake.  It could be a flood, it could be bad weather and these things are out of his control.  On a good year, he manages to make just enough to feed his family and perhaps there’s even a surplus, which can be used to contact a relative or buy more food – the latter is the most common.  Still no mistake.  Let’s say a farmer is approached by someone, who offers a new type of seed, which the farmer has never grown before and he is promised that he can make good profits to bring him and his family out of poverty.  Clearly, he will buy the new seeds?  In most cases, he will not, because he cannot put at risk his entire family, who rely on his farmland for their existence.  So, what Paul is saying is that we must look at ways to do more on the land than he is currently doing and in many cases this involves irrigation and planting in times when there is no rain, so as not to jeopardise the crucial crop.

I mention this because the melon project we are doing fits into this category.  We don’t plan it as a replacement, but more as an additional crop that can be planted on land in the village and will need intensive care, when the farmers are least busy, during the dry season.

So, having said all that, we have produced a new video about our project and school, which mentions our melon project and that is where I will leave you for today.  We’ll cover some of the issues raised in the video on another posting!