By Cathy Watson | Senior Advisor, ICRAF
Circling back to you to say thanks, thanks, thanks!!! What you donated bore fruit over and over again. We are closed for now but keeping this page open as we will have a big dissemination meeting of our work in Kampala, Uganda's capital, in November, inviting government officials, NGO leaders, university professors, and more that we will want to report on.
Further, the process of transferring our nursery and learning centre to another organization continues to take time. There is a big buzz around refugee-led organizations or RLOs, and we would love it to be an RLO that takes over. Ultimately, however, it is the decision of the Office of the Prime Minister, and we have confidence in them too.
Please read what I have put up as Resources. The first is the bumper report on all the seven years' acheivements. I am particularly proud of the 90 some photos I squeezed in. A picture is worth a thousand words, especially when captions are informative!! Have a look at the end of the report where I show the different species we promoted. Biodiversity is the key to ecosystem resilience, nutritious diets, and much more.
The next is a link to the work of the PhD student who would not have come to NW Uganda if we hadn't had this project that you funded. (Thanks to you all. I don't know if you realise that you kept a WHOLE project going with your contributions. That's almost unheard of in aid circles!!!) The PhD student has given figures to oft repeated tropes like women walk miles to collect firewood, and has documented the biodiversity (again biodiversity) that underpins their lives. She has documented over 180 species of plant that she has seen them collect on those firewood treks.
The last is a journal article (it contributed to another PhD) -- the first external evaluation we had. We were getting good results even though it was early days!! We improved as we went on, but right from the start we were good, technically skilled, evidence- based, and with ears open, listening to what people wanted.
Please stay in touch with me personally. My email is cathyhwatson@gmail.com I would love to know why you donated. But I am also good on questions like - should my son do a study abroad or gap year in Africa? (The answer is, of course, yes, and we can discuss where.) Or should my daughter study botany? The answer is yes, yes, yes.
And please stay well. We have so appreciated you. I attach some of my favourite photos of the refugee hosting area and what we did.
Cathy
Links:
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