Reports on Clean Mobility for Kids Health & Climate in Uganda

Project Report | Nov 18, 2025
2025 Funding Status & Organisational Updates

By Michael Wanyama | Team Leader

Wanyama Autosafety Initiatives (Autosafety Uganda) has not yet been able to secure a major grant in 2025 to continue the core workstreams we successfully advanced in 2024 with support from FCDO, the Margaret Hayman Charitable Trust, and several individual contributors. While we have remained active across multiple funding opportunities, most potential donors have indicated decision timelines that fall toward the end of the first quarter of next year. As a result, key activities such as mechanic training, emissions data collection, and EV-retrofitting pilots have not received the level of funding required this year to progress at scale.

However, through Michael Wanyama’s participation in Our Kids’ Climate’s Climate Parent Fellowship, Autosafety Uganda received a USD 5,000 microgrant that is enabling targeted engagement with selected schools in Kampala. This support is helping us raise awareness and reduce schoolchildren’s exposure to transport-induced pollution, ensuring that at least part of our community-impact work continues despite the wider funding gap.

As we await donor decisions and continue pursuing new applications, the organisation currently requires a few thousand dollars in short-term support to sustain essential coordination, operational continuity, and partner engagement. This bridge funding will help us remain stable and prepared for scale-up once the anticipated grants for core activities are awarded next year.

We are looking forward to participating in GlobalGiving's Giving Tuesday Fundraising drive on Dec-02-2025.

Links:

LinkedIn post on our work supported by OKC microgrant

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Mar 20, 2025
Driving Change: How AutoSafety Uganda is Reducing Transport Emissions

By Michael Wanyama | Team Leader

After a community-based training workshop

In Uganda’s capital, Kampala, air pollution has become a silent killer, with transport emissions being a major culprit. Children walking to school breathe in harmful fumes, and mechanics working in roadside garages suffer from prolonged exposure to toxic pollutants. At Autosafety Uganda, we are committed to tackling this crisis head-on by improving vehicle emissions control, advocating for cleaner transport policies, and training the next generation of mechanics in sustainable automotive technologies. Thanks to the support of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), between mid 2023 and late 2024 we made major breakthroughs in our mission.

With funding from FCDO, we launched a vehicle emissions testing and data collection initiative that assessed vehicles in Kampala’s busiest transport corridors. The findings were alarming; over 70% of tested vehicles exceeded safe emission limits, releasing high levels of black carbon, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide; pollutants linked to respiratory diseases and climate change. Armed with this data, we engaged local policymakers, urging them to strengthen emissions regulations and enforcement. The project also provided technical training to over 500 local mechanics, equipping them with the skills to diagnose and fix high-emission vehicles, helping to reduce pollution at its source.

Beyond data and policy, this initiative created real impact for ordinary Ugandans. Kabali, a 28-year-old mechanic, used to struggle with limited knowledge of modern vehicle diagnostics. After receiving emissions control training through our program, he not only improved his business but also became an advocate for clean air in his community. Today, Kabali and many others are transforming the industry from within, ensuring that vehicles on Uganda’s roads are safer and cleaner.

This project was a big push in our journey to pave way for clean air in Kampala. The demand for our work is growing, and we are now seeking support to scale our core activities; expanding emissions testing, training more mechanics, and piloting electric vehicle retrofitting as a long-term clean transport solution. With additional funding, we can test and improve more vehicles, create green jobs, and push for stronger air quality policies that protect millions of Ugandans from transport-induced pollution.

Tailpipe emissions testing on a vehicle

Links:

Summary of our work in a short clip

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Mar 28, 2024
Progress Report First Quarter 2024

By Michael Wanyama | Team Leader

Mechanics in Rubaga Division Training Practically

Overview

Since late 2023, this project has recived support from High Volume Transport under the FCDO/UK-Aid funded Transport-Technology Research and Innovation for International Development (T-TRIID) program, with main deliverables including emissions data collection and the training of local mechanics aimed at helping them institute best practices around automobile maintenance, to foster a reduction in vehicular emissions within Kampala.

So far, 3 training wokshops have been organised and conducted successfully with local automobile technicians targeting those working in makeshift garage settings. For example, technicians tending to motorcycles, passenger vehicles, heavy-duty trucks and some people dealing in vehicle-related fabrications and spare parts. The focus is on the informal sector and participants fall in the 18 – 35 age group. A total of 407 mechanics (fabricators, parts dealers and general mechanics for automobiles) took part in the training workshops.

The training workshops followed a thorough needs assessment through four (4) focus group discussions that we had with local mechanics in Rubaga division. The aim was to appreciate what they already know about inbuilt safety and emission control systems in the automobiles they maintain, air quality and transport-induced air pollution and how some of their practices potentially contribute to increased road crashes and air pollution in Kampala as well as understanding their concerns and challenges they face.

From the findings of all focus group discussions, a tailored training workshop manual and toolkit was developed to facilitate interactive practical sessions that equip local auto-technicians with knowledge and skills for best practices around automobile maintenance. The overall goal is to support local mechanics towards becoming change agents for the improvement of road safety and air quality in Kampala and beyond.

Our community engagement partner, Makerere University’s AirQo project alongside the Ministry of Works and Transport offered additional technical support in the workshop; specifically on how vehicle pollution affects our health and how local air quality data can be accessed and interpreted, as well as helping participants understand a brief overview on the country’s regulatory framework on transport emissions and road safety.

Workshop participants learnt:

The significance of having access to air quality information within their localities.
How vehicles and motorcycles pollute the air and how it affects our health and the environment
Technical details of inbuilt safety and emission control systems and procedures for best maintenance practices that can preserve their integrity to enhance safety and capture or avoid most harmful emissions
How to influence and promote best vehicle handling practices, including timely servicing and driving practices

Achievements and challenges.

The training workshops were successful in terms of interaction with mechanics and the content they received during the training. This happened at such a time when we had free tools to give away as sponsored by a Netherlands-based charity organisation, Gered Gereedschap.

The turn-up was quite overwhelming due to the high interest the young people have for the initiative. At some point we had to limit the numbers during mobilisation to avoid overshooting the budget.

One more workshop is pending and it will likely have more government representations, including the Ministry of Education under the Directorate of Industrial Training (DIT)

The major challenge was that participants rarely kept time, making the planned agenda not so relevant. We had to pick critical areas to maintain the workshop's overall objective.

Secondly, there’s a need to keep engaging participants after the training workshops, but resource availability does not accommodate that, which is why we still need GlobalGiving's fundrasing opportunity.