Beacon Of Hope Uganda's Youth Conservation Project

One of the local youth helps a volunteer plant a tree seedling.

Isaac Ssamba, from Uganda, had to grow up fairly quickly. At the age of 14, he had to literally dig his education from the earth by mining in a local stone quarry, in order to pay his school fees. Yet, he undertook even more responsibility by adopting a young orphan boy, with the approval of the local village chief. Now, he was mining for two.

Isaac stated, "I came to see the dire needs of people and how HIV/AIDS, malaria, plus many other diseases, and poverty, was affecting them. I also saw that because of poor nutrition, even something as simple as worms could kill many infants and children."



He also noticed that many aid organizations would only drive as far as the paved roads would take them and then distribute their aid without knowing the people and their needs. Mr. Ssamba explained, "These issues bothered me so much and I felt God challenging me to go out and use the knowledge to make a difference. I felt a strong urge with people infected and affected by HIV - especially the poor."

After becoming more educated, Mr. Ssamba formed BEACON OF HOPE UGANDA, whose mission is to support the welfare and societal productivity of disadvantaged people and communities through focusing on children and youth. Within that mission, he developed the Mukono Kids Go Green Project. This program, which has become embedded in local schools, teaches youth about conservation and sustainable management of natural resources.

Besides the educational portion, the program is involved in planting mango, jackfruit, and maringa oleifara trees. These plantings were to be utilized for the education program, but would also provide a source of nutrition and help finance Beacon of Hope's programs. The program has been using Ddundu Nursery and has planted 10,000 seedlings there. In 2014 an additional 15,000 seedlings were planted at a second nursery. The 4-H Million Trees Project has been contributing to the program and is helping to place 4H programs in the local schools.

Each child at this school is on a mission to plant a tree seedling.

Many of the trees will be replacing some 99 million trees that have been lost over the last twenty years from Uganda's forests, mostly to supply cooking fires. That's about one-third of the forests that no longer exists. It has been estimated that in forty more years, the country could lose the majority of its tree cover. So, this is a vitally needed project that teaches the next generation, provides a source of income and healthy fruits, and strives to maintain the environment.

A group of youth making sure there is enough startup water for the seedling.

Thanks for information from this article on Pollination Project: http://thepollinationproject.org/grants-awarded/isaac-ssamba-mukono-kids-go-green-project/; this background article on Beacon of Hope Uganda: http://beaconofhopeug.org/about-us/; this article on the youth tree development project on Beacon of Hope: http://beaconofhopeug.org/bohu-environ-conserve-program/; and the above link.

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