Our Work

As FYDe, we are very proud that we do not perpetuate a culture of dependency and 'hand-outs' in Uganda.  Our services are demand-driven, and we move only into villages where the people are committed to their own self-improvement.  

We first assess a community's needs in full consultation with community youth and other members themselves.  We help them to prioritize their needs and analyze why past interventions have failed.  Then we work with the local youth to look beyond their challenges to see the resources available to them-- both material resources and human ones.  We add strength to their ideas through research, advice, training, and connections to helpful partners.  But the ideas are their own!  We assist these groups to link their own resources to their problems- innovating solutions which are organic and manageable for them.  When they are ready to scale-up their projects, and if they truly require more advanced capital or training, FYDe also assists them to research outside funding opportunities.

Here is a look at some of our programmes to date: 

Microfinance 
(2009 - Now)

FYDe assisted in the formation of the Kataara Community Wildlife Conservation Group, which began as a village-level microsavings and loans association (VSLA).  The group meets weekly to save shares and take loans from their own money.  Guided by a 5-person leadership committee and a self-written constitution, the group also chooses its own share value, interest rate, repayment schedule, and fine structure.  This empowers members to protect their own investments and hold their neighbors accountable. 

In its first cycle, this group of 65 members accumulated over 3 million shillings in savings ($1,300) and loaned out approximately 4 million shillings ($1,700) over the course of the year.  For families which make an average of 5,000 shillings per day, this is pretty good!  Members used loans to invest in their farms, small businesses, and to pay the school fees to send their children to school.  Furthermore, by the end of the cycle, members saw an average of 2% profit return on each share saved.  VSLAs, for many in rural Uganda, represent the only means to access credit.  For women especially, they are a great way to save for, and direct family finances.  This particular group is made up of 75% women.

Beekeeping for Conservation
(2010 - Now)

Kataara borders Queen Elizabeth National Park, which offers residents unique opportunities and challenges.  One challenge is that elephants cross the border nightly to raid farmers’ crops and, in the process, destroy land and livelihoods.  A handful of adult elephants can destroy 6 months of hard labor in one evening.  Farmers have tried maintaining a deep trench along the park boundary, planting thorny bushes, and guarding their crops armed with guns, spears, and fire—nothing has worked.  Frustrated and desperate, these same farmers and their families can harass, injure, and even poach the elephants.

Because FYDe was born from the Kataara community, we understand both sides of this battle—the people and their livelihoods, the park and its magnificent wildlife.  Utilizing local knowledge and folklore that elephants fear honeybees, FYDe went to work with the community to begin leveraging training, hives, and equipment.  Members of the existing microfinance group used their savings to invest in nearly 70 locally-crafted hives, many of which are populated with bees and in one of three established apiaries (2 at the park border, 1 demonstration apiary on church land in the village).  Construction has begun on a beekeeping fence, with each fence segment being made up of a hive hanging from wires.  Elephants so fear the bees (which can sting their trunks), that merely the sound of their buzzing deters them from Kataara farmlands.

So far, this project has been successful in deterring elephants, but is still operating on a scale too small to be as effective as imagined.  Elephants are intelligent creatures, and simply cross into the farms from different locations, not yet blockaded with beehives.  With support of our partners and potential donors, we hope to expand our fence very soon!

As a SWEET added bonus, Kataara’s beekeepers are also able to collect honey, wax, and propolis for sale to a local honey cooperative.  By diversifying their income and providing a highly demanded product, they hope to rise above a subsistence lifestyle.  (And one day make their own honey cooperative!)

Community and Agro Tourism
(2010 - Now)

One of the opportunities of living near the national park is our access to adventurous and community-minded tourists, who often stay in nice lodges nearby, such as Katara Lodge or Kingfisher Safari Lodge.  We are excited that the ‘modern tourist’ often seeks out authentic cultural experiences during their travels, beyond viewing the wildlife. 

FYDe’s Chairperson, Benjamin, is an experienced Tour Guide and a USAID-trained specialist in business, operations, tour, and promotional planning for Community Tourism Enterprises (CTEs).  He and FYDe have helped local groups market products such as locally-made handcrafts.  He has also trained local members in tour guiding, so that they can lead visitors on an Agro-Tour Walk within Kataara Village.  These visitors delight in seeing Ugandan agriculture and lifestyles, exotic birds, medicinal plants, important cultural sites, and especially the community’s solution to their elephant problem—honeybees!  On their hike back up the Kichwamba Escarpment to their cars and lodges, they experience unique and breathtaking views overlooking the National Park and the Rwenzori Mountains.

These additional sources of income, from tourism, further encourage Kataara residents to protect the elephants, other wildlife, and park resources, so that tourists continue to visit this village as part of their Ugandan safari. 

Water and Sanitation
(2012 - Now)

Most parts of Rubirizi District, especially accessible villages like Kataara, Busonga and Butoha are meant to be serviced by the town council’s gravity-flow water scheme, with shared taps.  Due to political corruption, the pipes were never built well and the people of Kataara suffer madly for water.  Two taps which serve the entire village can often be seen straddled by 2 lines of dozens of jerrycans, waiting for the water pressure to be high enough that residents can collect water.  This water is needed for bathing, washing clothes and dishes, drinking, cooking, and cleaning the home.  Women and children can spend hours of their day fetching this precious resource.  This is time that could be spent in school, businesses, or parenting.  And yet, the water is never, never enough. 

A dilapidated stand pipe in in Katara Village 

FYDe is currently in cooperation with another NGO in Rubirizi District, a group of U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers and Brick by Brick Company Ltd toconstruct interlocking bricks rainwater collection tanks in Kataara Parish, Busonga (Nyakashozi Parish) and Butoha Parish. 
These tanks will see more than 3,000 people access safe, clean water when they just need it.

Trained youth Mansons constructing a water tank

 Establishment of a bee hive fence along Queen Elizabethe National Park.

For several years in the past, there has been a problem of Human-Animal conflict due to invasion of farmlands by wild animals especially the elephants and at its worst causing effects close to famine, an income less lifestyle and school drop outs due to lack of School fees----and in turn killing of such animals by farmers causing double loss.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has identified this region as a priority hotspot for friction between humans and animals, especially between farmers and elephants that come to feed on the high concentrations of nutritious foods they can find on local cultivated farmland.

UWA tried to prevent crop raiding by digging deep, steep-sided trenches around farm lands, but elephants are intelligent; they just use dirt to fill the trenches and cross over. In the absence of effective prevention mechanisms, farmers have been watching over their fields at night, attempting to scare off animals by shouting and banging empty jerry cans, or calling in the UWA to fire shots in the air. However, keeping watch over land all night is simply not practical for farmers who have to work during the day, and if they have a large farm it's hard for them to patrol effectively.

This is where FYDe came in with beehive fence deterrent system. FYDe is in Problem Animal Management, conservation and community livelihood enterprises projects. It is a multilevel approach which uses trip wires to link beehives together, forming a protective fence around land that is raided leading to increased crop harvests, community agro-tourism and community income through honey sales and coffee farming along the park boundaries.

Sunday Benjamin FYDe Chair person being trained in bee catching and bee hive colonizing