IDEAS For Us - Uganda

About

IDEAS For Uganda was the first international branch of IDEAS For Us. Originally based in Kampala, the capital city, IDEAS For Uganda has now spread to dozens of primary and secondary schools across the country where students and community members come together to launch action projects.

About US.

Intellectual decisions on environmental awareness solutions for Uganda (IDEAS For Uganda) is a self-governing organization and extension of the IDEAS Movement, guided by the efforts of IDEAS For Us, an official 501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization in the United states and accredited by the United Nations. IDEASForUganda is legally recognized in Uganda and mandated to operate in the whole country.

Mission

IDEASForUganda as well as IDEAS at large stand to; educate, engage and empower people of all ages in humanitarian and environmental sustainability through research, awareness and actions. We focus on the following pillars: Wastes, water, Food, Energy and ecology. Health and Poverty eradication are key cross-cutting issues we are promoting too.

Genesis of IDEASForUganda.

In October 2011, A friend to Masereka Adidas in the United states of America in the names of; Wendy Noto got interested in researching about environmental challenges in Uganda focusing on water supply. Progressively, the discussion went beyond water to general environmental sustainability threats like deforestation, wastes, extreme seasons affecting food production and destruction of ecology.

Wendy Noto had interacted with some of the IDEASForUs leaders like Clayton Louis Ferrara, working on environmental sustainability focusing on five pillars of; water, wastes, ecology, food and Energy. Through Wendy’s network, Adidas befriended Clayton. The timing coincided with the Mabira forest deforestation saga in Uganda, and Clayton as an environmentalist got concerned. The friendship matured with time and Clayton suggested that Adidas opens an IDEAS chapter in Uganda where he promised necessary support.

Adidas Masereka as a medic could not stand alone in forming/Mobilizing Ugandan Youths to form an NGO. This made him contact Sinamakosa Isaac, a close friend that was already in the civil society sector. These duo partners started working on paper work funded by themselves and consequently hit the ground to mobilize communities beginning with Kasese District in Western Uganda, and Adidas since then has acted as a President/ED and Isaac as an executive advisor/Programs manager.

To boost local mobilization, we outsourced a self motivated local mobilizer in Kasese in the names of; Bwambale Moses and recruited him in a three hours meeting held at Stratford resort in KiburaraTrading centre, Kagando Parish, Kisinga sub county, Kasese District in western Uganda to help reach out to the youths as a means of popularizing IDEAS, which meeting sparked the endless IDEAS actions witnessed now in Uganda. The duo registered IDEAS as a CBO in Kasese as a legal requirement, but this was not enough to an organization supposed to operate in the whole country. We went a head to register the Organization at national level for national legal operation.

Intensive mobilization at National level was sparked when we identified and recruited the Makerere University student in the names of; Matovu Paul from the School of Forestry to act as a chapter leader, and later a central region coordinator, who consequently joined the National team to form a strong staff of three members who are still holding on until now (Adidas, Isaac and Paul)

Events and Projects

IDEAS For Uganda has conducted over 30 projects in all five pillars of sustainability in more than a dozen cities across the country. Their work has won awards, including the Holt Prize for a vertical gardening system aimed at helping refugees grow food in confined spaces.

Click Here to View IDEAS For Uganda’s 2019 Project Proposal

Click Here to View IDEAS For Uganda’s Hive Event Schedule

Get Involved

Projects implemented since 2012

• 3 Meetings with Busoga cultural leaders.       
• Eight(8) Executive meetings   
• Two sports gala competitions in Kasese and Budongo                                 
• One(1) Youth Day celebration in Kayunga district  
• Tree planting In Kayunga,Kisoro,Kasese,Kamuli,Mukono,Mulago in Kampala, Mubende        
• Awareness campaigns on Afforestation and wastes management.
• Baseline surveys in schools for World Energy project.        
• Participation in the Launch of Makerere University climate change centre.                          
• Disaster response visits in Bududa and Kasese.   
• Partnership meetings  
• Two (2) Chapters’ leadership Hand over ceremonies.                                    
• Support visits to chapters by Directors and Regional coordinators.                                 
• Five(5) Chapter call conferences                                                      
• Consultative Meetings with Government officials in Bududa, Kasese, Mpigi, Kampala and Kamuli Districts.                   
• Twenty one (42) Clean ups in Kampala, Kasese and Kamuli Districts.                    
• Four Partnership meetings with Eng. Max of Moringa Research Farm-Egypt.                              
• Participation in two (3) World forestry, and two (2) World tourism days celebrations.   
• Attending Conferences like; Forestry conference at Hotel Africana, SASA conference at hotel Africana, Climate change conference by USAID,  Waste management conference by KCCA
• 2 Radio Talk shows on Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) in Kampala and Kamuli broadcasting services in Kamuli-Eastern Uganda about environmental conservation by our Eastern region coordinator.      
• Two(3) IDEASForUganda board meetings    
• Composing three (4) songs on environmental sustainability by the IDEAS music crew.             
• Climate change resilience presentation in Kiboga District and to Bugolobi secondary school chapter in Kampala.
• Participating in Trash on your back campaign in Kampala.
• Printing of 500 IDEASForUganda T-shirts.
• Printing 600 flyers with environmental awareness messages, supplied in Kampala, Kasese and Kamuli Districts.

Please reach out to [email protected] and we will connect you with the current leaders in their respective cities OR follow IDEAS For Uganda on Facebook to learn more.

Team

Founded in 2012 by Masereka Adidas, Matovu Paul, and Sinamakosa Isaac, IDEAS For Uganda has grown to be our largest international presence on the African continent.