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Group Visit During Mission 2022

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With over 149 million stunted children in the world, according to UNICEF, there is little time to waste. GlobalRise works with communities that are passionate about addressing this “human affliction” – extremely poor families who desperately want to rise above generational poverty.

We are focusing on three areas: Subsaharan Africa, the only area in the world where the rate of stunting is growing; India, hosting the largest population of stunted kids on the planet (63 million); and, Guatemala, the only red stunting zone in the Americas per USAID. Building Digital Food Systems in these areas by 2030, as demonstration platforms for government, we want to provide a new vision for helping extremely poor mountainous communities.

Hearing about our work, delegates from HIMSS (Health Information Management Systems Society) and BMS (Bristol Meyers Squibb) decided to visit our site in Kasese, Uganda. For 2 weeks we hosted an amazing group, showing them the mountain jungles where we work and explaining our vision of the power of a digital food system.

Our journey began at Christalis Home, an orphanage, where we held “Digital Health Day”. All of the children’s medical records, and some staff, were reviewed. GlobalRise was already tracking child growth with anthropometrics so this activity helped to ascertain progress. Karen Salazar, RD, oversaw our work, assisted by Sylvia Klinger, DBA, a board member of GlobalRise, and other orphanage personnel. Elen Blochin, MD, provided clinical reviews of the children and this kicked off our process for data collection with personal health records, managed by Dana Castro, Executive Director of HIMSS Institute. Using a computer, she tested PocketPatientMD’s beta offline health record – yes, we were one of the first to use it! And it worked perfectly! (Thank-you Mark Wein!)

While the clinicians were busy, a family traveling within our group provided games and books to the kids. They were so excited! Groups were huddled in different areas learning new games with Alex, Maya and Ian (father, daughter, son). It was a wonderful experience for everyone to share with each other.

The following day the group met with a local peace-maker and institution builder. Dr Nathaniel Walemba founded a secondary school, the 4-story Kasese Better Living Center and the recently licensed Rwenzori International University. He explained how critical it was to have a local university versus traveling by bus for 8 hours on weekends trying to complete a degree. He also showed us an adjacent property, he is angling to purchase if funds come in, that will help the University with space and a new innovation and workforce development center. The story behind the University is truly inspiring – it is a home-grown university where funding is never guaranteed yet they press on. Their motto: together we will!

The next day started early. We had an eight-hour drive ahead of us to visit Kisoro, located near the border of southwest Uganda and DRC. Here, Alex Morozov, MD, (who was with BMS and brought his family), arranged a group meeting with Doctors for Global Health. Working in the area for 20 years, this amazing team of clinicians mentored by Dr Gerald Paccione who leads Doctors for Global Health Uganda from Montefiore Hospital in NYC, are training local doctors using a rigorous, evidence-based community program. The effort scales the impact of Kisoro District Hospital deep into the surrounding hills and is superbly executed with field teams using strong documentation. What if this program was in Kasese?

After a fun-filled weekend our group met with leaders at Kasese Hospital to do a site visit and hear about their current healthcare challenges. We also met with the new Mayor who dropped everything to take us to Kilembi Mines Hospital – a skeleton of what it should be. During the pandemic heavy rains turned to flash floods that swept large boulders into the hospital complex, destroying buildings and human life. The hospital was moved to another location where they lack beds, equipment and supplies.Next day: we took a walk up the mountains to show how Bakonzo live. Children gathered around us with no shoes and clothes that barely fit to play. Arriving at our work site, we showed how we are training the locals, our materials, our soap making program and more. The site, known locally as the Mbalhamia Healing Forest, is located on 2 acres in the Rwenzori foothills and is being prepared to host our drone platform. Here, we are currently conducting Village Trainings in nutrition, soil fertility and financial planning; it was so great to show them where we work and how we operate.

Finally, everyone took a small plane to Kampala, capital of Uganda, to visit Baylor Uganda, a project of Baylor University and BMS. We met with the lead team at Baylor and decided there was so much in common that in 2023, we intend to join hands to apply for a grant…and to potentially engage in other projects too. It was a substantive visit and we look forward to working with the dynamic team at Baylor Uganda!

We also visited Kyabirwa Surgical Center that is located in an inconspicuous setting near Jinja – making it a bit hard to find! This actually is done on purpose – the facility is intended to blend in with the fabric of daily life in this jungle location. It appears to be the brain child of Dr Michael Marin, who is head of the surgical department at Mt Sinai Hospital in NYC. The center is located in an internet-enabled location, (they dug a trench to a main internet trunk running through the area). Donning surgical scrubs, our group learned how advanced technology is being used to treat patients; for example, doctors in Uganda can show doctors in NYC what they are doing in real time with a HoloLens supported by Microsoft. Local doctors instantly gain valuable and life-saving expertise during surgery. The building is environmental-friendly, uses solar panels for electricity and made with local materials. Personnel are local including the surgeons

In conclusion, the torrent of activity we experienced in two weeks was simply amazing – our eyes were opened to new resources in the area evenas we opened the group’s eyes to the plight of the poorest! Learning about the work in Kisoro and Jinja invigorated our team and truly amplified our mission.

Check out the hospital in a rural area near Jinja here: http://kyabirwasc.org/wp53/

University Inauguration

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First of its kind among the Bakonzo of western Uganda

Ugandan Ministers of ICT and Chief of Defense Forces attended the inauguration of the first licensed university in Kasese District – Rwenzori International University. This is a milestone for the community! GlobalRise is on the university’s board of trustees.

Kasese District is situated in the southwestern area of Uganda and is close to the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s known for safaris at Queen Elizabeth National Park and other nearby parks, as well as for the Rwenzori Mountains where trekking is offered to visit Africa’s only glaciers. It’s steep, hilly terrain makes development hard and thus the area suffers from extreme poverty with farmers making less than $1.90/day.

“Until this time, our people had to go all the way into Kampala to get a university degree,” Dr. Nathaniel Walemba said during opening remarks. Founder of Rwenzori International University, he was recently installed as its Vice Chancellor. “That has now changed,” he added.

“Research, research, research is what this university must produce,” said the Honorable Geoffrey Kabbyanga, Minister of ICT. “Research and innovation are key for this area, to help its development.” He challenged the new University to bring forward ideas and to develop an innovation center of excellence.

As part of the Digital Food System, GlobalRise seeks to build a Center for knowledge transfer and workforce training at the University. This will ensure that local people are trained to manage the food system. Spearheading a university-government-NGO alliance at the Center, GlobalRise hopes to bring ideas that the government of Uganda urgently needs today in food and health improvement and digital equity.

Today, the University is already helping to fulfill the community co-created vision to “Kick Stunting Out of Kasese!” by deploying a “Digital Food System.” GlobalRise is sending one of its trainers for ICT training at the new University. Read more about the University at its new website: https://riu.ac.ug/index.html

Meet Emmanuel and Michael!

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Ever since 1998, Emmanuel has been working for the betterment of his community. He is a champion for saving indigenous knowledge, skill development of smallholder farmers, building a farmer coop with a micro-financing component and so much more.

When we met Emmanuel, he had already built a mountain center on 2 acres of land that had a coffee pilot with plant starts, a jackfruit drying program and a tree farm with a variety of medicinal and other plants. We spoke to him about our Vision and together, we began planning almost automatically…it was like magic!

Mbalhamia Healing Forest

Striving to help the local people, Emmanuel pulled together the people and resources that we needed to implement our survey and CNP. As part of our broader vision to build the areas first Digital Food System, his mountain center will become the site of our first prototype for Village Training, drone crop transport, implementing personal health records that will monitor progress with stunting and more.

Emmanuel, and his younger colleague Michael, were the first to be trained in our CNP and are continuing to roll out the new program.

Welcome on board, Emmanuel and Michael! We are so grateful and honored to be working with an educated field team that are offering unyielding commitment and support to the people of Kasese.

Community Nutrition: Armed with Knowledge and Tools, Kasese Families are Fighting Back

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bakonzo children nutrition

The beautiful, rolling hills of the Rwenzori region hide an uncomfortable fact; nearly 55% of the Bakonzo children are stunted or chronically malnourished. Throughout their lives, if health conditions are not addressed with better nutrition, they will have infections, cognitive issues that stifle learning and even premature death.

Families are fighting back.

Nestled in the hills of Kasese, Joy lives with her three children. She represents thousands of young mothers who struggle daily in gardens to eke out 82 cents per day. Joy is one of 32 family heads that took a new community nutrition program designed by GlobalRise; and it’s truly changing her life.

“Our field workers are trained and spreading the program in the community,” said Karen Salazar, RD, a nutritionist with GlobalRise who has dedicated the past 6 years creating both an orphanage and nutrition program that meets local dietary needs. The program is being rolled out in the Rwenzori Mountains where the Bakonzo population is estimated at one million.

Faced with poor nutrition and extreme poverty, zero infrastructure and climate change, leaders in the community gathered at the Kasese Better Living Center to develop a plan and created a battle-cry to “Kick Stunting Out of Kasese!”

Officially tasked to build a community nutrition program, GlobalRise, after 5years of research, is building a Digital Food System – a multi-thematic community initiative that impacts nutrition, health, finance (linking mountain farmers to markets using drones), soil fertility, saving indigenous knowledge and more.

“The plight of the Bakonzo represents the height of inequity across so many issues,” said Tom Dean, chair of GlobalRise. The organization believes that by improving nutrition in a sustainable way, GlobalRise can send a wave of improvement in household income, health and more; helping families to pay for school, improve home sanitation and more. There are many ways that a Digital Food System could transform life for extremely poor mountainous farmers.

Building our Community Nutrition Program

To design a useful and sustainable program, GlobalRise first surveyed how local foods are used, cultural practices, dietary preferences, infrastructure and much more. The team was already working in the field for three years so, equipped with knowledge from implementing a “Farm to Plate Protocol” at Christalis Home (local orphanage), GlobalRise designed a meaningful survey. Specialists in surveying indigenous populations at the University of Costa Rica were consulted as well.

Next, two local Bakonzo were trained to administer the survey using the local language, Lukonzo. As they delivered the survey, they geo-marked each home so we could return with any questions.

Once administered, the survey data was shared with nutrition experts including Sylvia Klinger, DBA, RD, board member of GlobalRise, and Lauri Wright, PhD, president-elect of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and Executive Director of University of Northern Florida’s Center for Nutrition and Food Security. GlobalRise’s lead nutritionist, Karen Salazar, RD, then authored the Community Nutrition Program or CNP, engaging with our field partners for local context.

Working through the pandemic, the CNP was finally completed and ready for implementation during our 2022, three-month mission. Three villagers, all Bakonzo, were selected for our “train the trainer” education – an intensive 2-week program that included a focus group of 6 families. Adjustments were made before it was re-tested with two more focus groups in succession – both over 13 families. Finally, our CNP was born!

Today, our trainers continue to administer and improve the CNP with families in Kasese. Our nutritionist, working remotely, guides the program’s effectiveness and collects outcomes that will be used in our first grant. GlobalRise is writing this grant in 2023 in a teaming relationship with Baylor Uganda, a 20-year project of Baylor University in Texas.

With our CNP in operation, GlobalRise is focusing on a cargo drone system to carry crops from mountain farms to food markets and settle financial transactions. This “uber in the sky” is being designed to help the local people to improve finances – a key requirement for sustainability.

An exit survey of CNP attendees showed enthusiastic acceptance of this technology, especially among the women heads of household who indicated it could save over 12 hours walking every week. This could improve finances, increase time with family and improve family life.

Rwenzori International University

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rwenzori International university

A new “first” for Kasese!

In Uganda, university-level education started 100 years ago when Makerere University was established in 1922. Today 60 universities operate in Uganda, yet none serve the area around the Rwenzori Mountains where over one million Bakonzo live…until today. In June 2022, Rwenzori International University was granted the first university license in the Bakonzo territory!

There is a good reason for this new development. In Kasese District over 50% of the people are extremely poor. This adds to a heavy malnutrition burden; one out of two children are stunted. Universities are catalysts of development with a profound multiplier effect on the host community.

Well-funded and resourced universities have a tremendous social and economic impact on the community. As hotbeds of innovations and entrepreneurship, universities are economic engines.

Beginning August 8, 2022, the new University will offer:

Degree programs

  • Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics
  • Bachelor of Agriculture Extension and Community Development
  • Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting
  • Bachelor of Primary Education
  • Bachelor of Social Work and Administration

Diploma programs

  • Information Technology
  • Tourism and Hospitality
  • Early Childhood Development
  • Primary Education

…and a number of certificate courses.

As members of the Board of Trustees, GlobalRise is excited because the University provides a workforce development component for the Rwenzori Food System. This includes training in drone aviation, digital health, ICT and more.

Congratulations to Dr. Walemba and the fine academic team in Kasese! We are looking forward to working with you – “together we will!”

Digital Health Week in the Mountain Jungles

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digital health week in mountain jungles

One of the most exciting things about non-profits is working with people who share a similar heart-felt cause. Discussions become so dynamic and meaningful! This is what happened when we started to bring in groups from HIMSS…and then BMS and others.

But what does “digital health” have to do with “digital food systems”? What does it have to do with better nutrition?

At the very foundation of health is good nutrition. Without it, we see health conditions that can take life away from kids. Acute and chronic malnutrition is a health condition. These conditions can be managed with digital health tools. In fact, we see the application of digital health in the mountain jungles as a cornerstone for healthy transformation of malnourished kids.

So when GlobalRise presented the keynote at HIMSS22’s Global Health Equity Symposium and met the VP of Digital Health at Bristol Meyers Squibbs, we got pretty excited! BMS is looking at global health equity, digital health and projects that can help to drive discovery in this emerging arena. Our conversations lead to the convergence of activity between HIMSS Institute, BMS and GlobalRise in a powerful way! In fact, it lead to scoping of a new Digital Health Week with participation by HIMSS, BMS and GlobalRise in Kasese, Uganda, during our Mission2022.

With HIMSS and BMS, we are conducting consultations with three hospitals in areas of low resources, like Kasese, as well as a unique surgical hospital, supported by Mt Sinai Medical Center in NYC, that offers oncology services and more. As part of this we are consulting with Kisoro District Hospital, a project of Montifore Medical Center. We are also reviewing medical initiatives at Rwenzori International University, Bugema University and Makarere University in the Kampala area.

As we learn, we will make better decisions about how to position our multi-thematic Digital Food System to sustainably lift hundreds of thousands out of disease and poverty in southwestern Uganda…and beyond!

Check Out Our Other Recent Blogs:

Farm-to-Plate Protocol

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farm to plate protocol

In 2016 an idea sprouted at a strategy meeting in India…orphanages struggle with professional nutrition examination of their children. This is because of multiple competing priorities coupled with how incredibly hard it is to develop sustainable giving programs…clothes, shoes, shelter, food, healthcare, education and the list goes on. With so little in annual income, how is it even possible to bring in a nutritionist?

We asked a number of orphanage owners and found the need is great. Orphanages usually start with a person’s heart connection for helping kids. Friends and family funding kicks off the new program but it can only go so far. The founder may not have formal training or may have expertise in some but not all of the areas that underly orphanage management. The venture takes root and then what follows is an annual struggle for funds.

farm to plate protocol orphanage

Thus in 2017, GlobalRise was started with the idea that we can help.

Farm-to-Plate Protocol was developed for orphanage management to bring good nutrition into their residential homes or orphanages. It takes a broad, community perspective including local infrastructure, sanitation, food availability via local farming and much more – and then boils that down to how to create a nutrient-rich food systems environment at the orphanage level.

Materials were created with the orphan and orphanage needs in mind. For example, a graphically-oriented hand washing poster was created that can help keep the importance of this activity in mind. A skills assessment program for kitchen staff was created that can be used to help in hiring chefs that can help kids eat better…and much more.

The program was first implemented at Christalis Home in Kasese, Uganda, by a professional nutritionist and an agronomist/public health expert. Their existing food system was evaluated including food preparation and storage, the kitchen, washing of utensils and more. As you can see from the photos we took time to remove smoke from the kitchen. As soon as we walked in we were crying! This involved an infrastructure project developed by a local engineer.

We also took a hard look at the food budget. We wanted to make sure that the nutrient requirements of the orphanage population were being met with food purchases. Of course this also included a thorough review of food preparations and diet preferences. As we reviewed the food budget it became necessary to visit the farmer’s market, document and track food prices, food types during different seasons and so forth. All of this, the work of the nutritionist, is required to finally build a nutritious weekly menu. The menu drives food purchases, preparations and services for the children.

farm to plate protocol kasese

Farming is also part of this analysis. If the orphanage has land, raising crops can help to reduce operating costs attributable to food. Our agronomist went to work on this part of the equation, reviewing the existing farm, its capacity (both in terms of arable land, local and reliable talent that could be hired, build out costs and more). In the final analysis at Christalis Home, we opted for changing the food budget versus supporting the cost to build a new farm. Some items are sourced from the farm even today from this effort but because the Kasese farmer’s market is so robust and active, we found that food availability and costs were quite favorable.

Today, we visit the orphanage once a year to maintain our farm-to-plate protocol. Much of the initial changes are now operationalized. We offer help with the nutritional aspect of baby onboarding (initial assessment), reviewing baby formulas and, with the help of a pediatrician on our advisory board, providing clinical observations. Use of digital health records provided by PocketPatientMD helps with continuity of care for the precious kids.

Finally, whenever we want to implement a change we create what we call “funded recommendations” for orphanage management and/or board-level review. Approval of the recommendations by management then leads to implementation to transform the orphanage food system. Our donors fund the recommendations thus removing this burden.

farm to plate protocol Rwenzori

Unfortunately GlobalRise is not able to help every orphanage that reaches out to us. We have an overriding vision – Digital Food Systems – that drives the location of our work. This is because we believe that we can help the greatest number of kids by implementing digital food systems. Our work at the orphanage level is symbiotic and helps us to leap frog learnings of the local food system dynamics. This helps us to understand how to position our technology and expertise to raise the level of nutrition in areas of high stunting.

Today we are targeting Subsaharan Africa, India and Guatemala. This is because these areas have high stunting zones. Subsaharan Africa is the only region in the world where the stunting rate is increasing. India hosts the most stunted children on the planet. And Guatemala – its western highlands like Heuhuetenango – has one of the highest rates of stunting with 70% being recorded by USAID.

Our journey is just beginning…but we need your help!

Consider becoming a nutri-ambassador with GlobalRise and joining us as we build A World of Healthy Kids!

Join us!

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Drones or Donkeys?

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drones or donkeys

In what could be one of the most significant failures to improve the life of mountainous small holder farmers in Kasese, the use of donkeys was recommended to help farmers move their crops down to formal markets.

Why donkeys?

Today, most of the small holders in the mountains are women. They walk down the mountains with their crops for 3-5 hours, baby on back, to sell whatever they can carry. This is one key reason why mountainous families, over 150,000 households, are locked into poverty today.

The researchers asked: why not send in donkeys? It makes a lot of sense. (By the way, finding this research was hard. It may not get much publicity because the project failed. But with this failure we may find foundational concepts that can ultimately succeed.)

Candidly, we never knew this project existed when we were granted a visit to the Mayor’s office. “Mayor,” we pleaded, “we think a fundamental development issue in the mountains is nutrition and to address this means somehow improving household income.” If you look at the research, improving nutrition and income always go hand in hand. In other words, a nutrition program is typically unsustainable if incomes aren’t improved.

The Mayor agreed. After convening two strategic meetings, his office concluded that steep terrain is one of the deep issues that is blocking socioeconomic development in the mountains. He was aware of the donkey project. “They ended up eating them for food,” he said. The project failed. The people are hungry.

When that failed the group met again and determined that it might be possible to implement “trams” at various points in the Rwenzori mountain range, however, this proposal is very expensive, ecologically insensitive and was off to a slow start. So when we mentioned using drones, the Mayor was intrigued. We explained the platform and our early ideas of how this could work.

Drones…Not Donkeys!

Today we are working with a group of social visionaries to develop a cargo drone platform, linked to mobile payments, that mountain small holders can use. Its sort of like an “uber in the sky” on a “pay as you go” basis. Before onboarding the platform, mountain small holders must go to Village Trainings in nutrition, soil fertility and financial planning…so the link between better income and nutrition improvement is sealed.

GlobalRise is building a Digital Food System that will deploy cargo drones for food, medicine, soil inputs and more. We are also implementing digital health tools that can monitor the journey of children in the mountains from stunted to healthy!

The “system of systems” will be proven and we hope that it will eventually be handed off to the government via a PPP (public private partnership) and scaled. This will require workforce development in UAV aviation, digital health, food and information technology and much more!

To enable this, one of the GlobalRise team is a board member of Rwenzori International University in Kasese, helping them to create a Tech Innovation Center for student training.

Click here to learn more about our program: https://www.globalrise.org/projects/community-to-country/

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Twiga’s Crusade to “Kick Stunting Out of Kasese!”

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Prior to the pandemic, GlobalRise started a multi-year campaign to help the people of Kasese to eliminate stunting. Prior research indicates that this area has a 50% stunting rate – one out of every two kids. As a World Vision executive says, this is “an abomination”.

We want to tell you about how Twiga came to be…and her slogan to kick stunting out of Kasese.

Those Cute Animals!

Twiga means giraffe in Swahili. While Swahili is a language used throughout eastern Africa, the primary language in Kasese is Lukonzo and the primary tribe here is Bakonzo.

One day we were visiting a local restaurant called Jambo. The owner, Alice, was struggling over how to fund much needed work to build her business. Many women in this area have this struggle. Getting loans is often not possible.

Alice sat us down. She noticed that we were taking a liking to little animals made from local dress left-over material and stuffed with cotton that is still picked in the fields, mostly by women, today in Kasese. Alice told us that if we could sell a little of 500 of these animals, she would organize production and from the sales, she could fund improvements to her restaurant.

Karen, our field nutritionist, is not one to ask twice! She quickly formed a team at University of Costa Rica as part of an existing requirement to launch a project for their studies. She created a new “Arte Kasese” logo, featuring the safari feel of the Kasese region, and set up an Instagram account. The project went viral and the group quickly sold 700 animals!

Over time, it became apparent that Twiga could become a focal point of GlobalRise’s monthly donation program. The concept was expanded to “Twiga & Friends”, featuring other animals – Tembo the elephant, Punda the zebra and Faru the rhinoceros.

While Twiga’s message is broad, each of the animals have supporting messages. Tembo is focused on building great community nutrition. Punda focuses on soil fertility. Faru stresses the importance of good financial planning.

You can see the entire program here: https://www.globalrise.org/projects/kick-stunting-out-of-kasese/

A Community-Inspired Battle Cry

In 2018, the leadership of Kasese Better Living Center called a meeting with over 80 community leaders over two days that included government, pastors and social workers, healthcare leaders and others. GlobalRise was tasked with presentations at the session.

When the meetings were over, the leaders were asked to list the top needs that Kasese Better Living Center could do to help to improve the community. Item number one on the list was nutrition. In fact, the entire community galvanized around a “battle cry” to “Kick Stunting Out of Uganda”.

Blending the animals and this primary message, GlobalRise launched “Twiga’s Crusade to Kick Stunting Out of Kasese!” As you can see, our monthly donor idea was truly co-created with the community of Kasese.

The Kasese Better Living Center is still a work in progress (see photos). GlobalRise was tasked with building the community nutrition program and with their network, the program can be spread throughout the Rwenzori Mountains with over 450 community churches acting as our help centers and mouthpiece to educate the many families here…families and children who are truly forgotten by the world.

Conclusion

When you become a monthly donor, you are confirming what the community feels they need and what we have found, with evidence-based research, that they really do need – improved household nutrition!

Today, the community of Kasese is raising generations of stunted children. Being stunted means short height for age, lifelong inflammation problems, cognitive disabilities and even premature death. Improving life in Kasese starts with removing the conditions that make stunting an everyday part of the people’s lives. This scourge…and abomination…must end. And the good news is that it can with your help!

Join us!

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Training in the Mountain Jungles

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training in kasese mountain jungles

We are so happy to be back in the field for the first time since the pandemic! The town of Kasese is moving forward…new roads, buildings, a newly licensed university and much more! The resilience of the people is impressive!

But what do we find in the mountains? Its as if we never left…

They live in the same baked mud homes that are falling apart; kids don’t have shoes and wear clothes that don’t fit; water pumps may not work after walking miles to use them; and livestock is secured inside the home, which increases the chances to mix feces with food.

Families are indescribably poor…its tough to live on 82 cents a day!

If kids are to thrive, households must learn about nutrition using foods that grow here; AND, household finances must improve. Most households are women-lead and farm on 1.5 acres. But they need help moving crops across the many steep hills to the market in town.

Imagine walking 3-5 hours to get to the market…one can only carry so much!

This is a big reason they’re locked into poverty…and why GlobalRise is building a Digital Food System! This “system of systems” combines nutrition training with a drone crop transport system, linking mountainous poor to formal markets. Working with the community to “Kick Stunting Out of Kasese!”, the system will raise incomes using a cashless system – an “Uber in the sky” – that automatically credits funds to their mobile phones! What can this do?

Transform life for hundreds of thousands of kids in the Rwenzori Mountains!

Join us!

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