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Photography, Travel, Uganda
This is the last post to transfer from the old blog… One of the most enduring memory of Uganda is the kids. No matter where you go in the country, stop , get out of the car and withing a couple of minutes,  a group of kids will surround you – even in the middle of nowhere. The kids are open, engaging, and are more than happy to have their photographs taken.


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Photography, Stories, Travel, Uganda
Note:- This is a post that was on an old blog that is now offline. I went looking for the images and realised I had not transferred them. One of the more fascinating visits was to a micro finance project in the form of a community run credit union. Plan again are involved and help train and set up the credit union. Because of the limitations on the ledger system they use, they limit themselves to 20 odd members. The setup is very simple, with a weekly meeting, held under a tree in the village. A committee is elected to run the credit union and all the members contribute by savings and repayments of loans. It was incredible to listen to the stories of the members of what they borrowed money for
  • One woman borrowed to buy some chickens. She now sells the eggs to other in the village and surrounding areas
  • A man used the money to buy goats. He sells goats milk and cheese as a result.
  • One enterprising man, bought a bicycle. He uses it to run errands for people to other villages
The really interesting thing was to see people pay back the loan and then borrow again to add to their ability to generate wealth for themselves.




For more informmation on the excellent work by Plan International, see their website www.plan.ie
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Photography, Travel, Uganda
Note:- This is a post that was on an old blog that is now offline. I went looking for the images and realised I had not transferred them. Continuing our visit Plan Internationals projects, we visited a sponsored child. The child in question was sponsored by Merv is called Joan and is approximately 12 years of age. The Plan office is in Kamuli about 60Km east of the capital Kampala and Joan’s village is about 20 minutes away. We stopped on the way and bought some goods for the family – simple items like cooking oil, biscuits, soap, rice and orange juice. What I did not expect was the families reaction to what to us was some very simple and cheap gifts. They were incredibly grateful and insisted on giving us a whole range of foodstuffs back ( see the image below). It was quite a collection: an enormous Jackfruit, a bundle of sugar cane even a chicken! Obviously, we might have had a few problems bringing that lot on a flight back to Ireland so we gave them as a gift to Joan. Oh, watch for the image with Joans report card – “Could do better” is a pretty good summary. 



For more information on the excellent work by Plan International, see their website www.plan.ie.
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Photography, Travel, Uganda
Note:- This is a post that was on an old blog that is now offline. I went looking for the images and realised I had not transferred them. In 2008, Along with a friend of mine, Merv Colton I visited Uganda and spent round 12 days in the country. Part of the trip was a visit to some projects run by the charity Plan International. Anyway, one of the first places we visited was a school run by Plan. The school had a pupil count of round 700 with 7 teachers ( Now theres a pupil -teacher ratio!) and 5 classrooms. 2 of the classes are held outside under a tree – even in very heavy rainfall.


For more information on the excellent work by Plan International, see their website www.plan.ie
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This is a really positive story from Africa. One of our closest relations, the mountain gorillas have been under serious threat due to habitat loss, war and the market for so called bush meat.

I was luck enough to get to see these magnificent animals in Uganda in 2008 in the Bwindi impenetrable forest in south western Uganda. Its an extremely well run operation.  For a $500 permit fee, you get a guide, armed protection and about 45 minutes contact time with the gorillas.

On our trip, it took about 5 hours on foot to get to where the gorillas were feeding that day and this is at extreme elevations and is very tough.  But… worth all the effort. We met a group of about 25 individuals from a big silverback to very small juveniles.

Some shots from the trip

Juvenile Gorrila     Juvenile Gorrila

WWF – Press Release – Dramatic Increase in Population of Critically Endangered Mountain Gorillas Confirmed by Census

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