Michael Twesige
Uganda
Meet a youthful environment leader from Uganda. In 2016 as a 17-year-old, Michael started volunteering at FED as a Field extensions officer. FED, also known as Friends with Environment in Development, is an Environmental advocacy and conservation organization that prefers working with young people. According to FED, youth are a vital force to bring continuity to a stable future in the environment and conservation.
Others describe Michael as skilled in working together with diverse people, young and old. Also, he is excellent at inspiring his peers to contribute to the environment and biodiversity conservation.
Working as a volunteer, Michael helps the FED projects by creating more organic farms or making organic vegetables available for everyday use. Besides this, he shows communities how important environmentally friendly farming is and how to conserve water. As well, he supports the rural community areas by constructing fuel energy-saving stoves to protect deforestation. This energy-saving stove helps to keep the kitchen environment clean and smock free, which results in more healthy cooking.
The grant will help Michael gain more knowledge about environmentally friendly practices and continue to teach the same practices to others. One of these methods is organic farming where he learns about different organic compost manure. Rather than disposing it as garbage, Michael will instead use organic matter to fertilize the soil. Another practice is learning about how to conserve and harvest rainwater for domestic and garden use. In Uganda, where agriculture is highly dependent on rainfall, the knowledge of harvesting and storing rainwater for both domestic and agriculture use is extremely valuable. An extra method Michael wants to advance his knowledge of is alternative energy or conservation technologies. For example, making and using biogas or fuel-efficient saving stoves. These previously mentioned practices are only a few of the many educational opportunities– pig rearing, poultry farming, and beekeeping to name a few more– that will be taught at the St Jude Family Projects in Masaka.
