{"id":218971,"date":"2010-01-15T08:32:57","date_gmt":"2010-01-15T13:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oxfam.org.uk\/applications\/blogs\/pressoffice\/?p=9946"},"modified":"2010-01-15T08:32:57","modified_gmt":"2010-01-15T13:32:57","slug":"combatting-climate-change-in-the-mountains-of-uganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/218971","title":{"rendered":"Combatting climate change in the Mountains of Uganda"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hot red dust, roads that make you feel your bones might bounce out and children everywhere shouting \u2018mzungu, mzungu how are you?\u2019 A bit different to battling the ice of Manchester to get to work.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Rwenzori Region<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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I am so lucky to have been given the chance to go and visit some of the work Oxfam and its partners are doing in the Bundibugyo region in western Uganda. It is a stunningly beautiful mountainous area, but that comes at a cost. The area is already suffering hugely from climate change \u2013 The ice caps of the mountains has receded by almost 40 % from 1955. This results in flooding rivers at some times of the year and droughts at others. The area is also prone to land slides, increased cases of diseases like cholera and malaria, and crop failure due to the increasing temperatures. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Oxfam’s partner Norracol<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Oxfam works with partner organisations in its programmes in its attempts to overcome poverty and suffering. Norracol is one of the partners working in the Bundibugyo region trying to help local communities adapt to the affects of climate change they are already facing.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Bulirehe (an old refugee camp from the recently ended civil conflict)<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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After a warm welcome I was amazed to see the effect that simple\u00a0climate adaptation methods\u00a0are having on this village already. Employing a system of model farmers the community is being given some more drought\/disease resistant forms of crops to be able to grow since the more variable weather meant the old varieties could no longer feed them. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>\u2018 The difference now is food security. We have food to eat and even some little to sell. Now I have more money for school fees for my children.\u2019 Scholar Mughasoki<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The village has even been able to use some of the profits from the better yielding crops to buy some community beehives. And friends and neighbours come to them for seedlings so that\u00a0they too can grow the better variety of crops.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Kakuka 3 in the mountains<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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After a rather steep climb to the remote village of Kakuka 3\u00a0I was taught about the harsh day-to-day reality of living with climate change up a mountain. They fear land slides caused by too much rain that might sweep all their hard work and crops away. People here rely on subsistence farming to get food to eat and now fear whenever they hear the rain pounding on their roofs.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Working with Oxfam, model farmers in the community have been given materials and training in\"\"<\/a> digging contour trenches to help stop the land slides and to trap water in the dry periods. They are hard work to dig (can take several days to create) and need to keep being dug out every few days when the rains come but they are worth it to protect the land. Many people locally have started to copy the techniques \u2013 a simple idea that can make a huge difference. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sliding back down the steep mountain path where the nearest medical clinic is several hours walk away it brings it home to you just how important it is to promote this kind of work. Training people with new skills and giving them the tools and seeds needed to get started will naturally spread across the community and really change lives. Climate adaptation is necessary now for these community’s survival and I can’t wait to get back and to keep campaigning to get more funding to help to extend work like this into more vulnerable communities. Maybe if they have held the international climate talks\u00a0in\u00a0Bundibugyo\u00a0instead of Copenhagen they would have realised the urgency of reaching a global deal that is commited to funding climate adaptation…<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hot red dust, roads that make you feel your bones might bounce out and children everywhere shouting \u2018mzungu, mzungu how are you?\u2019 A bit different to battling the ice of Manchester to get to work. Rwenzori Region I am so lucky to have been given the chance to go and visit some of the work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4242,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}