By Agency
The State House and partners on Thursday extended support to the fishing communities in Buikwe district.
The support, in the form of broiler chicks and feeds, was extended to the beneficiary groups for the poultry project in Buikwe-Ssi-Bukunja, Ngogwe, Kiyindi and Nyenga.
The donation is part of the State House’s Strategic Campaign on Alternative Income Generating Activities to the Fishing Communities in Uganda.
The project was kicked off last year in July to help the fishing communities in the country to enhance their livelihoods through alternative income generating activities like poultry, apiculture (beekeeping), livestock farming and commercial crop growing. The initiative started with Buikwe as a pilot district, and it will later be enrolled to other fishing communities across the country. Buikwe has 52 fish landing sites.
Accordingly, the strategic campaign also aims at helping the government to preserve the lake by stopping illegal fishing among the communities through alternative economic activities.
The project is being coordinated by the Office of the Private Secretary to the President In-charge of the Youth, Agriculture, Innovation, Value Addition and Export Promotion and the Office of the Principal Agriculture Officer- State House.
Handing over the broiler chicks and feeds to the beneficiaries at Ngogwe Sub county headquarters, Buikwe District, the Assistant Private Secretary to H.E the President in charge of Value Addition, who is also the project Coordinator, Ms. Sylvia Nakiwolo said State House together with development partners, NGOs, government Ministries and agencies like the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) are working together to empower the fishing communities through sensitising and giving them support to stop depending entirely on fishing for livelihood.
Ms. Nakiwolo further explained that with this campaign, they want to show the fishing communities that they can uplift their lives by taking part in other economic activities other than fishing.
The Buikwe LCV Chairperson, Mr. Jimmy Kanaabi thanked the government for giving the people in the fishing communities start-up capital, saying it will help them to stop depending only on fishing.
Mr. Dan Kiyaga, the Chairperson of Bukunja Foundation (BUFO), urged the people of Buikwe to embrace legal fishing and the State House’s strategic campaign so that they are able to improve their household incomes.
The project partners include NAADS, Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Ministry of Trade, Office of the Prime Minister, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Microfinance Support Centre, Bukunja Foundation, among others.
