Joker, Uganda

In 2014 Joker got to know Moses Sanyu during a Joker group tour through Uganda and Rwanda. This Ugandan man was the driver and guide, and had great ideas about the future of his community. “Uganda is so much more than gorillas and other wildlife,” says Moses. “How much more complete would their journey be if travelers also got to know my community? Picking tea together, cooking, going to the market, working on the field. Walking together and exchanging ideas.”

With the support of the Joker tour leader Marijke D´Herde, he became an independent social entrepreneur and founded the Entwiga Community Experience. He organizes activities and homestays within the community where he grew up. The best way to support Moses was to get an interest-free loan to buy a bus that would allow him to show his country to tourists. He pays the loan with the proceeds of the tours. The effect on the Entwiga Community Experience on the local community has been big. People who previously had no income from the growing tourism in their region, near the known Kibale National Park, are now working together with Moses. As a result, school fees become affordable and the bus also stands at the service of the school and the local community when there are no tours. In addition, there is money to tackle the village gardens more efficiently. But also this: the community and its culture are sincerely appreciated by tourists, and conversations between visitors and residents, which Moses had dreamed of for so long, are established.

The main goal of the project is to strengthen the Via Via/Joker Project Fund. A first aspect of the project focuses on how to improve marketing about this Fund. This can vary from improving the presentation and selection of products sold in the local shop, looking for new markets locally but also on international level, improving the quality of the products to making a digital catalogue of the products. A second aspect is detecting how the projects of the Via Via/Joker activities could be financially supported. Potential options to explore are subsidies, crowdfunding or cooperation with other organizations. A third aspect focuses on how to create involvement from students, Joker travellers, etc. with those activities. Communication and awareness raising are key.  

During the summer, ideas will be implemented in a pilot project. The students will go to one of the projects supported by the ViaVia/Joker Project Fund, namely the Entwiga community in Fort Portal Uganda.

The students will work together with the local community to develop the activities organised. More specifically they will work with Kellen, the leader of the youth work 3K, to strengthen their capacities, the families and the community tourism activities like the tours.