Assistance fund for Batwa tribe in Uganda

Greeting! I am an anonymous supporter of the Batwa tribe of Uganda and I am asking you very kindly to support the reconstruction and development of their tribe and people. Here is their story:

The eviction of Indigenous Batwa Pygmies from the dense tropical jungles of South Western Uganda way back in 1991 has arguably been a major contributing factor to their appalling situation today. With the forest being their first and ever home known to them, the Batwa after the time of eviction had no idea of where to begin from in their new environment and hardly did they have immediate substitutes for their previous survival activities. The time after eviction was followed by traumatic periods of diseases, hunger, segregation and tribal attacks which left them struggling to survive. The Batwa at present have enormously suffered marginalisation, poor health, abject poverty, high illiteracy levels, stigmatisation and almost total breakdown of their emotional status. Those and more have made it increasingly difficult for the Batwa to forge their way out of the modern era challenges and competition thus leading to crumbling development among Batwa communities. In spite of all that, the unfulfilled dreams still stand. No matter their situation, all the Batwa have some vision of the future that is different from their present experience.

In particular every member of the young generation dreams to have their own place in this world-a place where they can be themselves without being restricted by their surroundings, their living conditions or the limitations of what is around them.

As Batwa Indigenous Empowerment Organization (BIEO), our hope lies in understanding the local challenges and taking steps to solve the needs of the Batwa people.

For some years now, the only possible and working solution has been to have the young generation of the Batwa Pygmies empowered through the most powerful tool-education.With a registered success of less than 5% literate Batwa, the bigger percentage remains educationally crippled and helpless. Thus, it is with no doubt that the lack of firm educational foundation has largely been the major contributing factor for a failed change. In the interest of change, BIEO with support from well-wishers has since made efforts to advocate for quality and functional education of the Batwa. Currently, BIEO in its small capacity has over 20 scholars sponsored across the 3 districts bordering the park. Having the capacity to give even a small number of children the best chance to succeed is a great opportunity and honor for the organisation. Even then, BIEO can't tire addressing glaring inequalities in educational opportunities and investment. Above all, achieving UN's goal of ensuring quality universal education for all means eradicating environmentally destructive and economically inefficient poverty traps.

These people in the pictures below are of the Batwa tribe of Uganda, entertaining guests and living their lives with what they have:

These are some crafts they have made for the purpose of raising funds for their continued survival:

Currently, their situation is worsening and they need assistance in medicine and healing. There was an incident, a hate crime, committed against their tribe, the attempted killing of a small child, a young girl, by burning her alive.

The following is a message from one of the leaders of the Batwa Indigenous Empowerment Organization regarding the incident:

Dear friends. I'm sorry for what happened to this girl. She called Fortunate Katushabe. This girl was burnt last night by unknown people. They came and burnt a Batwa house where she was sleeping until she was burnt to this extent. We are still investigating how this happened but their parents told us that the grass house was burnt during the night and this kid was sleeping alone in the house. His mother and father stay in the gardens of local bakiga guarding them from wild animals and the kids stay alone in the house until the morning. It is the major work almost Batwa people do since they have become very vulnerable.

We are raising money for the medical treatment we need to raise up 1500$ to cover her medical bill. We are still locally giving her first aid with our local doctor. As you can see we need to take her to a better hospital which can be legible to treat burns of this nature.

More so their family is very vulnerable we need to help them to construct a new house as the one they slept in was burned. They need food, clothes and a new shelter so for this we need to raise more than 10,000$ to cover these costs. So in the whole fundraising, we need to raise a total amount of 11500$ to cover all the expenses of this vulnerable family.

Great thanks to those who have contributed their support to this family God bless you so much.

The Batwa tribe in Uganda has been unable to reach it's proper standard of living 30+ years ago when they were still on their ancestral homeland. They are struggling with medicine, food, technology, and social growth. The goal of this fundraiser is to eventually make them self-sufficient so that they can stand on their own two feet once again. I ask anyone who wishes to help for a good cause to contribute - even the smallest bit helps!

Here is the Batwa tribe's website if you are interested in their culture and products or wish to fund them directly: https://batwaorganization.com/about-us/

Thank you!