Ruwenzori Foundation (RF) has now completed funding of the buildings of the hospital at Kyemihoko. Discussions with health providers in Uganda have identified that a women and paediatric hospital are the services of greatest need and therefore when funds allow we will purchase the necessary equipment.
Providing reliable water to hospital, art centre and community continues to prove difficult and we will therefore commission a geological survey to investigate the possibility of an on-site borehole to access artesian water.
We continue to help fund activities at Rwenzori Founders (Uganda) including the creation of bronze stone and marble artworks, exhibitions of sculpture as well as the funding of residencies, planned for next year is work with the vulnerable Batwa people, a hunter gatherer group who traditionally lived in forests and are now largely destitute since being evicted from their traditional lifestyle in the forest. Our plans include restoring traditional potting skills, construction of a kiln and access to tourism markets for the projected artifacts we will help them create.
Conservation work continues on site as well as in the surrounding community. Our funding of the Rwenzori Sculpture Foundation (Uganda) (RSF) helps with the eradication of invasive plant species and the propagation and planting of indigenous trees recreating a rich biodiversity. RSF's application for legal conservancy status is well advanced and will hopefully be awarded in the coming year whereupon some of our more ambitious projects for reintroducing lost species may become possible.
Our foundation has decided that since the award of NGO status to RSF in Uganda that long term loans should now be converted to donations helping to make RSF self-sustaining going forward.