Goal Two:
Porters at Bwindi

The Porters at Bwindi and Buhoma provide an outstanding support service for visitors and tourists who wish to trek to be among the mountain gorillas.

During the pandemic all tourism and visits from international guests came to a complete stop in Bwindi, Uganda. Hard working porters returned to the land to feed their families. We will support a pilot project with one of the local porter associations to promote efforts to develop farm initiatives such as bees for honey and chicken for eggs.

The OCF will  provide small annual grants to purchase bees and chickens. A few of the porters have already established 35 bee hives that are producing honey.  

This project will start with one porter association [Bwindi Bujengwe Porters Association] and if the first project is successful, we will expand to include members of additional porter associations in the future. Funds from the sale of honey and eggs will be used to pay for ongoing supplies, replacement chickens and an expansion fund. The net profit from sales will be shared among the porters and participating Batwa who are associated with the Bwindi Bujengwe Porters Association.

This project will provide training for the porters and will also include key members of the Batwa settlements.