Ruboni Community Camp is a project of Ruboni Community Conservation and Development Program (RCCDP). RCCDP was started in 1998, to encourage local community participation in environment conservation with an aim of benefiting the entire community through sustainable development.
Ruboni Community Camp is a community-owned and runs enterprise under the RCCDP. It is run alongside other tourism activities and the whole enterprise is called Ruboni community tourism project.
All the profits generated by the Ruboni community tourism project are reinvested back into the community, to support local community development and environmental conservation initiatives. These initiatives are aimed to benefit the entire community either directly or indirectly.
Development Initiatives being supported
The key community development initiatives that receive direct support from Ruboni community tourism project are;
Child sponsorship project – 0ver 50 children being sponsored every term, on top of the many that have gone through the sponsorship program now having decent jobs.
Forest conservation – 100 acres of indigenous forest saved and tens of thousands of trees planted by the community on their household lands.
Local community infrastructure development – where there is a lack, we help the communities go through the challenges. We have constructed temporary emergency bridges during and after the river floods, road repairs, hillside public footpath maintenance, and water infrastructure for the community.
Skills training – Many youth and women are taking training sessions in hospitality, guiding, and crafts development. We take interns from different colleges and universities to give them practical knowledge of what we do in this community.
Women and child empowerment – through education, skills, income enhancement, and job creation, women and children are brought closer to the economic welfare table in the local economy
Sustainable agriculture project – Farming is the leading economic activity practiced by 100% of all community members. RCCDP provides training on soils and water conservation, improved agriculture, the market for the agro produce, agriculture produce value addition. All this enhances the income generated by the households, especially during this time when land is not very productive due to the impacts of climate change and the high human population.
Household income diversion from tourism – tourism provides financial capital to the households. this is earned through the sale of goods and services from the local household. This rare opportunity to the local households is further boosted by guidance on household investment using the village saving and credit schemes
Community development partnerships creation – We have created many development partnerships and helped to guide more within the community. These include; child sponsorship, sales, and marketing for local produce, vendors, and suppliers to the tourism project, agro production, and value-added partnerships, forest/ environment conservation partnerships, and resource mobilization partnership.
The challenges associated with climate change
In the Rwenzori region, Climate change has taken a very high toll. Due to this high rate of poverty, population increase, and climate change, Ruboni community is overwhelmed by the level of need in the community. COVID-19 made the situation even worse when from the year 2020 to 2022, we hardly received any visitors or income from the community tourism business
Thank God, tourism is a good counter for the impacts of climate change if the right resources are employed. The RCCDP community’s inability to mobilize resources is a big challenge to the local people who look up to Ruboni community tourism for help. Many children are starting to drop out of school due to lack of fees, households are selling their property to meet the basic needs as if the right to their land is luxury, the markets and produce from their farms are lowering due to the falling incomes from the buyers, the rivers are drying and the women are starting to carry water on their backs long distances away
This is what you can do?
No one can do everything, but everyone can do something about helping Ruboni support her community members. even the smallest drops of help will add up in changing someone’s life. Specifically, we are looking for both donors and volunteers who can partner with Ruboni community on the different community development and conservation initiatives. Volunteers are required for proposal writing and project development. This will help to improve the concepts that are fronted by the community to address their related challenges.
Visiting Ruboni during your trip to Ruboni to buy some of our community tourism services and products is an easy way to help. As said earlier, all the profits generated go back to the local community. The key services and activities you can buy during your trip include; accommodation in our guestrooms, meals, village guided tours, Rwenzori trekking tours, and handicrafts made by local women. Every coin you spend on these goods and services gives hope to someone in the village.
We are doing our best to market our tourism products. However, we have a lot of room for improvement as we are limited by minimum machinery and expertise in modern marketing. If you have some time at hand, a connection, or an opportunity, you will be appreciated for the marketing support you can provide
If you don’t have a plan to travel to Uganda, to visit the Ruboni community, but feel you want to do something, you can find more about our community development and conservation work, by contacting us or sending us an email with questions.
