Friends of ZOKA.

As long as anger, paranoia & misinformation drive our News Rooms & political debates, always unhinged souls among us will feel justified in turning to violent remedies for imagined threats. Our media is to blame for this tribal fight. @EUinUG @nickopiyo @Opiaiya @ajws @CivFund_

We have our own name for it in Ma'adi @narouganda ( here fermenting my own from a wild harvest for a home brew) @FriendsofZoka @SimonKaggwaNjal @opigojimmy

🌿 This #WorldWetlandsDay 2026, under the theme “Wetlands and Traditional Knowledge,” we call on all partners to safeguard and restore wetlands, essential for biodiversity, climate stability, and sustainable livelihoods. Act now to protect our wetlands. 💧

Today, we will join a powerful conversation for the #16DaysOfActivism bringing together women leading the fight for safer digital spaces. The webinar on Responsive Mechanisms: Understanding Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (#TFGBV) will unpack the growing forms of online harm, their impact on women and girls, and the urgent need for coordinated protection, support, and accountability. Register: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regist…

🌍🔥 ARE YOU PART OF THE SOLUTION OR PART OF THE PROBLEM ON CLIMATE CHANGE? So ask yourself: Which side are you on? Climate change is not distant it’s here, it’s real, and it affects us all. Every choice we make either heals the planet or hurts it. 💚 Be part of the solution: ✅ Plant and protect trees ✅ Reduce waste & plastic use ✅ Hold leaders accountable ✅ Support clean energy initiatives ✅ Join community environmental actions ✅ Speak up for climate justice ❌ Stop being part of the problem: ✖ Burning waste ✖ Cutting trees ✖ Polluting water sources ✖ Ignoring environmental laws ✖ Staying silent when nature is destroyed ✨ The future of our planet depends on what we do TODAY. @DKinUganda @NLinUganda @IrlEmbUganda @SwedeninUG #ClimateActionNow #BeTheSolution #ClimateJustice #ActForNature #WestNile #EnvironmentalAccountability

🌿✨ We Are in This Together! ✨🌿 Collaborative Action for Climate Justice in West Nile starts NOW. 💪🌍 When communities rise, leaders engage, and partners unite, real change happens. Together, we can protect our forests, restore our rivers, and build a resilient, greener West Nile. 🔥 Your Action Matters! Plant a tree. Hold leaders accountable. Join community dialogues. Support environmental defenders. Small steps → BIG impact. 💚 Let’s stand up. 💚 Let’s speak out. 💚 Let’s ACT for climate justice for our people and our future. @DKinUganda @NLinUganda @IrlEmbUganda @SwedeninUG @FriendsofZoka @ACEMP_UG @CSBAGUGANDA @ceforduganda #ClimateJustice #WestNile #ActForClimate #CollaborativeAction #GreenFuture #TogetherWeCan

Held a linkage meeting with CSOs, local government, & private sector in Dzaipi Sub County to identify livelihood options that reduce reliance on forest resources to promote sustainable development. @DKinUganda @IrlEmbUganda @SwedeninUG @NLinUganda @RICEWestNile @ACEMP_UG

Rooting for Reduce, Reuse, Recycle ♻️, hosted awareness radio session on waste management with Pachara & Adjumani Town Council. addressing landfill care,waste sorting, health risks,&urgency to adopt 3R principles.@DKinUganda @IrlEmbUganda @SwedeninUG @NLinUganda @RICEWestNile

We spent the week joining lower local government budget conferences in @adjumani_dlg: Pachara, Ukusijoni, Pakelle & Dzaipi advocating for more resources allocation towards Environment & Climate Action. 🌿💧@DKinUganda @IrlEmbUganda @SwedeninUG @NLinUganda @RICEWestNile

Conducted a joint monitoring visit with stakeholders from Pachara Sub County & Adjumani Town Council at Unna Village landfill, the main disposal site for Adjumani Town. Stakeholders committed to immediate actions to enhance site management.♻️ 🇩🇰🇮🇪🇸🇪🇳🇱 @RICEWestNile

Community dialogue: Host and Refugee communities in Adjumani district are rooting for a tight fraternal relationships to produce more food whilst supporting Environmental conservation. This mutual arrangement will see, the hosts allot more land for Refugees to grow food to supplement their food ration, while growing Trees in the same plots-to repair degradation and meet long term energy needs. @DKinUganda @IrlEmbUganda @NLinUganda @SwedeninUG @RICEWESTNILE @OPMUganda 🇺🇬🇩🇰🇮🇪🇳🇱🇸🇪

Dialogue:- Communities in Adjumani district are finding a middle ground in hernesing Non-Timber Forest products(NTFPs) for a long term benefits in place of:- total Timber cutting, charcoal burning & Logging. @DKinUganda @IrlEmbUganda @NLinUganda @SwedeninUG 🇩🇰🇮🇪🇳🇱🇸🇪 @RICEWESTNILE

Happening Now! Defenders Protection Initiative (DPI), through the Land and Environmental Defenders Task Force (LEDTAF), is hosting a Focus Group Discussion with land and environmental rights defenders. The session is gathering critical experiences, challenges, and policy recommendations to shape a research paper and policy brief for the ongoing review of Uganda’s National Land Policy (2013). This conversation is key to building inclusive, just, and people-centered land governance frameworks. #LandRightsUG #EnvironmentalDefenders #NationalLandPolicy #LEDTAFUG #ProtectLandDefenders

Live from @RadioAmani in Adjumani this #InternationalMotherEarthDay, we dove deep into the power of community in protecting our environment. From indigenous knowledge to local clean-ups and youth action, the future is in our hands. Let’s #ActLocalThinkGlobal and stand together for Mother Earth! #EarthDay2025 #RadioAmani #CommunityForThePlanet

Earth Day recognizes the Earth as humanity’s home& giver of livelihoods, counter Climate Change, & stop collapse of biodiversity Mother Earth is signaling a call to ACTION now. ⁦⁦@DKinUganda⁩ ⁦@SwedeninUG⁩ ⁦@IrlEmbUganda⁩ ⁦@NLinUganda⁩ 🇩🇰🇮🇪🇳🇱🇸🇪🌍

Cross frontier illicit trade in Forest product is a threat to biodiversity-the vice is a drawback to conservation efforts in WestNile region neighboring restive regions of South Sudan &DR.Congo.📰👇🏿 monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/na…

Today 21 March, 2025, is International Day of Forests, Theme: ‘Forests & Food’, the day highlights the critical role Forests play in supporting food Security to sustain life, Forests is an economic and food lifeline providing up to 20% of family income enhancing diets.⁦

ANNOUNCEMENT!.📢 We are topping up your Editorial budget for that compelling Environment&Energy story pitch, only for Journalists Working within WestNile. Send in your story pitch before: Fri 28 March, 2025.

Happy International Women’s Day. All through this Women’s Month, we celebrate those courageous& outstanding Women serving their communities through conservation. #Accelerate Action

Meanwhile in the neighboring Itirikwa SC. there is an upsurge in the number of Charcoal Trucks/Motorcycle, the supposed anti-Charcoal Army Check point located at Waka corner on the contrary is fully enabling Charcoal trade-recently the community in itirikwa tenaciously trailed and impounded a Truck ferrying logs from *Ebi’aaro* area, the Truck was escorted to Adjumani district headquarter where it vanished.

The community also documented two Kampala destined Bus Companies involved in transportation of Charcoal from Ukusijoni area I.e. Crown Bus and Trinity Bus.@DeoAkiiki

Documented: 21 Motorcycles ferrying Charcoal from Kulu-Kulu & Ayiri Central villages in Ukusijoni SC, to collection points in Adjumani town each of the 21 Motorcycles move 4 times btn Ukusijoni & Adjumani town daily carrying at least 3 bags of Charcoal.⁦@MODVA_UPDF⁩ ⁦⁦