Bulungi Bwansi: “For the Good of the Earth”

Action in Africa provided and planted tree seedlings in four different primary partnership program schools, increasing awareness about the need to protect and care about the environment in Bulungi Bwansi.

Luganda, the most commonly spoken language in Uganda, has a phrase “Bulungi Bwansi.” The phrase is directly translated into English to mean “For the Good of the Earth.” Bulungi Bwansi is not simply a phrase but a tradition that requires community members to participate in activities that are intended to ensure that their environment remains safe and clean for their continued survival. This tradition stretches hundreds of years back. Traditionally, the king would schedule a day in a month or a year when community members would come together to clean wells, slash bushes and clear their homes and compounds of any waste.

Action in Africa has been part of the Nakuwadde community for nearly 20 years now, in one way or the other, supporting and empowering women and children through education. Over these years we have also learnt and adopted the spirit of Bulungi Bwansi. In the last few years, our community engagement team has organised community clean-ups where we have provided cleaning equipment, and our staff and students have joined the residents of the Nakuwadde community in extensive community cleanups. Recently we partnered with the Nakuwadde community leaders and swept, and dredged drainage channels and collected all rubbish, especially plastics for proper disposal by the community cleaning authorities.

We are glad that this community idea of caring for the earth has been extended by the students who visit the centre and those we support through our scholarship program. We recently wrote to you about the secondary school students at Mbazzi Secondary School who have created the Friends of the Environment club in their school which plants trees and distributes trash cans for proper waste disposal. The University Scholarship Students also took action by organising a community clean-up of their own in the community. These students carry out all of these actions because they have been raised to know that the Earth is their responsibility and they should act for its good.

These activities aim to get everyone to care and be reminded of their responsibility towards this pale blue dot that we call home. Having young people in primary, secondary schools or even universities caring about the good of their environment shall make it easier for them to end the use of fossil fuels or unhealthy greenhouse gas emissions when they grow up and attain positions of authority, or at least demand for it now that they know the threat that the climate crisis poses. This is why the value of Bulungi Bwansi is and shall continue to be important to us. Happy Earth Day!