The Ruwenzori Foundation is a registered charity set up in 2004 with the aim of using art and culture as a means of positive development. Environmental restoration and community health have been the focus of our efforts, alongside the construction and running of an Arts Centre, Gallery and Sculpture Trail, with Sculpture residencies held regularly. The local community is supported through employment, road building and by bringing in a clean water supply. Healthcare is enabled by collaboration with Rwenzori Health Foundation. The on-site clinic is expanding from its shipping container start to new buildings, thanks to a generous private donation.
The Foundation’s land climbs 300 feet into the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains on 80 acres of land in Kyemihoko Village, ten kilometres north of Kasese, Western Uganda.
Art
Based around a lost-wax foundry, the Arts Centre holds regular residencies with Ugandan and international artists; sculptures in wood, stone, marble and steel as well as bronzes are made and exhibited on site. The craftsmen and women are trained in the necessary skills and exhibitions held regularly in our on-site award-winning gallery, designed by Kilburn Nightingale Architects.
Environment
Eighteen years ago, the Foundation had degraded cotton fields and only a few remaining indigenous trees with an impoverished bird count of only fifty species. Now a thriving woodland and forest is home to 207 species of birds, clouds of butterflies, over 30 reptiles and a growing list of mammals re-populating the rewilded 80 acres of Foundation land. Further initiatives involving the community and immediate neighbours will more than double the acreage and regular ecological surveys document the biodiversity recovery.
Health
The original clinic was established almost two decades ago, in partnership with Ruwenzori Health Foundation UK. Shipping containers formed the basic accommodation with a dedicated staff managing to provide a high level of care with limited resources. A generous donation has enabled the construction of a forty bed cottage hospital. Phase one of the hospital has been achieved with the purchase of land, road construction, electrical supply and water supply. Phase two has secured the site, built wards, operating theatre, consultation rooms, accident and emergency, x-ray, scanning and administration rooms. In the next phase medical equipment will be brought in and staff at all levels recruited. We will seek to forge links with other health providers and medical experts in Uganda and further afield.
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