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• Unique partnership to develop rural Uganda
• 1/10/2008

A unique example of co-operation between a foreign investor and a local Ugandan community to develop the impoverished rural countryside was unveiled in Bugiri on Monday 25 August 2008 when Honourable Kasule Lumumba Justine, the woman MP of Bugiri District, officially opened a new double classroom block at Nsavu Primary School in Budhaya sub- county, Bugiri District.

The classroom block was commissioned in a colourful traditional ceremony full of singing and dancing and packed with district officials and politicians.  It is an example of the pro-active approach to corporate social responsibility taken by The New Forests Company (NFC) that stresses partnership between the private sector and rural communities based on participation and ownership. The active involvement of the parents and the community mobilizing for bricks and other local building materials is absolutely vital to the project which is then supplemented by NFC’s contribution of  the remaining Uganda Shillings 27 Million (Ugx 27,000,000).

“These projects cannot succeed and be sustainable unless the community mobilises and contributes considerably so that, at the end of the day, they feel ownership over the project and will therefore look after it,” said Julian Ozanne, Chief Executive Officer of NFC. 

The Nsavu Primary School project is one of many NFC social projects implemented as part of its progressive business model; the company engages in many different community development projects in partnership with the communities adjacent to its tree plantations, specifically in education, healthcare, and income generation.  Other notable projects include a new secondary school built from scratch for 1,000 students in Mubende district and opened this year; four shallow wells for clean water and sanitation; three other double classroom blocks and  water tanks for primary schools, one day care centre for orphans and vulnerable children, HIV/AIDS awareness for labourers, support to local immunisation programmes, promotion of energy conserving stoves, and giving away over 600,000 seedlings.

The company’s widespread and well respected community development programme was one of the reasons HE President Museveni gave the company an Investor of Year award earlier this year.
At the opening ceremony Honourable Justine gave an inspiring speech as the Guest of Honour, emphasizing the importance of education and encouraging children to fulfil their potential.  Other notable speeches included Mr. Sirage Lyavala Samanya, Bugiri’s LC5 Chairman.  Nsavu Primary School now has six (06) permanent classrooms and nine (09) teachers for its 861 pupils. 
The New Forests Company is also operating in Mubende and Kiboga districts in Uganda, as well as Mozambique and Tanzania.  NFC is currently planting trees which the company will use to process and sell high quality, value-added timber products to the local and regional markets.

For more information or to get original high quality digitial photographs, please contact Ms. Meredith Bates, Corporate Responsibility Manager, The New Forests Company, at or   +256 753 957 708.

Honourable Kasule Lumumba Justine, Mr. Sirage ___, and New Forests Company Executives listen to one of the speeches.