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CrayFish, a fish specie in form of a scorpion is caught in Lake Rutoto formerly known as ‘Nkugute’ located in Rubirizi District along Bushenyi-Kasese Road.

The lake shaped like a map of Africa, is one of the mysterious fifty-two crater lakes in Queen Elizabeth National Park, according to Asiimwe Sowedi, a fisherman at Nkugute, the lake is situated beneath mountains like Kantungu, Maramagambo, Rwemitagu, and Ruraama.

Asiimwe says this type of fish is the most common in the lake apart from Tilapia and other types of fish which Asiimwe and others rely on and are able to raise at least Sh20,000 on a good day of fishing under their fisheries Group called Engaara.

According to Erisa Arinaitwe, the Assistant Fisheries Officer at Rutoto Sub-County, the CrawFish is a delicious product highly consumed by Asians in Uganda and a few Ugandans.

“CrayFish is highly consumed by the Chinese in Kampala, it survives in swampy and isolated areas with cold water, and has so far been discovered in Lake Bunyonyi and Lake Nkugute. It has a potential market in Asian countries like China, Korea, Japan Malaysia among others,” he said.

However, there is still a lot of research being carried out by the government on this fish specie. It seems the crayfish quite like it in Africa because they multiplied into East Africa.

In the Lake Bunyonyi area, they actually left the locals a little overwhelmed. They aren’t part of the traditional diet, they were initially just seen as a nuisance & only used as an abundant source of livestock feed or fish bait.

Commonly known as the Louisiana crayfish and also known as the red swamp, the crayfish, according to the National Geographic News, are widely distributed in lakes and other bodies of water throughout Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, and Egypt, Zambia, Seychelles, and Mauritius.

As part of connecting with communities, Bravo Shoes Community Support Organization always tours different areas of where our children come from, to appreciate the beauty of Uganda and also train our children to connect with nature and appreciate life and our environment.

By Author Yesigye Brian

We didn’t know that Sam Bright Muhindo is an ardent fan and a player of Ludo. It is a board game in which players advance counters by throwing dice. He couldn’t help going back to one of his favorite games after catching up with hommies playing the game.

The popularity of Ludo is only compared to football, in Bwera, Sam and his oldies could afford a real blue dice and the rest was a piece of box paper with a pen drawn lines numbered in ascending order, 1 to 5 and 16 plastic bottles for all the players.

As Sam was winding up his game, his siblings were into the last phases of organizing to go to Atlas Modal Primary School, thanks to Ben Gavin. Sam’s siblings Ronnet Bambu 12 and Brighton Bwambale  3 year -old boy got the opportunity to step into school thanks to Sam’s popularity.

At their home, before they could set off, Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation founder, Yesigye Brian Bravo called for support from all the organization’s followers to come on board to support Sam’s family.

“We plan to construct a very nice simple house for Sam’s family and we would wish to come back here when Sam and his siblings have a house better than this every time they come back from school,” he announced.

Inside the house, Sam was busy taking his sister and young brother into hygiene lessons and going through all the school materials sponsored by Ben Gavin. The materials included suitcases, blankets, bedsheets, school bags, new clothes, Ariel, shoe polish, tooth blushes, and detergents.

Others included a mattress, a bucket, sandals, a mosquito net, bars of soap, uniforms, and a pair of Bravo Shoes.

In the queue was Raymond Thembo 12, who Muhindo blessed with a chance to go back to school and also checked in at Atlas Modal Primary School.

According to Biira Juliet, Thembo is Muhindo’s best friend and the two used to go and dance at village weddings.

“Am so thankful for Sam Bright, he chose his friend because they normally go out to dance at weddings. I also thank Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation for giving us this opportunity, I am over the moon,” she said.

Upon reaching the school, Muhindo, his siblings, and a friend Thembo were welcomed with a dancing challenge.

The Head Teacher, Zephania Muhindo received his new students with a promise to improve them by giving them the best.

We wish them all the best in their education!

By Author Yesigye Brian

Meet Itungo Sylvia, the mother of the popular Sam Bright Muhindo, a six-year-old dancing sensation discovered by Bravo Shoes Community Support Organization.

Itungo is a 35-year-old mother of 9 children aged between 2 years – 19 years with 6 older girls and 3 young boys, which include Muhindo. When asked if she is still interested in giving birth to another child, it was a yes and no answer.

She became a mother at the age of 14  and her firstborn is 19 years. She knows no hospital when it comes to giving birth despite having a nearby Karambi Health Centre 3, a walkable distance nearby.

Her firstborn is somewhere in Kampala working as a housemaid, she can’t exactly tell where she is and hardly hears from her due to lack of a phone, she says but surely, how could she if she has tonnes of loads back home, she has a baby, siblings and the stress to earn a living. This makes Sam’s mother a grandmother already at the age of 35.

To understand the plight of a woman in Bwera, Kasese Western Uganda at the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), let me introduce to you Itungo Sylvia, Maama Sam Bright Muhindo’s survival instincts.

Out of the ten women the Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation team interacted with, six aged from 25 to 30-years-old had more than 5 children and could not afford to take care of them. Four out of the ten women, one could only afford to take care of at least 1 of their children and the rest of the children rely on their own fate or when luck strikes.

The Girl Child

Some of the school-going children aged 15 and 16 we talked to, expressed fear of the blurred future and diminishing chances of staying in school. In the same community, there are girls of the above age breastfeeding while pregnant while others below that age hawk merchandise like sugarcanes and boiled eggs within the town.

Biira Evelyn is a 13-years-old student of Quality Model School, she wakes up as early as 6:00 Am to fetch water from the nearby borehole a few kilometers away, according to Biira, she goes to the borehole at 6:00 Am and returns home at 8:00 Am with her jerry can be stacked with a cloth on her forehead before she goes to school. It may take her another 1 hour to reach school.

“It is easier to climb with a jerry can on the head than using bare hands, you easily get tired with your hands,” she said referring to the mountains that can’t allow them to use their hands much often within their location.

It is estimated that Bakonzo women carry loads between 30kgs to 35kgs on their foreheads and move several kilometers as they hawk merchandise to earn a living.

Then Biira Naome, a 15-year-old Primary six student at Nyabugando Primary School has a similar experience, it takes hours for her to reach school which is kilometers away from home.

“Most of my friends are married off because our mothers cannot afford to raise school fees,” she narrates.

A Pick in Maama Sam’s daily life

It’s a Friday 8:00 Am, Maama Sam treks about 8 kilometers to the Market place after crossing the border to Lubiliha market which is the main business hub that serves over 2,000 people from  5 districts in Uganda and DRC every Friday Market Day.

Maama Sam hawks salted fish fillets and skins on which she earns between Ush2,500 to Ush5,000. According to her, on a good day, her profits are saved in their saving group called Twanzane Group in which they share their money at the end of the year before Christmas.

“I save my profits in the group saving whereby each member receives her share at the beginning of December. However, I have spent 3 months without saving because I don’t have capital. I Am hired to do hawking and I receive a commission at the end of the day,” she says.

According to Maama Sam, if she ever gets capital, she would be able to save her profits and get a reasonable amount of money she would save.

The group which has 30 members meets every Saturday and could raise at least Ushs3 million a year.

“To receive a loan from the group, it depends on how much you have on your account in the saving group,” she explained.

At Lubiliha market where Maama Sam works, the popular businesses range from money changing, smuggling, salted fish fillet, fish skins, locally made palm oil, and salted silverfish got from Lake George and Edward among other lakes.

Maama Sam and others assemble and pack tonnes of the smoked Fish which is later exported to DRC.

According to Baluku Gregory, one of the leaders with the title Market Master, this market belongs to Uganda, it can host over 2,000 people daily (mostly women) and more than 200 trucks transporting fish to Congo.

Sam’s father Katsumbyo Julius usually works as a storekeeper or a carrier of logs full of fish fillets and smoked skins. According to Katsumbyo, each full bag packed can cost Ush3,000 on a good day, and packing each bag at Ushs2,500 only.

Maama Sam and her husband Katsumbyo paint a wide picture of the community in Bwera, a family with many children of school-going age but they struggle to take care of their children.

Some of the women and men we talked to point out mainly poverty due to a lack of casual work to support their immediate families. Others point out laziness and alcoholism among men as driving factors.

By Author Yesigye Brian

It has been a progressive journey, full of transformation and emotional reconciliation, beating cultural shocks and many social barricades, settling with alien communities in school among others, and breaking jinxes in the small periods of time have made the dancing icon a bright star in the dark clouds.

Your own, Sam Bright Muhindo has been unveiled as the reigning Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation Ambassador, and his main role is to champion education among the communities in the Rwenzori territory and across the entire country.

According to the masses across the world, Muhindo has broken the jinx and he has surely given education the real meaning following his faster transformation and the ability to prove to the world that education is worth anything.

Rightly, his Baby Class teachers Nambusi Sharon and Cherengat Juliet of Namuwaya Education Centre predicted well when they said he could make a “Great” leader therefore it is not surprising that the prophecy has come to pass.

“He is a bright boy!… He came in the middle of the term but he picked up very fast. He is so friendly, he interacts with fellow learners very well. What I see, he has leadership skills,” said Cherengat.

Kasese District is one of the districts in the Rwenzori Region with schools in hard-to-reach areas because most parts of the district are largely mountainous with many lakes and rivers, making access to social services such as schools and hospitals difficult.

Muhindo will steer the role to champion parents to take his friends back to school. In his role as an ambassador, at the launch which took place at his home in Kyasenda. Sam Bright took the saying, “A candle loses nothing by lighting another, he chose two of his friends Muhindo Boaz and another. However, taking the two of them was not possible and the latter took the lottery.

Meanwhile, it is not the end of the road for Boaz as Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation is inviting any willing well-wisher to further light the hope of Muhindo Boaz.

Muhindo on his First Tour as an Ambassador

Fast-backward, before taking the ambassadorial role, Sam Bright Muhindo was all over key strategic tourist areas taking a tour on his route to Kasese. His first stop was the Equator, Muhindo could not hide his curiosity upon reaching Kayabwe on Masaka Road.

Uganda is one of the few countries around the globe where the equator runs through zero degrees from the East to the West.

The next stop was the lake shaped like a map of Africa, Lake Rutoto formerly Nkugute is located in Rubirizi District along Bushenyi-Kasese Road. One of the mysterious 52 crater lakes in Queen Elizabeth National Park, according to Asiimwe Sowedi, a fisherman at Nkugute, the lake is situated beneath mountains like Kantungu, Maramagambo, Rwemitagu, and Rulama.

Asiimwe brought crub like crow fish which he said is only found in this lake apart from Tilapia and other types of fish which Asiimwe and others rely on and are able to raise at least Sh20,000 on a good day of fishing.

Muhindo could not hide his excitement as he made a stop-over to share a memorable moment at the Africa-shaped lake before he proceeded to Kazinga Channel, the link between Lake George and Lake Albert, and went through Queen Elizabeth National Park until our final destination.