ABOUT Kimanya-ngeyo
Kimanya-Ngeyo Foundation for Science and Education is a registered local nongovernmental organization founded in Jinja, Uganda, in 2007. The organization aims to contribute to the social and economic development of the country by strengthening the capacity of communities to act as protagonists in improving their own material and social conditions.
In the prominent language families of Uganda, Bantu and Nilotic, the words “kimanya” and “ngeyo” hold similar meanings—knowledge, understanding, enlightenment. As its name suggests, Kimanya-Ngeyo Foundation holds the firm conviction that access to knowledge is at the heart of development. The organization thus strives to empower local populations, especially youth, to assume ownership of, and engage meaningfully in, the process of applying, generating, systematizing, and disseminating knowledge. More specifically, a knowledge that benefits from the latest advances in modern science while respecting and tapping into local knowledge, one that is relevant to local realities and embedded in practice, and which responds to the true aspirations of rural and peri-urban communities for prosperity and progress.
With this vision guiding its efforts, Kimanya-Ngeyo Foundation is currently engaged in three main lines of action in the districts of Buikwe, Jinja and Kamuli. The first, Preparation for Social Action program, seeks to raise “promoters of community well-being” who are assisted in progressively developing a set of interrelated capabilities necessary to advance various processes of community life. The second is an action-research program in the area of agriculture that seeks to build the technological and scientific capacities of farmers while searching together with them for sustainable systems of production, especially on small farms. Finally, the organization’s teacher training program seeks to contribute to the professional development of local primary and secondary school teachers and, over time, to the transformation of entire school communities.
