Spotlight – Activities at the Walukuba Community Centre
In Uganda, the project came to an agreement with Jinja City Council in 2024 to take over for three years a community centre that had been largely moribund for over a decade due to lack of funds.
Renovation
The first task was to renovate as the space had become very dilapidated. Water and electricity supplies were upgraded and reconnected, the broken bits of the fence were repaired as were many small broken panes of glass and a leaking ceiling was patched up.
Bigger jobs were the commissioning of new gates so that we could keep the Centre secure and a complete overhaul of the toilet facilities for both men and women, including installing new showers.
Community members came together to volunteer in repainting the entire outside of the main hall and under the guidance of artist, Raymond Nsereko, local youth designed and painted new signage for the Centre.
Community Activities
In consultation with the Walukuba community, and taking into account the availability of local artist-teachers, we came up with a range of activities that take place weekly in the community.
Breakdance
These weekend sessions for youth are led by local dancer of increasing international fame, Siraj Koloto and members of his Ensibuko Dance Ensemble.
Traditional dance
Busoga dance is tremendously popular with our local community, though it is mostly girls who seem interested in performing. We have worked with a range of local teachers for our regular weekend sessions.
Choir
The Walukuba Community Choir is run by local man, singer and musician, Derick Isabirye. The intergenerational group sing a variety of kinds of songs, some written by Derick specially for the group.
Film Making Club
Run in conjunction with our friendly neighbouring secondary school, Masese Seed, sessions are run every Thursday evening. The teachers are again Derick who trained in film production in Kenya, and our very own Project Manager in Uganda, Brenda Mawerere. We use mobile phone technology – with some added gizmos – and the students create short films following their interests.
Girls’ Football Club
Coached by Brenda Mawerere, who used to play for Uganda, our growing girls’ football club is a space to challenge entrenched patriarchal ideas and give girls an athletic opportunity.
Badminton
In 2025 we got our hall marked out for badminton and have begun a beginners club, coached by Masese Seed School headteacher and national squad player, Aisha.
School Holiday Art Club
There are three main holidays in the Uganda school system and very little is organised for youth during these. We now run regular free programmes where over a six day period, young people sign up to take part in intensive workshops.
For dance, music and film these are run by the same teachers who facilitate our weekly programme, but we also bring in via our project partners Arts Applied Uganda, Raymond Nsereko to teach art and Lillian Mbabazi to lead on theatre activity.
