About me:
My name is Anthony, a farmer in Kamuli, eastern Uganda.
I have never been into crypto, but this August (2024) is when I thought it was probably time for me to engage w/ crypto, because necessity is the mother of intervention.
My own life has been a real mess. But what bothers me most, is the level of poverty in my region as whole.
Some context… before COVID-19 came, the World Bank said (in 2019), that 70% of the extreme poor in Sub Saharan Africa were packed in only 10 countries — and Uganda was among those ten. Even among those 10 countries, according to the World Bank, Uganda still had the sluggishiest (i.e., the slowest) poverty reduction rate overall, as shown in this graph.
Even in Uganda, my region Busoga, which has long been the poorest in eastern Uganda, has since 2017 doubled as the poorest not just in eastern Uganda, but also nationally.
In 2023, The Monitor, a Ugandan local daily, said: “Busoga is the sub-region with most people living in a complete poverty cycle followed by Bukedea and Karamoja. This is according to findings by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics”.
Even in Busoga, our two neighboring districts Kamuli & Buyende, being the furthermost, remotest area of Busoga on the shores of Lake Kyoga, have the least economic activity, and are arguably Busoga’s most destitute.
Meaning: while Uganda as a country is the very last in Sub Saharan Africa in terms of poverty reduction rate (per the World bank), our region Busoga is the worst in Uganda, and even in Busoga, our 2 neighboring districts Kamuli & Buyende, being the remotest, are clearly the poorest.
This, coupled with my own lifelong battle with ultra poverty, is what makes me want to use my remaining time on earth to do my part on poverty. I am also founder of the Uganda Community Farm, or the UCF, a nonprofit social enterprise that aims to end extreme poverty.