By Michael Anguria, 2025 Africa Zero Waste Participant
“This is not just a fight for zero waste – it is a fight for Justice, for Dignity and Life itself. This is why GAIA Africa’s Zero Waste Academy 2025 was the best place for me to connect with like-minded individuals who share my passion for the environment, climate justice, and social change”.
My name is Michael Anguria, from Uganda. In 1992, as a young man, I lived in Ngora camp because of the displacement from war. In the heart of gunfire and landmines, the camp was littered with human faeces, plastic and kaveera waste with dead bodies decaying and smelling without being buried. Diseases like dysentery and diarrhoea became prevalent, which killed many children, pregnant mothers and those living with Non-Communicable Diseases like Pressure and Diabetes. There were no pit latrines, and yet you had over 100,000 people living in the camp with no proper housing and sanitation facilities, resulting in the deaths of many people.
There was a terrible stench from lagoons of water that had collected in the camp, with a horrifying smell from plastic bottles, food wastes, kaveera, human faeces, and dead bodies, which attracted many mosquitoes and flies. There were no waste pickers in the camps, resulting in water and air pollution and environmental degradation. There were skirmishes of fire and battles between Government soldiers and the rebels, which resulted in poor social delivery and rights abuses and violations were committed by both.
Emotionally, psychologically, I found myself growing in hardship, with trauma and horrendous experiences. Having survived this, I told myself that I must establish an organisation that is dedicated to helping people in the situations of hardship like war, and empower formal waste pickers and collectors, fight for peace, justice, land and environmental rights, artisanal miners surface rights, waste pickers rights, advocate for Environment and Climate Justice, rights and health of the marginalised and underprivileged persons like waste pickers and collectors. This gave birth to SAF-TESO in 2009, dedicated to environmental protection and sustainability.
After experiencing such unbearable circumstances in my life, there is yet another great enemy we must all fight: Climate Change. It has exerted immense suffering on the people across the planet, and a poor country like Uganda is witnessing gross limitations from this global enemy because Uganda has allowed high levels of plastic pollution, kaveera and deforestation.
SAF-TESO is now focused on climate resilient practices on empowerment and capacity building on essential waste skill building development practices like waste collection, sorting, segregation and composting to make organic fertilisers and black soldier fly, training waste pickers and vulnerable populations on first aid simulation exercises for disaster risk reduction, and small holder farmers empowered on early warning systems.
At SAF-Teso, we are cognizant of environmental sustainability and community engagement, focusing on climate-smart agriculture, climate mobility, and communication through research and data-driven decision-making, stories, articles and blogs, advocacy, and climate education to foster a mindset shift and attitude change toward environmental sustainability.
Our vision for social impact now is empowering waste pickers and collectors to create zero-waste villages and all communities for Teso and Karamoja with emphasis on the adoption of improved cook stoves to reduce deforestation and promotion of innovation for recycling and reuse to reduce waste in landfills and dumping sites to achieve clean homes and a circular economy.
GAIA’s in-person Zero Waste Academy Participant Training in Durban, South Africa, from 7-11 July, was a blueprint and growth engine for turning SAF-Teso into social change, where bridge builders, social entrepreneurs, and change-makers like me can turn their visions into reality.
GAIA Training amplified my efforts to accelerate sustainable development by equipping me with knowledge, skills, and tools to solve problems, by modifying SAF-TESO solutions, and by improving my leadership abilities through mentorship, to create long-lasting social change.
Joining GAIA Zero Waste In person training in Durban was provided me with a springboard of diverse knowledge and opportunities for meeting social change makers for long-term networking and collaboration which can bring funding to SAF-TESO to implement its vision on global scale and this, can be achieved through storytelling, writing and publishing zero waste stories, blogs and articles which will in turn bring sustainable development for Uganda and beyond.
This is not just a fight for zero waste – it is a fight for Justice, for Dignity and Life itself. This is why GAIA Africa’s Zero Waste Academy 2025 was the best place for me to connect with like-minded individuals who share my passion for the environment, climate justice, and social change.
The GAIA Zero Academy training was a fantastic opportunity to enhance my leadership skills through tools and resources that will help transform my work into long-lasting social change in Environment and Climate Justice, which is currently far from reality in Uganda.
The current environment and climate justice lacuna in policies, laws, and frameworks could be addressed in Uganda through many more opportunities to collaborate with GAIA Zero Waste Academy. I have developed insights that lead to significant success through long-term learning, adaptation, and skill development. The GAIA Academy training provided me with opportunities to build strategic collaborations, as it has many systems to leverage digital technology.
Therefore, it is a place for bridge builders of nations, social change makers, and entrepreneurs like me who drive mindset shifts to build a pipeline of success, accelerating business models, innovative ideas, and strategies that will support my mission and organisation’s vision for environment and climate justice, alongside sustainable development.
GAIA Zero Waste Academy is a life journey to gain collective wisdom and a unique environment to connect with like-minded individuals who share my passion for social change. It serves as a nexus with expert knowledge to drive meaningful change in environmental and climate justice in Uganda.
I sincerely thank the GAIA Team for supporting SAF-TESO in realising our Vision of a Zero-waste journey.
ENDS.
