Next year, solar ovens will appear in the Ugandan market, and a new manufacturing plant will be launched in January, thanks to the entrepreneurship of Ugandan-American businessman Ronald Mutebi. After his company won $100,000 in the African Diaspora Marketplace, a competition sponsored by Western Union and USAID, Mutebi has piloted an assembly plant in Uganda to produce the ovens, which will be sold initially at $170 each. The parts come from Sun Ovens International, an American company based in Illinois.

The ovens are made with reflectors of anodized aluminum, which do not rust, a plastic outer shell, an aluminum inner shell, as well as fiberglass insulation. The ovens are produced in the U.S. but used around the world, including 100 developing countries. The ovens will benefit from the frequent sunshine in Uganda, and one oven can feed a family of eight. A solar oven, created by Sun Ovens. Mutebi’s passion and concern over deforestation in Uganda was a major factor in wanting to start a business that will produce and distribute the solar ovens. Ugandans who use the ovens will not need firewood or charcoal, both of which have caused the loss of tropical forests throughout Uganda.

“Uganda, as well as Africa as a whole, is losing its forest cover at an alarming rate, primarily due to fuel for cooking,” Mutebi told Ugandans Abroad. “This is what especially the population at the bottom of the pyramid rely on for their daily survival. Deforestation and its impact to global warming mean nothing, because to them it’s a matter of eating or not.” Mutebi became involved with the solar ovens when he learned about them at a Rotary International Conference in 2004. The inventor of the solar ovens, Tom Burns, is a longtime Rotary member, and Rotary runs solar oven projects on five continents. “Everyone who has seen the performance of the Sun Oven wants to get one,” Mutebi said.

The entrepreneur is from the Buganda region of Uganda, and is the nephew of the Kabaka, Ronald L. Muwenda Mutebi. He was raised just outside of Kampala, and attended Kasubi Family Primary and Mengo Senior Secondary. He went to Makerere University for undergraduate education, and followed his college degree with an additional degree in accounting in Kampala. He started his own custom metal fabrication business in 1997. He left Uganda to pursue further studies in the U.S. at Chicago’s Loyola University in 1999, and has a home in Chicago today. He is very involved with the Ugandan community in Chicago, and likes to play football with the Chicago Cranes, their diaspora team.

Since 1999, Mutebi’s perception of his culture and motherland has changed a great deal. “Before I travelled outside my culture to leave the country, you could not show me the wealth of my culture and heritage,” he said. “You know, the feeling of the grass being greener on the other side of the fence. But now, after living in the United States for over ten years, I am a big advocate for celebrating our culture in the diaspora.” Today, he runs the Tek Consults Group, a Chicago-based consulting group that helps professionals and companies do business in East Africa, and which won the $100,000 grant from the African Diaspora Marketplace to launch the solar ovens in Uganda. In addition to the Tek Consults Group, Mutebi also started the Ugandan American Global Initiatives, which coordinates and harmonizes humanitarian activities back home with American friends he has developed over the years in the U.S. At the end of the day, for Mutebi, being a Ugandan that lives in America is all about opportunities, challenges, and expectations.

“Opportunity is the fact that I live in the West, and can have many guarantees to the basic necessities of life,” he said. “Challenge in the fact that the many resources and opportunities cannot easily be transferred home. And expectation of the people left home that things just happen to you because you live in the West.” This festive season, demand for the solar ovens is keeping Mutebi busy—he’s traveled all over Uganda, working on the project. Once production is in place, he plans to split his time fifty-fifty between Uganda and the United States. He says that it feels great to be home, “but these days it is hard to tell where my home is.” Mutebi says that at least 1,000 individuals in Uganda have expressed interest in purchasing the ovens.

“Everyone who has seen the performance of the Sun Oven wants to get one,” Mutebi told Ugandans Abroad. “This is regardless of gender, class, or educational background.” Ronald Mutebi, near the White House in Washington, D.C. In November, Mutebi did a demonstration of the solar oven to Vice-President Gilbert Bukenya. “In a few minutes of seeing the oven cook and the temperatures that it was accumulating, he literally pulled out his wallet and paid in U.S. dollars for four ovens to be delivered to his country home,” Mutebi said.

“Overall, there has been a tremendously positive reception of the ovens not only in Uganda, but in all other countries where the ovens have been tested.” Ultimately, Western Union and USAID gave $1.4 million in grants to fourteen businesses, all run by Africans in the diaspora. 700 African immigrants applied, and 90 were selected as finalists. Judges looked for businesses that tapped into botht he knowledge of Africans in the diaspora and their local partners back home.

Many investors also attended, including representatives from the World Bank. USAID is encouraging its missions around the world to also offer technical expertise to winners in the competition. Mutebi hopes that other Ugandans living abroad will want to start, expand, and invest in businesses back home. “The message is simple. The time to build our continent is now!” he said. “Africa, even in the global depression, is still posting close to six points in growth, compared to the one to two percentage points the West is posting this year. Those who know this are running in droves to be part of the action.”

I could talk about chimpanzees all day,” says Peace Nakitto. Like most people who work with animals, Nakito (fondly nicknamed Mama Zakayo) has immense respect for them and gets sentimental just talking about them. But for her, it is man’s closest relative in particular that stole her heart.

Nakitto, who will most notably be remembered for starting the tradition of celebrating Zakayo’s birthday, leaves behind 10 memorable years at the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC). Zakayo is the oldest chimpanzee living at UWEC.

Nakitto is now Country Co-ordinator for Yebo, a UK-based organization that focuses on using animal-assisted therapy and primate-based learning to support socially and emotionally disadvantaged children in Uganda, South Africa and the UK.

It was founded by Lisa Davies, a primate researcher and child welfare worker after she discovered that chimpanzees react in the same way humans do when traumatized, abused, ill or disabled.

Yebo works with Raising Up Hope, an orphanage in Kampala that takes care of street children who have had abusive and traumatizing upbringings.

Davies collaborated with Nakitto while doing her research in Africa and they’re using their knowledge and experience to help disadvantaged children.

“I love working with children, and animals,” says Nakitto. “The more you understand them, the deeper you grow to love them. Primates and children understand each other. That’s why children are the most prominent visitors at the primate enclosures.

Primates are driven by feelings, just like children. They are always chattering and arguing. A grudge between two members is a quarrel for the whole troop. But chimpanzees have a lot of compassion.

There are a lot of things you could learn just by watching a baby and mother chimpanzee relate. The bond between them is extraordinary. That’s one thing people don’t seem to understand.”

Nakitto is also working with Uganda Reptile Village. “I want to take my knowledge and experience further to help other organizations.

There is little awareness and appreciation for reptiles in Uganda and they don’t receive nearly as much attention. Consequently, many reptile species are vulnerable.

Unlike other creatures that live in protected areas like giraffes in national parks, reptiles live side by side with human beings and, therefore, need more protection. We’re working in conjunction with Nairobi Snake Park to bring on board some of their concepts and ideas.”

Nakitto’s passion for animals and conservation started when she was only a little girl. Her parents had cats and dogs in the home and greatly cared about their welfare.

“If we had to eat, they had to eat. They had needs just like we did and my parents taught us to respect that.” This was in contrast with what she saw outside the home and she was greatly moved. As a little girl, she used to linger around Zakayo’s cage during visits to UWEC.

Throughout her school life, she had taken any opportunity to preach conservation and respect for the welfare of animals. She served as Wildlife Club chairperson, minister of environment and performed other nature-related duties at school.

Though she wanted to do an animal-related course at university, her     father noticed her strength in communication and decided that she was better suited for education or    journalism. She did a Bachelor of Arts in Education.

After university, she started teaching, but kept her dream about working with animals alive. One day, she walked into UWEC and offered to work as a volunteer.

Nakitto continued teaching while working as a volunteer; shoveling poo, feeding the animals and doing whatever else she was assigned to do for six months until she was offered a permanent position.

“For me, it was never about the money, it was about making a difference where I have a passion. Whereas many graduates looked at this kind of work as dirty and unprofessional, I had set my mind to contribute to the growth of UWEC.”

Immediately she walked into the animal cages, she came to the realization that this was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. “I fell in love,” she exclaims. Her 10 years at UWEC were the most eventful of her life.

Saying Goodbye
“Animals can tell that something is wrong. When I went for my farewell, there was an outpouring of      emotion. One of my favorite chimps Sarah, who is also Miss UWEC, gave me a huge goodbye kiss.

Unlike humans who finally forget you,   animals don’t. They show their appreciation every time they see you. I am already missing them. I get goose bumps just thinking about it.

Every day at the centre, there was something new, risky and perhaps even life threatening, but always   entertaining.

One morning at the centre, it was business as usual. I was walking through the shady trees when suddenly; two groups of agitated Vervet monkeys came charging at me.

I prepared for the worst and wondered what I could have done to disturb them. As the scuffle continued, I realized that they were rival groups and I was simply an obstruction.

I stood very still and when they realized that I wasn’t taking sides, they continued with their melee and I walked away.

Another time, these monkeys attacked me for wearing a shirt with a picture of a chimpanzee on it.

Of course the incidences in the chimpanzee enclosure are most unforgettable. There was one chimp that   always washed her feet.

One day, a mischievous tourist threw in a cigar and she crossed her legs and started smoking it. I’ll also miss grooming the mane of Salaama, the friendly lion.