☆The second anniversary of GBN’s foundation!☆

Hello everyone!

Greetings from the Global Bridge Network (GBN)

It has been two years since GBN started.

It is our pleasure to inform you that the projects that were initiated last year have entered the second phase. 

As international support efforts, we have two main projects in Uganda,

’Improvement of Educational Environment for Girls’ with funding from LUSH Japan

and ’EnvironmentProtection and Education’ with funding from the Japan Fund for Global Environment (JFGE). 

Both of these initiatives have been implemented by a local NGO and great partner, SORAK Development Agency. As a result of their tremendous efforts, the projects have successfully made progress. We very much appreciate our partner and all our supporters.

Click on the following link to view our annual activity report for fiscal 2017.

http://globalbridgenetwork.org/images/en_works/H29_Annual_Report_en

Project of 'Improvement of Educational Environment for Girls'

Project of 'Environment of Protection and Education'

The most important point to carry out a project in the field is local people’s ‘needs’.

We believe that our partner, SORAK, well understands their needs since they work so closely with the communities and have already built a relationship of trust. Therefore, the local communities willingly accepted our projects, which leads to positive impacts.  

SORAK's staff

SORAK's CEO, Mr.Muhammad
with GBN's logo

Last time, Hadijah, a local staff member, told me that the project she is implementing as a project manager has been going well and she really enjoys it. The ‘motivation’ of local staff is so important, and I was truly happy to hear that.

Moreover, as a means of promoting international communication, two events called ‘Uganda Night’ and ‘Sanyu!’ were held in collaboration with other partners. 

At ‘Uganda Night,’ we presented GBN’s activities, introduced Uganda’s culture through Ugandan food and drinks as well as provided the opportunities to communicate with Ugandan people who were invited this event. 

At ‘Sanyu!’, African style dance and drums were performed. Both of these events were held with the aim of enabling Japanese people to become familiar with Africa and its beautiful culture.  

We were so happy to see participants smiling and enjoying themselves.

‘Uganda Night’

‘Sanyu!’

Click on the following link to view the report on ‘Uganda Night’.

http://globalbridgenetwork-eng.blogspot.com/2017/08/activity-report-of-uganda-night.html

Click on the following link to view the report on ‘Sanyu!’.

http://globalbridgenetwork-eng.blogspot.com/2017/09/activity-report-of-sanyu.html

In fiscal year 2018, we will continue ongoing projects as well as expand them to reach more areas. We are also planning to hold more events in Japan for everyone to enjoy. 

Although there are a lot of things we want to try, the most important things for us are to do whatever we can really do and continue our current projects. We will proceed step by step, and therefore, we really appreciate your advice and support as GBN moves forward in these endeavors.

Best Regards,

Global Bridge Network

LOVE&GBN

＊GBN's Facebook＊

https://www.facebook.com/globalbridgenetwork/

Activity report of ‘Sanyu’_No2

Hello, everyone! Greetings from GlobalBridge Network（GBN）

Sanyu!_No2 was held at Calabash: African restaurant on June 9^th Sat.

This is the second event of Sanyu! That was held the last August, 2017.

‘Sanyu’ means ‘Happy’ in Luganda, one of the languages spoken in Uganda. Despite of the many challenges such as poverty in Africa, there are so many rich cultures such as dynamic dance, colorful fashion, fashionable craft etc. 

At the Sanyu! event, we mainly aimed at our participants getting that feeling and enjoyment towards the mentioned aspects above.

Calabash: African restaurant in Hamamastu-cho

（Photo：卯月）

A Ugandan traditional costume for the men called 'Kanzu'

A pink girl wearing a Ugandan traditional costume for the women called 'Gomesi' 

and another one wearing an African fabric called 'Kitengi'

（Photo：卯月）

On that day, we had programs like, introducing GBN activities, talking about Uganda’s culture, Q&A session about Uganda, African style dance & drum show, live paint show, and lastly Uganda’s music & dance as all members also joined the stage to participate and enjoy the dancing session.

The event was not only attended by Japanese, but also some few Africans participated making a total of 40 people. We all really enjoyed and warmed up♪

Introducing of GBN’s activities

（Photo：卯月）

Introducing of Uganda’s Culture

（Photo：卯月）

Q＆A Session about Uganda

Here, Mr. Arafat provided an amazing original Quiz 

which many of the members really loved and enjoyed

（Photo：卯月）

Live paint
TEEJ painted by her inspiration
and she also participated in Dance&Drum show as a performer!

Djembe players from African drum class 

led by Mr. Eiichi Hanaoka and his fellow crew.

（Photo：卯月）

African style dance with drum sounds (Djembe)

which was beautifully and enjoyably performed

（Photo：卯月）

Drum performance by Mr. Hanaoka

（Photo：卯月）

Solo dance and drum show 

by dance instructor, Atsuko and drummer Mr. Hanaoka. 

It was just AMAZING.

（Photo：卯月）

Ugandan music and dance session

(Photo：卯月）

They really enjoyed dancing with Ugandan friends

（撮影者：卯月）

All members joined to participate with in the session

（撮影者：卯月）

We would like to take this opportunity to push a bottle of thanks to the following members for the roles they have played towards the Sanyu function. 

To begin with, 
Ms. Atsuko from African style dance/STUDIO BARJARA who supported as the coordinator of this event, 

Mr. Yamaguchi Kosuke from Uganda Diaspora Japan and he helped in event planning and being MC,  

Mr. Eiichi Hanaoka who plays the drum and percussion leading Djembe players from African drum class, 

Ms. TEEJ who performed in the beautiful live painting, 

and importantly, Ugandan friends, Arafat, Raff, Precious who acted as event staff members and as well played a big role in assisting of the event organizers in as afar as cheering and creating an enjoyable atmosphere during the event. 

You are such lovely people. 

Mr. Yamaguchi: MC

（Photo：卯月）

Raff:Translator

（Photo：卯月）

Arafat & Precious:Q&A session

（Photo：卯月）

Former JICA volunteers in Uganda:GBN’s African craft shop

（Photo：卯月）

Finally, we really appreciate all the participants at large and hope all of you enjoyed and felt ‘Sanyu’, the happiness during this event. 

We were so happy to host you all said 'I enjoyed very much!!’

We will plan ‘Sanuy_No3’ or any event in the near future and looking forward to seeing you all ounce again.

Live paint by TEEJ's work

Thank you very much! 

   GBN's Facebook Page is here♪

Report on “Supporting communities of women and youth farmers for accelerated uptake of lemon grass production for environmental protection”

Hello everyone, this is Global Bridge Network (GBN)!

Our report about ‘Environmental protection through expanding lemon grass growing and education in Uganda’ was implemented in the last fiscal year, 2017.

This time, we will report about the final activity in 2017 “Activity 3_Supporting communities of women and youth farmers for accelerated uptake of lemon grass production for environmental protection”.

Monitoring a lemon grass farmer by SORAK

In activity 3, we conducted a procure of supplying lemon grass planting tufts to 200 individual farmers targeting women and youth who trained in lemon grass growing and environmental protection in activity 1. 

We also carried out monthly monitoring (through visiting) to those farmers aiming at giving them advice and information as well as exchange different ideas. 

As a result, high quality- lemon grass has been expanded which helped to prevent soil erosion hence contributing to environmental protection.

　

Supplying of lemon grass planting tufts

More so, SORAK, our partner NGO in Uganda, bought harvested lemon grass from farmers and delivered them to SORAK’s distilling plant to produce lemon grass essential oils.

Delivery of harvested lemon grass

Producing lemon grass essential oil at distiller

Furthermore, the lemon grass (spent grass) was supplied to banana farmers. The spent grass helps them on weed and soil fertility management as a result of decomposition into organic matter such that there is high yield of high quality bananas. Such an efficient recycle!

The banana gardens

Their challenges are poor accessing of these banana gardens during heavy rains due to impassable road conditions. Another one is manual labor of the distillation process really requires much time hence causing delays. Therefore, the distillation plant or factory needs to be electrified so that it can help to reduce on the cost of distillation and number of hours it takes to produce the lemon grass.

Key achievements

1.  All the 200 individuals were procured and supplied with lemon grass planting activities.
2. The monthly monitoring visits have led to production of high quality lemon grass which has led to increased yields of essential oils.                            
3. Increased banana yields from increased use of lemon spent grass. Here the grass is used as mulch which later decomposes into manure.

“The monitoring visits have enabled me produce high quality lemon grass as a result of interaction with the SORAK monitoring team” 

demonstrated by Mr. Gaad our lemon grass growing farmer.

This is the final report of 2017, fiscal report in 2017.

You can find the details of the reports below, 

7. Report on Supporting farmers for lemon grass production.docx

We will proceed with this project through 2018! 

*This project is supported by Japan Fund for Global Environment of the Environmental Restoration (JFGE) and by Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency (ERCA)

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Event: Sanyu! _No2 (Jun 9th,2018 sat @ Hamamatsu-cho, Tokyo)

Hello from Global Bridge Network (GBN)

Today, we are happy to announce out event, "Sanyu!_No2". 

This is a first event of this fiscal year 2018 for us in collaboration with African Dance Group!!
This even will be held in African restaurant '’Calabash’' in Hamamatsu-cho, you can enjoy dance, music, live-paint, and dance session with Ugandan people as well as African food! 

GBN will introduce Ugandan culture and 'lemon grass project' implemented in Mubende, Uganda with MOVIE, and there are lemon grass essential oil for sale. 
African crafts and accessory will be on sale as well.

You can enjoy! We are looking forward to meeting you!

Ms. Machiko Watanabe drew this cute painting for Sanyu!
We will prepare the postcard and T-shirts of this painting!
We are really appreciated for her contribution!!

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

“Sanyu”means, “Happy” in Luganda(Uganda) language.

Global Bridge Network(GBN) collaboration with African style dance group, "STUDIO BARJARA DANCERS" and "African Taiko Kyoushitsu Djembe Players " in this event to introduce many varieties of African cultures


Let's enjoy some of African style dance shows and drum shows while learning about Ugandan culture.
We also have African crafts for sell .

The Proceeds got from this event will be used to facilitate GBN’s activity in Uganda.

So please come and support our cause!

We are looking forward to seeing you to our event!

・Date and time: June 9th, 2018 18:30～21:30
・Venue: African restaurant Calabash(http://www.calabash.co.jp/index.html)
(JR line, Hamamatsu-cho station)
・Program:
　18:30　Open
　19:30　Introducing GBN activities and Ugandan culture, Uganda Q&A session
　20:30　Dance & African drum show
　21:00　Uganda Dance Time
               ~Let's enjoy dancing with Ugandan〜　21:30　Close

・Entrance Fee :Advance registration 2,000 JPY　At door 2,500 JPY
・Performer :STUDIO BARJARA DANCERS
　　　　　　 African Taiko Kyoushitsu Djembe Players
Global Bridge Network

・Contact: sanyu.event@gmail.com
・Application: https://ssl.form-mailer.jp/fms/67d31824571916
・Organizer: NPO法人Global Bridge Network
・Cordinator: Studio Barjara'
・In collaboration with: Uganda Diaspora Japan


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Report on “Support of 4 Sub-county leaders on carrying out field monitoring so as to fight wetland encroachment”

Hello again, this is Global Bridge Network (GBN)!

Our current report will still be about ‘Environmental Protection through Expanding Lemon grass growing and Education in Uganda’.

Furthermore, we shall also report about the activities conducted last year whose projects also managed to succeed very well. Happy to say!!

Last time, we urged the council to debate and discuss the possible by-laws ofenvironmental protection in the 4 sub counties in Oct 2017.

However this time, we carried out field monitoring to fight wetland encroachment by sub-county leaders.

Uncontrolled wetland vegetation burning

In our project area, endless wetland encroachment that has been caused by landfilling and burning of unsustainable farming activities by local people are resulting to massive environmental degradation. People are using Wetlands as their source of water. So they must be protected in order to solve uncertainties such as drought.

Therefore, we mobilized the sub-county leaders to visit and monitor the environmental degraded sites in their respective sub-county.

The field monitoring was attended by a total of 600 participants from 4 sub-counties that is to say, Kibalinga, Nabingoola, Kigando and Kasambya which were the same sub-counties last time.

Some factors leading to environmental degradation were also discovered during the monitoring process. Such as…

Environmental degradation through burning

Wetland encroachment arising through landfilling

Wetland reclamation caused by arable farming

Indiscriminate waste dumping in wetlands

However during the monitoring, some of the participants came up with some solutions to the ongoing problems.

1. Carryout out regular site visits to stop further encroachment and degradation
2. Sensitize community members about the dangers of wetland degradation and vegetation burning
3. Arrest and punish encroachers 

In a month that followed the monitoring process and meetings were implemented: as shown in the photo below;

The district natural resources officer-makes measurements to mark wetland boundary 

In order to prevent further damage

In summary, the sub-county leaders witnessed the environmental degradation as well as wetland encroachment which made them clearly understand its concreate challenges and realized their roles on environmental protection.

Feedback meeting after filed monitoring

You can find the details in the reports below, 

6. Report on sub county monitoring visits to fight wetland encroachment

*This project is supported by Japan Fund for Global Environment of the Environmental Restoration (JFGE) and by Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency (ERCA)

       GBN's Facebook Page is here♪