Touch
Ugandans use a lot of natural materials to manufacture goods.
Clothes are usually made from light cotton because it keeps you cool in hot weather. Try wearing light cotton and then nylon on a very hot day, how do they make you feel? Do they feel different? Which one makes you feel the most hot and sweaty? Look on this website to find out what the weather is like in Uganda Click here
These are some of the trees and plants Ugandans use for building and weaving.
Kapples are great for keeping people/animals out or in, see how long and sharp the thorns are.
Ugandans also use living plants to mark boundaries and to keep animals out or in.
Olowangi is used to show where boundaries between two properties lie.
Sometimes Spear grass is used to thatch village houses
Local bricks are made from a red clay soil that is found in the ground in Uganda.
The damp clay soil is formed into brick shapes by hand and then allowed to dry. Piles of bricks are then fired by building a wood fire in the bottom of the pile and enclosing the pile with more clay soil to create an very hot oven.
 Soft soil for making bricks |
 Molding bricks |
 Bricks drying |
 Bricks cooking at very high temperature |
 Cooked bricks |
 Bricks ready for building |
Another way to build is to create a thin timber framework and fill the gaps with clay-mud.
Activity
These methods of building are similar to the ways the British made buildings a long time ago. Look at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum site where you can see over 45 historic houses and agricultural buildings. See if you can find natural building materials that look like those used in Ugandan houses. Try building a model of a village house using clay and other natural materials. Remember that it is warmer in Uganda than it is here, and that it often gets very hot. It can also rain very heavily during the two rainy seasons.
What would it feel like if the rain got in or if it was too hot in a Ugandan house? How could you design a house to keep it dry and cool? Do you need glass in the windows? Glass is expensive so how could you keep the rain away from a window if there is no glass in it? Do you think that tin or grass is good for the roof? Tin is great for collecting rainwater but grass gives a much cooler house in the hot weather.
Clean water is difficult to find sometimes. Could you collect the rain water that falls on your roof? Do you see something that collects water in this photo?
Tiny flying insects called mosquitos are a problem in Africa because they bite people and spread a disease called malaria, which can make you very ill or even kill you. They mostly bite in the evening and at night. Some people hang fine nets over their beds at night so that the mosquitos can’t bite them. You would certainly want these nets in your house if you lived in Africa.
Facts
For every 5 children who die of malaria in Uganda at least one of them could be saved simply by having a mosquito net to sleep under. Most poor families in Uganda can’t afford mosquito nets and so can’t protect their children. A mosquito net costs about each £5
Fund-Raising Ideas
What can you make from natural materials that you could sell? Could you make clay models of village houses, or models of houses in Britain? Could you learn how to weave, or make bowls of papier mache or clay and paint them with African designs?
You could have a fashion show and ask people to pay a small amount to see it.
The clothes could all come from local shops and be made from natural materials like cotton or silk; or you could design new types of clothing, to keep people cool in hot countries. Would big hats be a good idea to keep the sun off you? What materials would you use? Would you have to keep your skin covered so that you didn't burn? Would you need sunglasses?
You could raise money to give mosquito nets for the children and families that Amigos sponsor. You could help save someone's life for as little as £5
Toys
Many children in Uganda don't have money to buy toys so they are very cleaver at making their own. Can you see in the pictures what they have used to make a toy car and a lorry?
Can you see: wire, old flip-flops for wheels and bottle tops for hubcaps and a stick for the steering wheel? It’s held together by ‘elastic bands’, these are old car rubber inner tubes that are cut into thin strips and bound very tightly to hold the vehicle together.