Shade Stand | Awards | Philips Meaningful Innovation

12 Jun 2012

Shade Stands Project - One Year On

As we reach the one year milestone of the Philips Livable Cities Award, I am happy that the Shade Stands project is progressing well. We can really see now that the project will leave an impressive legacy, benefiting people in Kampala for a long time.

My greatest surprise over the last year- which also came as a relief! - was the realization by city authorities of the need for shelters in Kampala. Before the Shade Stands project commenced, there were almost no shades in Kampala city. But as a result of our work to pin-point areas that needed shades, as well as publicity generated by the media, shades were built in those areas by the government of Uganda.

The biggest challenge I encountered over the last year was the issue of land ownership. Some pieces of land had multiple owners and, with so many landlords claiming ownership, we were delayed as we tried to get permission from all of the owners to put up the Shade Stands. The other challenge we faced was the delay in relation to city planning processes; these decisions can take some time.

The feedback I have received from the people using the Shade Stands has been good. Both local people and the authorities have appreciated the need for the project as well as the health education messages for Kampala to become a ‘livable city’. The project has been welcomed by all age groups – young people, the elderly, women and children.

Plans for the Future

My plan for the future is to design a fully-fledged project based on the lessons learned from the pilot, widening the operational base and also increasing the budget to benefit a wider community.

To start with, my plan for the project is that it will be replicated in other parts of Uganda. I hope the benefits of the project will also be publicised on blogs, health websites and journals as good practice for healthy living outdoors in cities.

On a smaller scale, I am continuing to work with local communities to construct more shades. So far we have been allocated a spot in Gayaza Town by the council and we are going to put up some more Shade Stands in this area.

The work continues!

Video Gallery

22 Feb 2012

The Story So Far

It’s now the end of January and my Shade Stands project is progressing very well and we have been working with various local groups and authorities to ensure that we secure suitable places where the shades will be most beneficial to users. So far we have worked with Wobulenzi Town council to locate two shade stands, one in Wobulenzi Taxi Park, and the other on the main road near the Town council offices. I am happy to report that these Shade Stands are already serving their purpose and the local people were very happy to receive them. This was a great milestone for our project.

There have of course been some very stressful moments too. We experienced some delays in ‘planting’ the shades because land owners in the area had objected to some of the suggested locations. These are pieces of land with some independent owners who needed to be consulted. Having transported the Shade Stands to the locations, we had to leave them there for as long as 48 hours while we completed the negotiations. But finally and fortunately, we were given permission to place them in the areas we has suggested.

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Our project generated a lot of publicity on CNN and in the local media, which made Government authorities aware of the lack of shades in the city of Kampala, and over the last two months there have been a number of shades built by the government of Uganda in areas we had pinpointed for our project. Of course this is a good development for Kampala and we will continue to engage with city authorities about the construction of our low cost, locally produced shades in other locations.

We are now diverting our attention to the Kampala city area and have been in negotiations with city authorities about possible locations for our Shade Stands. Having learned from our experience during the pilot stage, we are requesting permission to use areas that won’t be controversial, in that they won’t have multiple local land owners that have to be consulted. I am very optimistic that everything will progress as planned.

My next update will be in March and by then I hope to have gained permission from at least two divisional town authority leaderships and started on the construction of four shades in these areas. This will kick-start the roll-out phase of the project, overall I am looking to construct six Shades in the first two divisions.

Image Gallery

Video Gallery

01 Dec 2011

Meet the Shade Stands Team

My name is James Kityo, I was awarded one of the runner up prizes at the Philips Livable Cities Awards 2010. Following my degree in Health Management Planning and Policy in the University of Leeds I have worked as a consultant for strategic planning and evaluating needs in the Ugandan health system.

My project entry to the Philips Livable Cities Award aspires to create Shades in the City, with a facility for people to sit and be sheltered from the weather, but also to promote Health Education messages in Uganda. The Shade Stands will provide the vital shelter and shades that are needed in Kampala. I was inspired by the range of protection this project would provide to communities, having experienced challenges of difficulties of residing in the city, without Shades to shelter against the rain and hot sun. My team and I have worked closely to get this project off the ground:

• Andre Dassin, from the Boston University designed the original shade stand

• Abok Mercy is the overall project implementation person. She has coordinated all the aspects of the project so far, like meeting with the local authorities, drafting the letters and checking out locations for the Shades

• Hussein is our artist, he is currently working out on the graphical dimensions of the Health messages

• Mugerwa, a local metal fabricator, has been given the role of bringing the design by Andre Dassin to life for the pilot stage of the project.