My name is Ansel Hugh Jamison and I am 16 years old. I grew up in Buhoma village in rural Uganda on the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. I am a certified FUFA coach and I love to play football.

My family has been here for the past eleven years supporting the work of Bwindi Community Hospital. For as long as I can remember, this place has been my home. I speak the local language, all my friends are Ugandans, and I enjoy the culture and way of life here.

I have seen the way life is for the typical Ugandan family living in the village. My friends and their parents struggle every day just to buy food and pay for school fees. Most of the families I know support themselves through small-scale farming, selling traditional handicrafts, and cooperation with neighbors. Though it is not an easy way of life, I believe it holds much knowledge, resilience, and beauty—but it’s rarely seen or understood by people outside our community. I would love for travelers to be able to experience the rich life that I have been able to experience growing up in this community.

My plan is to develop a community-based guest house in a nearby village to offer visitors an authentic cultural immersion experience. I am raising funds to build a small Airbnb which would host one to three visitors at a time. When a guest stays there, they will be able to experience real village life in Uganda—not as tourists passing through, but as visitors welcomed into the community. I have already secured the land and have a place for construction prepared.

During the construction process, I will be able to employ 6 men from the community with full time employment and others with part time work. We will purchase materials locally which will also help the community. Women typically break stones to make aggregates and men make and burn bricks from their soil. These items can be purchased within the village and will help support families as they struggle to pay school fees for their children. People are eager to work and they work very hard, but employment in the village is really hard to come by. I hope this project will help in many ways.

After constructing the house, we will host travelers interested in learning about village life, local traditions, farming practices, and handicrafts. This initiative combines sustainable tourism with community empowerment, cultural preservation, and income generation for local families.

Rural Uganda offers rich cultural heritage, strong community bonds, traditional farming knowledge, and skilled artisans—yet these assets are often underrepresented in mainstream tourism.

I would like to bridge the gap by creating a safe, welcoming space where visitors can learn directly from the community while generating sustainable local income.

The guest house will serve as a cultural learning hub, offering visitors:

- Comfortable accommodation in a locally inspired guest house

- Traditional Ugandan meals prepared with locally sourced ingredients

- Guided village tours led by community members

- Hands-on learning experiences in:

Small-scale farming (crop growing, animal keeping, sustainable practices)

Handicrafts (weaving, carving, basketmaking)

Cultural exchange through storytelling, music, daily routines, and shared meals

Guests will not just observe village life—they will participate, learn, and connect.

This is one way of giving back to the place that raised me—by creating opportunities that allow families to earn with dignity and pride, right here in the village.