Bwindi Community Charity | Petnah Community Empowerment

Petnah Community Empowerment Initiative

Supporting the families who live alongside Uganda’s national parks, and who rarely see the benefits of the tourism built around them.

Petnah Africa Tours & Travel is a Uganda-based safari company founded in 2019. We run trips to Uganda’s protected areas, including Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Queen Elizabeth National Park, and Murchison Falls National Park.

Petnah Community Empowerment Initiative (PCEI) grew directly out of that work. Guests on safari often visit the communities living just outside these parks.

Over time, our guides and team noticed the same pattern in each one: these communities depend on tourism for income, but very little of that income reaches them directly, and the public infrastructure around them, hospitals, schools, roads, hasn’t kept pace.

PCEI was set up to close that gap. Today, 10% of proceeds from every confirmed Petnah trip goes toward this work, alongside direct donations from travelers and partners.

The Challenge

Rushaga, on the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, is typical of the communities we work in. Many residents work as porters, guides, or in services tied to the park. That income depends entirely on tourism, which means it can disappear overnight.

It did in 2020, when international travel stopped and with it the revenue-sharing that many households relied on.

Beyond income, the basics are harder to reach here than they should be. The nearest provincial hospital is a long walk from most homes. Health centers exist, but they’re stretched thin. Orphaned and vulnerable children often go without school fees, books, or shoes, not because their families don’t value education, but because there isn’t enough to go around.

None of this is unique to Rushaga. It’s the pattern in most communities bordering Uganda’s protected areas.

What We're Doing About It

PCEI runs three core programs, built with the Ministry of Health, local District Health Offices, and Village Health Teams, not around them.

Health Promotion Program

We work with local hospitals and Village Health Teams to strengthen access to basic health services, with a particular focus on orphans and vulnerable children in Rushaga.

Education Support

Scholastic materials (books, shoes, bags, uniforms), bursaries for children who would otherwise drop out, and support for vulnerable and orphaned children specifically.

Community and Livelihood Support

Direct financial assistance through guest tips, food support, and skills training aimed at reducing dependence on any single income source.

How This Is Funded

A share of proceeds from every confirmed Petnah Africa Tours trip goes directly into this initiative.

On top of that, donations from past guests and partners fund specific needs as they come up, a school term's fees, a batch of medical supplies, materials for a health outreach day.

How You Can Help

You don't need to book a safari to support this work.
Here's what's needed right now:

Money

Covers school fees, medical supplies, and emergency needs directly. Give via Mobile Money, Pesapal, or PayPal, or scan the QR code below.

School Fees

A single term's fees can keep a child in school who would otherwise drop out.

Books & School Supplies

Books, bags, shoes & uniforms for children in the program.

Clothes

For families in the Rushaga and Nkuringo sectors.

Medical Kits & Supplies

Basic supplies for the Village Health Teams and local health centers we work with.

Every Contribution Reaches Someone Specific

This isn't a general fund. Money and supplies go to named communities, Rushaga and Nkuringo, near Bwindi, where our guides and their families live. If you'd rather ask a question first, reach us directly.

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