Project no. 1 KAMPALA (Environment, poverty)

The beautiful but rampaging Water Hyacinth is (Eichhornia crassipes) is one of the most prolific plants on earth - and it is throttling life in Lake Victoria, Africa's most important inland fishery.

As thirty five per cent of Uganda covered by water, the food from the Lake Victoria is vital but, in places, fishing is made almost impossible due to the spread of the plant. It is so thick and grows so deeply that it is very hard to take a boat through it. To sort the problem, Ugandans have to learn to become efficient harvesters of the weed - but that gives its own problems if large amounts are pulled up because just dumping them on the side of the lake leads to re-seeding or a pile of rotting weeds.

A solution has come from a community initiative featuring the maximum security Upper Prison in Kampala. David Nsalasatta supervises up to 2000 prisoners there, serving terms of between seven years and life imprisonment.

They are drying and stripping Water Hyacinth stems and plaiting them into decorative rope to use in making furniture. Metal frames are covered with the plaiting and the end product is sold. The prisoners receive two percent of the profits.

Prisoners are selected for programme on the grounds of whether learning the process will help them to make a living when they leave. Those whose homes are by the lake receive priority.

The idea has been sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme which has a small grants initiative to help people and the environment.

David Nsalasatta says it's an excellent solution to a difficult problem and a wonderful way of rehabilitating prisoners. Those fishermen who harvest the weed have somewhere to take it; prisoners want to work, rather than stay idle - and they are pleased to learn a trade. They are also training women from the neighbouring women's jail and hope the initiative will spread throughout Uganda's water-side jails - and into the community too.

Project no. 2 NATIONAL (Health)

Noerine Kaleeba is the founder of Taso - The AIDS Support Organisation. Her priority is to help people who are HIV positive to live rather than to wait to die and her slogan is 'Positive Living.'

Noerine's husband Chris died from AIDS 15 years ago. He was diagnosed in the UK when he was studying for a Masters' degree but went home to Uganda where the hospitals had no drugs to help - and only fear to offer.

In those days, people were too frightened of AIDS to touch a sufferer and most doctors and nurses would not even cross the threshold of Chris's room. The attitude also extended to the feeling that with such a shortage of drugs available, what was the point of wasting any on someone who was going to die anyway.

Chris died in great pain, much of which could have been spared to him.
After his death, Noerine wrote a book 'We Miss You All' to help other women who had watched someone they love die in pain and received no emotional support or understanding from the doctors and hospital staff surrounding them. Helping others helped her with her grief. Taso developed from a small informal support group of people with shared experiences and is supported by ActionAid.

Noerine herself now works for UNAids in Geneva but her energies are still focused on Uganda.

She says that Positive Living is about love and friendship, proper nutrition and social support as well as getting swift treatment for whatever illness attacks people who are HIV positive. The most important aspect is spiritual support because, she says, human beings are spiritual beings whether they have a conventional faith or not.