HEARTBEAT UGANDA
Busia District in Uganda has been an important centre for gold mining and production since 1930. Gold mining is dominated by small-scale mining and workers dig the gold manually. Raw gold, like other minerals, is a limited resource and stocks are continuously dwindling due to mining. The miners live from hand to mouth and cannot provide for their existence in old age. Since 2013, we have been working closely with the local communities. We have learned that the majority of gold miners work in small-scale mining to enable them to switch to alternative employment. However, since small-scale mining requires a high capital investment and offers little return, a change remains challenging.