Congratulations to a Member of our Community: Joyce Orishaba, Guest Reader
Joyce Orishaba, the Guest Reader we interviewed for our Summer 2023 Issue
With her permission, we are happy to share the news that Joyce Orishaba--the guest reader we featured in an interview about Vanessa Nakate's A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis in our Summer 2023 issue, and fellow Ugandan--is heading to Stanford University in the Fall!
A selection from our interview with Joyce Orishaba about Vanessa Nakate’s A Bigger Picture, from our Summer 2023 issue.
Joyce is a member of the Indigenous Batwa tribe of Uganda. In 2022, Joyce was one of 13 winners (of more than 12,000 entries) in the New York Times' 100 Words Personal Narrative Contest with her essay, "A River Runs Through Me." She wrote about her experience as an orphan and the impact of the removal of the Batwa tribe from their ancestral home in the 1990s to create Bwindi Impenetrable National Park as a refuge for mountain gorillas. The Batwa tribe now lives in settlements at the edge of the National Park.
Touring the Stanford campus
You can download the entire interview and Joyce’s winning essay for the New York Times, here.
An excerpt from that interview:
Out of more than 12,000 entries, your essay was one of 13 winners in the New York Times Essay contest for high school students. Has winning the contest, and having your story gain more exposure changed your perspective in any way?
“Winning this contest allowed me to be invited onto local area TV stations and to be interviewed for newspapers. It is something I am so proud of. As my story gets more coverage, I feel as if my people will truly get the attention they deserve and hopefully be compensated for being removed from their land. Many Batwa are talented and smart but are simply not given opportunities to attend the best schools and receive mentorship and training. Based on my personal experience, that can make a huge difference in tapping into the unlocked potential inside each of my people. I went from being an 8-year-old failing every one of my classes and considered “stupid” in my community—which nearly led to me being ‘trained’ for early marriage—to someone in National Honor Society and winning a New York Times writing competition.
Kalehe village in Joyce’s home community in Uganda and the bridge funded by the
Redemption Song Foundation
The Redemption Song Foundation has been working with Batwa in Kalehe Village in Uganda, creating a more sustainable community with clean water, improved livelihoods through an artisan coop, and education for children. Joyce benefitted from this support and was adopted by the Foundation's founder, Wendee Nicole. The Foundation continues its work in Uganda. Their website is: redemptionsongfoundation.org
All previous issues of Nature Book Guide, including the Summer 2023 issue, are available for free download via the “Download Issues and Extras” tab of our website. The entire three-page interview with Joyce about Vanessa Nakate’s book is also available for free download there!