We do not publish a person's words or photograph without asking them first, in their own language, and explaining where it will appear.
The land near the water is the best land we have. Nobody leaves it idle because a stranger asks. But if you show me what to plant behind it and the seedlings are free, that is a different conversation.
We were carrying water up from the river twice a day. The tank changed the school day more than any lesson about conservation did.
These quotations are illustrative
They reflect what has been said to us in the field, but they are not yet published with named, documented consent. Attributed quotations replace them once each speaker has agreed in writing to be quoted and named. We would rather label this clearly than present unverified attributions as testimony.
How we collect and use quotations
Field officers ask before recording anything. The person is told where it may appear, that it may be read by people outside Uganda, and that they can decline or change their mind afterwards without any effect on their involvement with us.
Consent is recorded and kept. If someone later asks us to remove their words or photograph, we do it without asking why.
Interviews are conducted in Runyankole where that is the person's preference, and translated by the field officer who conducted them rather than afterwards by someone who was not there.
How a quotation gets from a riverbank to this page
- 1
It is asked for, not overheard
A field officer asks before recording anything, in the person's own language, and explains where it may appear and that people outside Uganda may read it.
- 2
It is translated by whoever was there
Interviews happen in Runyankole where that is the person's preference and are translated by the field officer who conducted them, rather than afterwards by somebody who was not present.
- 3
It is read back
The person hears their words in the form they will be published in. This is where quotations most often change, because what somebody meant and what a transcript says are not always the same thing.
- 4
Consent is recorded and kept
In writing, with the date and the scope of it. Consent to be quoted is not consent to be photographed and the two are recorded separately.
- 5
It stays only as long as it is wanted
If somebody later asks us to remove their words or their photograph, we do it without asking why and without it affecting anything else about their involvement with us.
Why this page is shorter than it could be
We could fill it. Field officers have notebooks going back to 2022 and there is no shortage of things people have said about this river that would read well on a website.
What there is a shortage of is documented consent to publish those things under a person's name. Attributing a quotation to a named farmer without a record that they agreed to it is the kind of shortcut that is invisible to a reader and indefensible to the person quoted, and it is more common in this sector than it should be.
So the page grows as consent is collected, in the ordinary course of fieldwork, rather than in a single push before a launch. The two quotations above are labelled as illustrative for exactly that reason, and they will be replaced by attributed ones rather than joined by more unattributed ones.
The consent policy is on the governance page
Along with our safeguarding, complaints and data protection policies.