Setting the Groundwork

With two refugee translators from Danish Refugee Council, Tabita and Josephine

Hello and welcome back!

I am writing to you to while travelling back to Kampala. I currently have only an ordinary 3-month tourist visa. The US Fulbright program has a special arrangement with the Ugandan government which allows Fulbright students to get 9-12 month long-term stay visas. But it requires a return trip to the visa office in Kampala to finalize, so here I go…

I left Imvepi feeling great, however, that I was able to get research fully up and running, and we started collecting data in my first 1.5 weeks. Before I talk about the research, I wanted to share a little more about what it has taken, behind the scenes, to get an international research project off the ground. It is a lot, but fortunately through many trips to Imvepi I have gained valuable experience navigating bureaucratic systems and I can draw on strong relationships:

1. A first step is developing the research design and methodology itself. I worked closely with my advisor, Dr. John Munsell, to develop two studies to complete during this nine-month period, which will turn into two chapters of my dissertation. Data for the third study was collected last summer. The studies make creative use of sociological and geographical approaches to collect data on refugee and host firewood and tree product foraging patterns, as well as the perceived benefits of tree-based interventions in the settlement.

2. Next comes obtaining ethical approval to engage with human participants from the Institutional Review Board at 1) Virginia Tech, 2) a local Ugandan university, and 3) the Uganda National Council of Science and Technology (UNCST), each of which require revisions to the research protocol, developing consent forms and recruitment materials, etc. That process took about 3 months start to finish.

3. Once getting UNCST approval, I could request a letter of permission from the Refugee Commissioner at the Uganda Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), allowing me to live and conduct research in the settlement for 9 months.

4. Then I needed clearance from Virginia Tech to travel and live in Uganda, which is listed as a Level 3 safety advisory country by the State Department.

5. In order to gain facilitated access to refugees and hosts, I collaborate with three NGOs which promote tree planting or other kinds of tree-based interventions in Imvepi: DanChurchAid (DCA), World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), and Danish Refugee Council (DRC). Beginning in December I began reaching out to the country directors of these organizations to solicit their approval to engage with their participants and staff.

6. Then comes developing research tools (apps on my phone used to collect survey and geographic data) and testing them out.
   

Given that I have 9 months in Imvepi, I have divided my time and will spend three months with each NGO to reach a total of 240 refugees and hosts. I am starting with DRC, which has been implementing a program focused on livelihoods and tree planting with refugees and hosts. A DRC staff member, Monday Albert, has been my go-to person on the ground. I met with a DRC team lead in Arua before travelling to Imvepi to randomly select 80 refugee and host participants from program lists in excel. Once in Imvepi, Monday helped me to recruit two refugee translators and one host translator, who are themselves community-based and are able to help me find the randomly selected participants. These translators also help to communicate with local refugee and host leaders about the purpose of my research before starting research activities and recruit participants in advance of my arrival to their homes.

Transportation can be a major challenge in Imvepi. If you read my 2022 Imvepi blog, you’ll know that I used to walk everywhere, sometimes up to 10 km just to get to research sites. This is quite inefficient and would not be feasible this time, given that we are now walking far distances as part of our research activities! Other times, I have rented motorcycle transport but this becomes expensive and is also inefficient on a daily basis. So Monday advised that I purchase my own motorcycle this trip and learn how to ride, so that I can pick up my translator and we can go directly to participant homes on our own schedule. I do not know how to ride, but I decided it was a good opportunity to learn! Monday coordinated the motorcycle purchase and it was already in Imvepi by the time I arrived. It will take some time to master it and I need to wait about a month to get my motorcycle permit, so in the meantime we are hiring a driver to ride us around.

Monday Albert, on our Bajaj research motorcycle

I’ll leave off here for now. I look forward to sharing more on-the-ground experiences in the next post!