By Isaac Akugizibwe 

KIU, Main Campus - Although Nirere Sadrach joined KIU on 12th January 2017 in pursuit of a Bachelors in International Business, his main dream was always something beyond the horizon. He had a strong urge to participate in solving global problems.

When Sadrach met Nakabuye Hilda in a lecture, he discovered she had an idea that would eventually pave way to his dream. Her idea of forming a students' and youth movement to demand for climate action in KIU and Uganda resonated with his lifelong conviction. It is upon this that they started ‘Fridays for Future Uganda’, Africa’s largest youth movement demanding for climate action.

"Meeting Nakabuye Hilda is my major achievement in an international business lecture, indeed everything is now history," Sadrach admits.

Sadrach says that being a purpose driven person put him in good position to buy Hilda’s idea and combine efforts to make it materialize. He adds that the prevailing global challenges like water shortage, drought and landslides forced him to join Hilda to start a ground breaking campaign for climate action.

"Prevailing global challenges like droughts,landslides,locusts ,water shortages and hunger made it inevitable for me to dispute such an idea,’’ he concedes. 

"Another thing is that her idea resonated with what I had done earlier before joining KIU. We had a green climate campaign chapter which used to meet on Thursdays," he adds.

Sadrach, like his colleague Hilda, has been invited to attend various international conferences about climate change since launching Fridays for future Uganda in 2018. They both led the team of KIU students that attended the mayor’s summit in Denmark. Sadrach alone has and continues to have untimely engagements on popular global media networks like Aljazeera and the BBC where he talks about climate change and the role of the youth in solving global climatic issues.

During COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Sadrach shifted his climate campaign to internet and social media. He explored different digital platforms including blogs and websites to remain spreading the gospel of climate change. 

"COVID-19 forced us to embrace digital platforms because it was the only option for us to maintain the momentum of our campaign," he says.

He started the climate watch series and the 'End plastic pollution' website which has now gathered over 3500 and 1400 views in just two months. 

Sadrach was also part of the team that launched the save Bugoma forest at the Sheraton hotel in Kampala. They partnered with the Swedish Embassy as representatives of the European community.

He attributes his recent achievements to the golden platform offered to him by KIU and his purposefulness. He believes in creating opportunities rather than finding them.