Café Sci's people....

UK

Due to changes in funding, Café Sci in the UK is currently does not have a full time member of staff working on it. We have tried to include as much information on our website so that you can run your own event, but if you need further information then you are welcome to contact us - just please be patient as it might take us a while to get back to you!

Uganda

Project Coordinator - Betty Kituyi

I jumped at the chance to become Project Coordinator for Café Scientifique in Uganda, because I sensed that science cafes could be the saviour of science here. People's attitudes to science can be negative and yet science and technology are increasingly becoming an intricate part of people's lives: phone masts are being erected in our towns and cities, genetically modified crops are promoted as a way out of hunger and poverty, the Government advocates DDT spraying campaigns, polythene bags are scattered everywhere, and more. I hope that science cafes will give Ugandan people an opportunity to understand these issues and begin to make responsible decisions concerning emerging technologies.

I am excited to be at the forefront of science communication, helping people across Uganda have simple everyday conversations with science experts, on equal terms.

I have taught in secondary schools, mentored student teachers and taught basic science courses to undergraduate students and in-service secondary and primary school teachers at Kyambogo University, Makerere University School of Education and the Distance Education Department at Makerere University, Uganda. I have an MSc in Chemistry (for a study of algal toxin levels in Lake Uganda), a BEd and a Diploma in Secondary School Education.

My other passion is creative writing. I am an active member of FEMWRITE, the Uganda Women Writers Association, and have written and published my works in anthologies such as I dare to say; testimonies of Ugandan women living positively with HIV/AIDS. I am currently working on a short story on female genital mutilation, based on women's experiences in Kapchorwa, and a novel. My poetry has been published locally and internationally and on poetry websites. I am an alumni student of the Crossing Borders cultural exchange programme, organised by the British Council, linking Ugandan and British writers and I regularly write for Ugandan newspapers on science, education and other social issues.

My early attempts at science communication began when I took part in programmes for writers, broadcast on Ugandan radio and television. I was often asked how I juggled science and writing. I seized the opportunity to tell the listening audience that science is for everybody and that scientists can find their creative meaning in their work and the world around them.

I am committed to helping women's groups in my village and co-ordinate fundraising activities to raise seed capital for small projects, such as those run by the Nabweya women's group and the Bushunya farmer's association. Together we explore sustainability, organic farming and bee-keeping and other income-generating ventures.
I grow oyster mushrooms in a grass-thatched enclosure at a family house in Kisasi, Kampala and occasionally cook rice using a solar cooker in my backyard. I am the proud mother of a lovely four-year old boy, Matthew Mumbere Kamoti.

I want to end by sharing a poem by one of my former students:

Sodium Dance
Like lightning,
group one metals react
Fast dashes
made by sodium,
in a zig zag dance
with cold water, its friend,
dancing vigorously
while floating on it
but dangerous if used in big amounts
to annoy it to explosion
remember the yellow flame
of sodium which is envious.
 
(Christine Nabachwa, student at Kyambogo University, 2001)