Dynamic Africa

Innovative and incredibly creative 29-year-old Ugandan eco-artist and Ruganzu Bruno Tusingwire, who is the first 2012 TED Prize recipient, turns thousands of plastic bottles into a playground for kids in his local community*.

An artist and community organizer, Tusingwire has a less sensationalistic and far more imaginative idea for how to engage and empower the children of his home country: Play. Tusingwire became the first City 2.0 Award recipient of 2012 at the TEDxSummit in Doha, Qatar, where he pitched his plan to turn thousands of plastic water bottles into an amusement park where kids growing up in the slums can play and learn.

Children in Uganda so deserve the physiological and emotional lift of having a good time. In addition to the well-known scourges of poverty and a lack of access to adequate education, a mysterious brain disorder dubbed “nodding disease” has afflicted at least 3,000 children in Northern Uganda as of late. The disease leaves children physically stunted and mentally disabled and experts still have no firm answer as to what causes it. 

Being witness to this kind of suffering has led Tusingwire to rethink his approach to his calling: “I shifted from doing artwork to just hang on walls, having little influence on society, to doing art that solves community needs. It’s helped me realize my value to society.”

The seed for the amusement park was planted when Tusingwire got involved in eco-art as a student at Kyambogo University. He began meeting other local artists, and together, they made work out of a rampantly available and strikingly inexpensive material: garbage.

“Art is unifying,” Tusingwire explains. “We can use what is around us to create treasure, employment opportunities, and make the environment better. There is a wonderful world of possibilities before us.”

Tusingwire was the lead organizer of the first ever TEDxKampala, which focused on the ways in which local artists of all kinds could leverage recycled materials as content for their art. It was a powerful gathering, strengthening the community of those already engaged in eco-art, and bringing new artists and environmentalists into the fold.

Artist Pauline Kael once said, “Trash has given us an appetite for art.” And art, in the hands of a visionary like Tusingwire, can give kids a new appetite for life.

(source)

*Unfortunately, the article does not specify where exactly this playground was created. Tusingwire attended Kyambogo University so my guess is that this was perhaps done somewhere in Kampala.