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‘It’s radical’: the Ugandan city built on solar, shea butter and people power
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Warmer
Choose the best answer for each question.
1. Uganda is a country in East / West Africa.
2. The capital of Uganda is Nairobi / Kampala.
3. Kenya / South Africa is one of Uganda’s neighbours.
4. The currency of Uganda is the Ugandan dollar / shilling.
5. Shea butter comes from animals / trees.
6. Shea butter is used to make cosmetics / food.
Key words
Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text.
charity fail instalments solar transform
1. If people something, they make it completely different.
2. energy comes from the sun.
3. If you pay for something in , you pay small amounts over a
period of time.
4. A is an organization that gives money and resources to people
who need help.
5. If projects , they are not successful.
enterprise investment loan resource unique
6. A / An is a large or important project, especially one that is
new or different.
7. A / An selling point is the thing that makes a product or service
different from others.
8. A natural is something such as oil or trees that people can use.
9. A / An is money people use to make more money.
10. A / An is money a person or organization borrows from a bank.

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‘It’s radical’: the Ugandan city built on solar, shea butter and people power
Caleb Okereke
3 March, 2021
After more than ten years of war, the village
of Okere Mom-Kok in northern Uganda was
in ruins. Now, Ojok Okello has started a project
to transform the village of 4,000 people into
a successful town.
Okere City now has a school, a health clinic,
a village bank and a community hall, a cinema,
a church and a nightclub. Everyone has
electricity from solar energy and there is now
clean water, which will help to prevent cholera.
Pupils at the school pay half their fees in
cash and the rest in maize, beans, sugar and
firewood. People pay their bills at the clinic
in instalments.
Okello is paying for the project himself. In 2020,
it cost 200 million Ugandan shillings (about
£39,000). He is a development expert and has
worked for several international charities but
he saw many projects fail because people were
not involved in decisions about their own future.
When he returned a few years ago to Okere
Mom-Kok, he decided to create a project that
the people who lived there led themselves.
Okere now makes money. Every project, from
the school to the local bar, can pay for itself,
something that is possible because the project
is not a charity – it is a social enterprise.
Okere City will use green energy, but its unique
selling point is its shea trees. Okello says
he got the idea as he sat under a shea tree
outside his house one afternoon. “I looked at
the shea tree and realized that we have this
important natural resource and we were not
using it,” he says. In August 2020, they started
to sell Okere Shea Butter and now the whole
city smells of shea butter.
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There is also an investment club in the
city. Most of the members are women,
mostly farmers, but some also own small
businesses. “I got a loan from the club to
buy shea seeds, which I sold at a profit,”
says member Acen Olga.
Members invest money in the club, which
records their investments and then gives loans
to members who need them. When borrowers
repay the loan, the cycle continues. This is
an African way of banking – money is about
caring for each other and making long-term
investments. Projects like Okere City only
work if local people create them and are
involved in them.
© Guardian News and Media 2021
First published in The Guardian, 03/03/2021
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Home >> Adults >> General English >> NEWS LESSONS
Level: Elementary / Pre-Intermediate
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‘It’s radical’: the Ugandan city built on solar, shea butter and people power
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Comprehension check
Answer the questions using information from the article.
1. How many people live in Okere City?
2. Where does the electricity in Okere City come from?
3. What will help to prevent cholera?
4. How do people pay their bills at the clinic?
5. When did Ojok Okello return to Okere City?
6. What is Okere City’s unique selling point?
7. When did they start to sell Okere Shea Butter?
8. What do most of the members of the investment club do?
9. What did Acen Olga do with the loan that she got from the investment club?
10. What is the only way that projects like Okere City will work?
Using key language
Match the words in the left-hand column (1–8) with the words in the right-hand column (a–h)
to make expressions from the text.
1. health a. investment
2. community b. enterprise
3. natural c. hall
4. long-term d. clinic
5. in e. charity
6. social f. energy
7. green g. resource(s)
8. international h. ruins
Discussion
Discuss these statements.
• “All electricity should come from solar energy.”
• “Clean water is the most important thing in life.”

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Level: Elementary / Pre-Intermediate
‘It’s radical’: the Ugandan city built on solar, shea butter and people power
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In your own words
Write a short summary of the article. Use these beginnings to help you:
Four thousand people ...
Okere City has a school and also ...
In 2020, Ojok Okello gave ...
The unique selling point of Okere City is ...
Local people can get a loan from ...
The African way of banking is ...
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Level: Elementary / Pre-Intermediate – Teacher’s notes
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Article summary: The article describes
how a ruined village in Uganda has become
a successful town.
Time: 60 minutes
Skills: Reading, Speaking, Writing
Language focus: Vocabulary
Materials needed: One copy of the
worksheet per student
1. Warmer
The purpose of this activity is for students to learn a bit
about Uganda as it is probably not a country that many
will be familiar with. Two of the questions also lead to
information about shea butter. Students may not be
aware but shea butter has a wide range of uses in
everyday products.
Key:
1. East
2. Kampala
3. Kenya
4. shilling
5. trees
6. cosmetics
2. Key words
Ask students to do the exercise individually and
then compare their answers in pairs or small groups.
Encourage students to use some of this vocabulary
actively by asking them questions such as ‘What are the
advantages and disadvantages of paying for something
in instalments?’ Highlight the fact that the verb ‘fail’ is the
opposite of ‘succeed’ in this context, but the opposite of
‘pass’ in the context of an exam.
Key:
1. transform
2. solar
3. instalments
4. charity
5. fail
6. enterprise
7. unique
8. resource
9. investment
10. loan
3. Comprehension check
Point out that the information needed for the answers is
in the order in which it appears in the text.
Key:
1. 4,000
2. solar energy
3. clean water
4. in instalments
5. a few years ago
6. its shea trees
7. in August 2020
8. They are farmers.
9. She bought shea seeds.
10. if local people create them and are involved in them
4. Using key language
Encourage students to look back in the text to check their
answers. Highlight the phrase ‘in ruins’ (a town or city
is in ruins after a war or after a disaster). A ‘community
hall’ is a place where local people have meetings or
social events. Ask students if they know any examples
of international charities (e.g. Oxfam, UNICEF, Save
the Children).
Key:
1. d
2. c
3. g
4. a
5. h
6. b
7. f
8. e
5. Discussion
Allow students time to note down their ideas about each
statement and encourage them to say why they agree or
disagree with each one.
‘It’s radical’: the Ugandan city built on solar, shea butter and people power

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Home >> Adults >> General English >> NEWS LESSONS
Level: Elementary / Pre-Intermediate – Teacher’s notes
6. In your own words
The purpose of this activity is for students to use
the information in the text to write a short summary.
The beginnings of each part of the summary are given,
so students will basically only need to complete each
sentence. The answer given is simply an example and
many variations are possible.
Four thousand people live in Okere City in northern
Uganda. Okere City has a school and also a health
clinic, a bank, a community hall, a cinema, a church
and a nightclub. In 2020, Ojok Okello gave 200 million
Ugandan shillings (about £39,000) to the project.
The unique selling point of Okere City is its shea trees,
which people use to make shea butter. Local people can
get a loan from the city’s investment club. The African
way of banking is about caring for each other and
long-term investments.
‘It’s radical’: the Ugandan city built on solar, shea butter and people power
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