Dignity, not charity queues
Collectors are paid the market rate for every kilogram, in cash or mobile money, before they leave the hub. Nobody has to prove they are poor to be paid for their work.
About Gunjula
Waste is not the problem. It is the raw material.
We are a Kampala community initiative that treats plastic as a household asset and school fees as a shared responsibility. One collection at a time.
- Since 2021one Saturday collection at a time
- Kampala onlyNakawa, Katwe, Bwaise, Nansana
- 60+ collectorspaid per kilogram, on the spot
Our story
It started with an empty school bag.
In 2021, Nakato watched a neighbour's daughter unpack her school bag for the last time that term. The fees were short by less than the price of a crate of soda.
The same week, a market stall two streets away was paying a trader to haul away bottles and jerrycans. The plastic was worth money. The school place was worth more. The only missing piece was a system that connected the two.
Gunjula began as one Saturday collection outside Nakawa market: 200 kilograms, one scale, two children back in class. Today we run four hubs, six school clubs and a public ledger — but the arithmetic has not changed.
One school day
UGX 1,400
or 2 kg of clean plastic
One full term
UGX 140,000
or 200 kg of clean plastic
What we believe
Charity should leave a receipt.
Most giving fails quietly: money arrives, nobody can say exactly where it went. We designed Gunjula so that the answer is always a reference number, a school name and a bank slip.
- Fee payments traceable
- 100%
- Paid to schools, not families
- All
- Collectors paid on the spot
- Every load
- Monthly public statement
- 12 / year
Registered community-based organisation, Nakawa Division, Kampala.
Mission
Keep children in school with the plastic their neighbourhood already has.
Three commitments shape every decision, from where we put a hub to how we publish a receipt.
Radical transparency
Every donation has a reference. Every fee payment has a school bank slip. The monthly ledger is public, including the mistakes and the reversals.
Local first
Kampala plastic goes to Kampala recyclers. Kampala money pays Kampala school fees. Our team lives in the divisions we serve, and our buyers are within 15 km of every hub.
Milestones
Five years, measured in kilos.
Growth has been deliberately slow: a hub only opens when the collectors around it can be paid on time, every time.
See the current numbersThe team
Four people, one ledger.
Small on purpose. Every role maps to a control: collection, education verification, finance, and the founder who answers for all of it.
Why this model
Two problems, one transaction.
The fee problem
- Fees fall due three times a year, often in the same weeks as rent and school shopping.
- A shortfall of a few thousand shillings can still mean a child is sent home.
- Families rarely have a savings mechanism that survives a bad month.
- Schools lose fee income and teachers lose time chasing balances.
The plastic problem
- Kampala generates hundreds of tonnes of recyclable plastic daily, much of it in drainage channels.
- The material has value, but only at volume and only if it is sorted.
- A household with 2 kg has no reason to make the trip. A hub network gives it one.
- Local recyclers need steady, clean supply — and will pay for it.
The link. Gunjula is the missing market: it aggregates small loads, pays collectors immediately, sells to recyclers, and routes the proceeds into verified fee payments. No new money is invented — it is redirected.
Partners
Who we work with.
Divisions that let us use collection points, schools that verify enrolment, and recyclers that buy our bales.
Questions
The things people ask first.
If your question is not here, the contact form goes straight to the team — and during the demo, to this browser's storage.
Ask us directlyContact
Talk to a person.
Donations, collections, school partnerships or a receipt query — all of it lands with the same small team.
Find us
- Gunjula Hub, NakawaPlot 12, Port Bell Road, Kampala
- +256 706 681028Call Solomon · Mon–Sat, 8:00–18:00
- hello@gunjula.orgReplies within two working days
- WhatsApp Solomon+256 706 681028 · fastest reply
For schools
If you are a school with children at risk of dropping out, or a head teacher who wants a Friday collection club, ask for Martha. Bring the fee statement and the enrolment list.
How verification works