Eitai, an Iteso word for community togetherness, is a documentary exploring change in rural Uganda. The film delves into the challenges faced by a rural population Northeastern Uganda. Eitai explores critical global issues including the interconnected challenges of climate change, poverty, and gender-based violence. It highlights how social enterprise projects not only provide economic opportunities but also create safe spaces for knowledge sharing, environmental action, and community sensitisation via music, dance, and drama.

Through vivid storytelling, Eitai underscores the importance of indigenous knowledge and communitarianism in addressing pressing global crises. It calls for stronger relationships among people, the land, and non-humans to mitigate further environmental degradation. The film also captures unique narratives on combating HIV and GBV, as told by participants through their lived experiences and cultural expressions. The film is not only a celebration of the resilience and resourcefulness of communities in Teso, but also a platform for international knowledge exchange to address global challenges.

documentary overview

Eitai has now been selected as a featuring film/finalist in a number of documentary film festivals including the Big Syn International Film Festival 2025!

Eitai Trailers

Teso, Uganda

Teso, in eastern Uganda, is home to more than two million people. Most families rely on farming and livestock for survival, but changing weather now brings harsher droughts and heavier floods. These shifts leave planting seasons uncertain and threaten the crops that sustain daily life.

Challenges and Resilience

Teso also carries the legacy of past conflict, cattle raids, and displacement.

Opportunities for work outside farming are scarce, especially for young people, and many communities face long-term marginalisation.

Amid these challenges, the people of Teso continue to adapt with resilience, creativity, and determination — building new ways forward in the face of uncertainty.

Eitai's Impact (Director's Statement)

With a small grant of £5,000 from Nottingham Trent University I set out to make the film. Initially, I thought I could film it on my phone (!), but thankfully I was introduced to Sonyanga Ole Ngais a talented Masai documentary maker passionate about gender equity and climate justice, who generously offered to film for free.

Our Eitai documentary has become so much more than a dissemination project. Shared with over 1,000 people across conferences, symposiums, and cinema screenings, it has sparked vital conversations around climate change, gender, and the power of grassroots social enterprises — from tree planting to knowledge exchange through music, dance, and drama.
Eitai has been:

• Discussed in the UK Parliament
• Listed by Springer Nature as one of the most influential public health films
• Shortlisted for the prestigious ISA Film Festival in Morocco as well as other cinema festival events.

But truly, the most moving part of this journey happened just recently: taking the documentary back to the communities in Teso who featured in it. Seeing their joy, hearing their voices amplified, and sharing laughter and songs together was incredibly humbling — and a reminder of who this work is really for.

Even more exciting: since the screenings, the NGOs featured in the film have decided to work together to tackle local issues — true eitai in action. Vital at a time when many of the NGOs have been impacted by aid cuts. We're now building a website to share the projects and invite wider support for community-led social justice. We have many more stories to tell.

What started as a small idea has grown beyond anything I could have imagined. None of this would have been possible without the spirit of Eitai — the togetherness of everyone who gave their time, energy, and heart to this project.

This journey has shown me how much the world can learn from Indigenous concepts like Eitai and Ubuntu — and why it's vital that Indigenous voices are centred in global policy and practice. We have much to learn from our Iteso neighbours.

disseminating the documentary- Uganda and beyond

(click to view the full photo)

Further information

To find out more about Eitai, explore the website and the interviews and articles linked below: