Thank you, Presiding Officer. I visited Mbale in Uganda during the half-term recess as part of the celebrations of the tenth anniversary of the Welsh Government’s Wales for Africa programme. The programme has supported and encouraged people in Wales to make a difference in sub-Saharan Africa. Whilst people from Wales have active partnerships in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, probably the greatest concentration of activity is in the Mbale region of eastern Uganda, about five hours’ drive from the capital, Kampala.

During my time in Uganda, I visited health centres, a regional hospital, schools and several tree nurseries. I was shown around the main slum in Mbale, launched a women’s honey co-operative, and signed a memorandum of understanding with our key partners in the area. I distributed tree seedlings, planted a mango tree—that was an experience and a half—and turned on new LED lights powered by a mini hydro unit in a rural school. And I met many volunteers from Wales involved in a variety of activities, along with six people from Wales on eight-week placements with our international learning opportunities programme.

I also saw some shocking things: bare and stained foam mattresses in a desperately under-resourced health centre where women give birth by torchlight, a six-bed delivery suite in the main hospital that serves a population larger than Wales struggling to cope with women in labour—sometimes as many as 50 in one day—an enormous smouldering pile of clinical waste dumped at the back of the same hospital because the incinerator was broken, and children drinking dirty water drawn from a polluted river in the middle of a slum. Those children are vulnerable to abuse of all kinds.

But, wherever I went, I also saw evidence of people from Wales working alongside local people, making a genuine difference: there were three young men from Carmarthenshire working with Engineers for Overseas Development to build a desperately needed maternity unit in rural Kachumbala—an electrician, a plumber and a carpenter, working alongside Ugandan workmen; there were volunteers from the Wrexham-based Teams4u, that I know my colleague, Lesley Griffiths, is well aware of, engaging a whole school in learning about sexual and reproductive health and testing everyone for HIV, including parents, training a total of 1,500 volunteers from across the region in community health and hygiene promotion—they’re doing a great job in helping to prevent and control outbreaks of diarrhoea and even cholera; a solar-powered water pump, designed and installed by a team from Engineers for Overseas Development, providing clean water to over 1,000 people and 4,000 cattle; and improved neonatal care as a result of training from Wales—that’s meant that neonatal mortality in the Mbale regional referral hospital has dropped from a shocking 52 per cent to a still unacceptably high 17 per cent in just two years, but an enormous drop in mortality—and the very famous motorbike ambulance service for the entire region devised by volunteers from the Welsh ambulance service, supported by the south Wales charity PONT and the district councils of the Mbale region with money from UK Aid and the Welsh Government.

Much of the activity that I saw was delivered by non-governmental organisations such as PONT, which started in Pontypridd, Engineers for Overseas Development in Carmarthen, and Teams4u from Wrexham. Many of the projects have benefitted from small and medium-sized grants from the Wales for Africa programme, with more money having been levered in from other donors or raised by volunteers.

One of the highlights of the trip was visits to several of the 45 community tree nurseries run by the 10 Million Trees project through the Size of Wales. I met with many of the dedicated staff who have this year raised and distributed 1.2 million seedlings to small farmers. I witnessed two different drama presentations that are used to encourage and inform rural communities both about the need to plant more trees and how to look after them. I also saw how Plant!, the Welsh Government initiative to plant a tree in Uganda and Wales for every child born or adopted in Wales, works. Through Plant! a family can have a fruit tree—often a mango, an avocado or jackfruit tree—to plant near their house. It not only provides shade but also much needed additional nutrition to their diet. Actually, that’s a really important point, because much of the diet in that part of Uganda is heavily concentrated on carbohydrates, without much else to add to their diet. So, the role of fruit in their diet is particularly important.

I also met with Her Excellency Alison Blackburne, the British High Commissioner to Uganda, and key officials from the UK Department for International Development. There’s much more to gain from that particular engagement as well. They agreed to work more closely with our officials in the future, particularly in the important area of carbon financing, which we hope will enable many more trees to be planted over the coming years.

During my short visit, I was able to see just a few of the projects being supported by Wales in Mbale, but I’m well aware that over the last 10 years over 500 projects across sub-Saharan Africa, originating from every constituency in Wales, have been supported. In a few short days, I saw for myself how Wales for Africa is making a profound difference to the lives of people in Mbale and in Wales. I’ve seen some very difficult sights that will stay with me for a very long time, but I pay tribute to the many thousands of people from Wales that volunteer to help make the world a much better place through this programme.