Obuntu Resets

Unlike carbon credits, which are units of offsetting carbon emissions, Obuntu Resets are Units of Caring—resetting the flow of catalytic funding towards restoring the broken human-nature relations in place. As a 'measure' of the quality of relations 'with' and 'within' a place, Obuntu offers a pathway to systemic regeneration.

They are not carbon offsets that allow harm to continue elsewhere. They are not charity that creates dependency. They are not investment seeking financial returns. They are not solutions imposed by external experts.

Instead, they are invitations to fuel what communities have already determined is essential for life to thrive—shifting from "Problem → Money → Action" to "Imaging Right Relation → Money → Action → Enriched Relation."

Toward healing specific relations, sensed, mapped, shared intent, budgeted and issued by communities in place:

• Resident ⇋ Waste
• Community ⇋ Governance
• Landowner ⇋ Stewarding Identity
• Wetland ⇋ Personhood
• Future Generations ⇋ Voice

Each reset activates Obutaka—the land-sourced belonging, authority, and calling to care for all life. When one relation heals, others cascade: cleaner water, air, richer soils, better nutrition, youth purpose, renewed hope.

Not toward reductionist "impact metrics" designed by distant funders. Not toward surface symptoms that leave root causes untouched. Not toward projects that extract value from place rather than enriching it. Not toward compliance requirements that force communities to perform for external validation.

The community—with their natural ecosystems like wetland, river, forest and future generations as stakeholders—decides priorities.

"After 24 months of deep listening, Kiwaatule's essence emerged as the Obuntu Living Drum—awakening us to a fundamental truth: We cannot evolve our relation with life on earth without evolving our relation with land, and we cannot evolve our relation with land without evolving our relation with money, and evolution cannot happen without learning by doing."

This initiative emerges from the Nalubaaga wetland bioregion in Kampala, Uganda—where 92% of 300+ landowners have expressed willingness to collectively govern 500+ acres. The language is shifting from "my plot" to "our place." Through $30,000 of micro-caring flows, 13 core relations are moving from broken/absent to emerging.

Explore the full Kiwaatule-2030 journey →

The current financial infrastructure is not designed for this shift—it would rather continue funding symptoms of systemic failure, perpetuating the status quo. Further, it's not built for learning and evolution, at least toward living systems. This requires aligned individuals and organizations like you to lead.

Together we can demonstrate a healthier relation with money that flows with, rather than against, the forces of nature.

Nascent movements are already questioning the dominant narrative on financial flows. Many small initiatives are achieving outsized impact—thousands of acres of land bought and returned to indigenous peoples, funding commons-based regenerative economies, etc. But these remain in closed circles.

The same way mycelial networks transform and transport decomposing nutrients to nourish forests, soils, and climate, now is the time to create a mycelial network for money to flow towards nourishing life in the places/bioregions we call home.

The degrading wetland, soil, river, or forest can't wait another funding cycle.