Charity Registration Number 1179986
Farming
We believe that education empowers individuals to change their circumstances. Alongside our programmes in Kyemula and Namayili, we also help to run community based projects, with the aim of developing skills and encouraging self-sufficiency. One of our largest projects involves farming in both villages.
To maintain all we have achieved, our work requires continued investment. You can help by either donating directly, or contacting us to set up a regular donation.
Initial Farming Training
Most people in rural Uganda are subsistence farmers, living alomst entirely on the crops they grow and forever at the mercy of the climate, which could mean droughts and/or flooding. Heavy rain and flash flooding often causes landslides, which can lead to farmers losing not just their crops, but large sections of workable land too.
When the crops fail, people go hungry and no one has the cash to replace what they have lost. Our aim when setting up the farming project was to provide better tools, seeds and fertilisers to increase both the quality and variety of crops. This will hopefully enable the farmers to crop a large enough crop that they can sell the surplus to invest in supplies for the following season.
In 2021, we ran a pilot project with 50 farmers in both Kyemula and Namayili. The initial outcome has been positive, with both villages having surplus crops which could be sold to the schools.
We feel that investing in ways to enable the villages to become self sufficient is a more productive way of using our funds. It also reduces the amount of 'food aid' we are asked to provide in difficult times.
In 2022, we extended the project to include more farmers as well as purchasing longer term crops to benefit the villages, such as plantain, cassava and eucalyptus trees.
'Zukuka Bora Coffee Cooperative'
Also in 2023, we contacted Zukuka Bora, a cooperative coffee project in Uganda, recommended to us by JENGA Uganda.
Zukuka Bora specialise in cultivating and producing top-quality Arabica coffee for the world wide market. Our farmers recieved training, tools and advice. Once their crops are harvested, they will receive top-rate prices for their crops, allowing them to continue into the following season.
'Farming God's Way'
In 2023, we contacted Farming God's Way, an organisation working across Uganda to train and support small scale farming. We organised training sessions for both villages, where farmers attended both lectures and physical labouring activities.
