As a social worker, Patricia was almost embarrassed by the wealth her family possessed since many were quite unfortunate in her newfound community. However, her wealth was substantial in bettering the lives of the poor in Uganda. She eventually persuaded her father to invest in a new purpose-built babies’ home. The Nsambya Babies’ Home under the Child Welfare and Adoption Society was eventually redesigned as a fully functional solid building aimed at housing the less privileged babies. Patricia also fully funded the education of some of the orphans at the babies’ home for example Aloysius Byekwaso, a smart yet poor boy who was able to attend secondary school courtesy of Patricia’s selflessness, he went to one of the prominent schools in Uganda, St. Mary’s College School. Aloysius would always write to her sharing his academic progress and to-date attributes his success to Patricia.
During her free time while in Uganda, Patricia and a couple of her friends would tour around and they even encountered Mountain Elgon, a dormant volcano in eastern Uganda. However, the Priest friend with whom they had trekked the mountain fell ill with malaria and eventually succumbed to the disease while on the trek. Patricia and another friend had to carry his corpse down the mountain as other trekkers and camp members had fled earlier on. This bad experience and many other good ones are some of what made Patricia’s experience in Uganda an unforgettable one!
Another unforgettably sad experience Patricia faced while on her social work journey in Uganda was when Lillie Millie one of the teenage girls she had been taking care of escaped to Kenya with an older friend of hers in a bid to secure jobs at the Kenya Airways. While in Kenya, the two girls were reported missing and eventually found deceased, their bodies stuffed in sacks floating down the Athi River. Patricia, who was on an English break in England would eventually be notified about this sad and horrific occurrence, the culprits were apprehended and the bodies of the two girls were brought back home to their families in Uganda where they both had a decent burial they much deserved. Patricia’s attachment to these children meant that she shared in whatever sorrows or joys they experienced hence Millie’s death being such a blow to Patricia. She had to ensure that the other nurses and sisters offered limited care to the babies without getting too attached, a task that proved difficult as many of them would want to mother the babies.
In 1966, an appraisal regarding the running of Uganda as a multi-ethnic country sparked off between Sir Milton Obote the then Prime minister of Uganda and the then president Kabaka Muteesa II. Over the next few months, the military and state security services increased pressure on the Kabaka who eventually fled to exile and was eventually overthrown by Obote’s government. During this period, Patricia’s family was worried for her safety and urged her to leave Uganda, she eventually did.
Once the tension had subsided, she returned to Uganda, but a lot had changed! Obote’s regime was characterized by authoritarian rule! Political opponents were being tortured and there was increased food shortage and corruption. Unfortunately, once she thought all had calmed, in January 1971, while Obote was in Singapore for the Commonwealth Heads Of State Government Meeting, his government was overthrown by that of Idi Amin Dada. The previously peaceful Uganda was under political turmoil yet again! Patricia was again forced to leave Uganda due to the great bloodshed the country was facing under the once welcomed and praised, Amin regime.
Patricia shares a photo moment with some of the mothers and sisters from Nsambya Babies’ Home, they assisted with looking after the babies. ↩︎
Patricia poses with the then Governing Board members of the Nsambya Babies’ Home. ↩︎
On a cold morning in 1964, at 25 years of age with a passport in hand and such high hopes, Patricia embarked on her journey 4000 miles south of London to a country that straddled the equator, Uganda. All came into place following the usual Sunday evening dinner meetings while the family conversed with Dr. Magdalena Oberhofer a friend of Fr. De Reeper, who had been working with the grail and had recently returned from Uganda. In 1953, The Grail (a community of religious lay women from Holland, England and Germany) had established themselves in Uganda at the center of the Catholicism administration head quarters at the Rubaga Hill. It was through this society that Patricia was able to travel to Uganda even though she had not joined them as a member.
Upon her arrival in Uganda, Patricia noted with disappointment that life at the grail was pretty much the same as that in Europe with a lush view of Kampala and hot water running from the taps, just like in Europe. She expected to live a life totally different from what she was accustomed to back in Europe. It was at this hill that Patricia met Elizabeth Namaganda, a woman in her early 20’s that just like Patricia had devoted her life to social work. She wore a stern faced that carried authority but her smile would always put those around her at ease. Elizabeth and Patricia would soon become good friends and enjoyed their experiences working with each other
At the time of Patricia’s arrival, Uganda had gained her independence two years prior and agriculture was a booming sector where 75 per cent of cultivated land was devoted to subsistence agriculture and the remainder to cash crops. A revenue of £118 million was being collected from the peasant farmers into the development of the country. However, a lot was lacking in the health sector of the country, high maternal mortality rates and infections were the norm at that time putting the lives of the nursing mothers at great risk.
While still in Britain, Patricia had secured a job with child welfare and adoption society (C.W.A.S), a catholic organization aimed at catering for the vulnerable children in Uganda. Patricia narrated to her family that working with C.W.A.S was her absolute calling . Due to the high maternal mortality rates, often times, the fathers of the children would get stuck with the babies most times abandoning them at the hospital. Therefore Patricia had to work closely with the law in a bid to reunite these children with their families and that is how she crossed paths with Ms.Matilda Sengooba, a then magistrate at the Kampala Juvenile Court. Matilda was full of praises for Patricia as it seemed like she knew all the children personally.
Patricia placed advertisements and announcements in the national newspapers such as the Munno in English and the different local languages, she solely funded this. She would go as far as Gulu and regions north of the Nile to areas as far as Tororo near the Kenyan border and as far as the terrains in the South where Uganda met Rwanda and Congo. She eventually purchased a Volkswagen beetle car to ease her trips.
Patricia with some of the nurses and sisters together with the babies at Nsambya Babies’ Home.
Patricia carrying one of the babies at the Babies’ Home.A group of some of the babies having breakfast at the all new redesigned babies home
The seeds of Patricia’s passion to work in a children’s home were sown as she sat by the windowsill in Perugia, gazing upon Umbria. It was at this moment that she decided she would choose the vocation of residential social work that would involve immersion in a children’s home. Indeed luck was on her side when she wrote to a friend of her mother in Belgium who ran a children’s home requesting a months work experience in order to get a feel of the vocation. In fact Patricia somewhat felt the urge to skip her postgraduates degree at St. Andrews that her parents wished for her. Regardless, she went on to pursue her degree at St Andrews hence putting off her social work training for 4 years.
Upon finishing her degree, Patricia went on to do a two-year diploma in applied social studies at Liverpool University in 1961. courtesy of this course,Patricia was sent off to the poorest areas in Liverpool where she was yet again faced with the harsh realities of life as those she was helping lived lives totally different from that she was accustomed to. “I had loads of sympathy for people and plenty of common sense but boy, did i lack experience!.” she best described her situation in Liverpool. The true nature of difficulties of fieldwork made their keen impact felt. She worried that there was little she could do to improve these people’s lives. Patricia later managed to secure a work placement with immigrants in London in 1962 which she met with great excitement as it would be of valuable experience to her as a social worker. Patricia was shocked by the living conditions of the west Indians with whom she worked in England following the Nottingham race riots of 1958 that sparked a great deal of racism in the area.
It is by this profound love for residential social work that would later lead Patricia to Child Welfare and Adoption Society (CWAS), an organization that had been founded by Father Rawlinson in 1958 with an aim of providing a better future for the city’s vulnerable, orphaned children by providing them with good care and protection.
Born into a wealthy and renown business family of Arnold and Catherine Brenninkmeyer in 1938, Catherine was nothing short of the ordinary child. Although her family just like everyone else thought she would venture into business, little did they know that this very child would grow to have such an impact on hundreds of families in Africa. From as young as 8 years of age, a seed was planted into this little life. An urge to see beyond the affluent life in Wimbledon, England where she had been birthed. This can be attributed to her teacher at the Agatha Schule in Mettingen where she was taking piano classes among others. This teacher often told her stories of the little black children in Africa, an encounter that birthed her passion and desire to visit Africa and even stay there. Even more, Rev. Fr Jan De Reeper(Mill Hill Missionary Society) , a Dutch missionary priest friend of the Brenninkmeyers often told the family of his encounters in the African missions all while they sat together at the dining table during sunday evening dinners talking just like any normal family would. These two individuals paved the way and determination of Patricia to move to Africa, an idea her parents never welcomed.
Patricia never believed in the power of education if it would not lead her to Africa where her passion lay. Her life in school would be best termed as both humble and humorous as her good results were laboriously attained as her parents instilled more of the effort into her academic life. In order to build her zeal to learn, her parents passed on a deal to her, they would both take a trip with Patricia and Fr. Reeper to South Africa only if she would take Latin lessons with Fr. Reeper in the morning hours then they could all spend the rest of the day visiting and touring the different sites in Africa. Patricia welcomed this deal and went on to attain A’ level in Latin! This trip opened her eyes to the harsh realities of life as these times were the peak of the Apartheid policy in South Africa.
The unfair treatment of the black people in their homeland by the Dutch people did not sit well with Patricia and contrary to her parents’ expectations of her abandoning her urge to move to Africa, this encounter instead created an even bigger zeal in Patricia to make an impact on the lives of these people. Upon her completion of her return home from the trip and completion of her Latin lessons, it was arranged that Patricia take on a finishing course in Rome and Perugia, Italy living with the Grail Society (also known as The Grail), a group of religious lay women known to the Brenninkmeyers.
Patricia was happy with her exposure to all the cultural and artistic wonders that the country had to offer, and with her new found freedom away from home and its expectations.Patricia’s wonderful gift of accepting and quietly relating to people from different backgrounds and abilities, drawing them to co-operate in common enterprise, is the hallmark of her achievements in both England and later, in Uganda.
In the struggles and formative experiences of her early life, in her interaction with so many different and often strong personalities along the way, we find the seedbed that gave shape to a life of remarkable dedication to the well being of thousands who are the richer for having known her and benefited from her.
My name is Avril Bellinger, Honorary Associate Professor in Social Work at the University of Plymouth, Elder in Residence at the University of Glasgow UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts (RILA) and most importantly, long-time friend and volunteer with this fantastic organisation Kulika, visiting every year for 15 years.
I am honoured to speak on behalf of the Patron, the Archbishop of Kampala, the Board of Trustees, the Board of Directors, the staff team and the whole enormous Kulika family.
For over 30 years, Kulika has realised its vision of improving the quality of life for communities and environment by transforming livelihoods. It has trained thousands of farmers in ecological organic agriculture (EOA) and spread their influence through farmer-to-farmer extension.
Kulika is delighted to be delivering a pilot for One Health in two districts. It is an opportunity to demonstrate the powerful consequences of EOA to promote health through organic food production; soil conservation; plant and animal health, minimising chemical intervention; waste management; environmental hygiene; and community engagement. We all know that the problems we are facing globally are complex and connected. Kulika works systemically and proactively to increase holistic wellbeing. It continues to support activities after project funding stops and is active in over 27 districts all over Uganda.
The organisation’s core values of integrity, diversity, teamwork, commitment and learning are a point of coalescence for organisations like One Health, who recognise the power of EOA to deliver increased wellbeing to people, animals and planet one household at a time.
To end I want to thank the German funders, BMZ for awarding this third project to Kulika through Malteser whose trust, ongoing support and capacity-building are most appreciated. Finally but not least, thanks to the One Health team and its trainers for braving floods and difficult roads to get us ready for this launch. I give you Kulika! Thank you,
The Guest of Honor, the Patron of Kulika Uganda, His Grace the Most Reverend Paul Ssemogerere,
The outgoing Trustees, Mr. Peters Musoke, and Dr. Makuza,
Members of the Board of Trustees and Board of Directors,
The political and cultural leaders
Our funding Partners, (Malteser International, GIZ, Pelum Uganda, Bio vision Africa Trust to mention a few)
Our business partners (Centenary Bank, Save the Children)
Past and present beneficiaries
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Warm greetings from Kulika Uganda!
On behalf of the Board of Directors and on my own behalf, I welcome everybody to the Kulika Uganda Training Centre at Lutisi. Thank you for accepting our invitation to attend this historic function during which we will inaugurate our Patron, celebrate the service of two distinguished Trustees and show case some of the work we do.
We heartily thank the Archbishop for accepting our invitation to serve Kulika Uganda in the capacity of Patron.
Once more, can we give a round of applause to our new Patron!
Governance
Our Guest of Honour, at the helm of the organisation is a Patron, who is supported by 3 Trustees. The following are the current Trustees.
Deogratias Yiga
Brother Vincent Barigye
Josephine Kiiza.
The Board of Directors are composed of 6 members as follows:
Alastair Taylor – Board Chairperson
Julian Omala – Member and Chairperson Finance Committee
Ambrose Obi – Member and member of the Finance Committee
Jane Kisakye – Member and member of the Programs Committee
Evarist Baguma – Member and member of the Finance Committee
Magdalene Amujal – Board Secretary/Executive Director
The Board is supported by 2 Committees:
Programs and Fundraising Committee
Jane Kisakye – Chairperson
Betty Ikalany – Member
Christopher Ssewagudde – Member
Finance, Risk, Human Resource and Administration Committee
Omala Julian – Chairperson
Ambrose Obi – Member
Evarist Baguma – Members
Management and Staff
There are 8 Management staff headed by the Executive Director and in total Kulika Uganda employs 29 staff members.
Kulika Beneficiaries – Key farmers and scholarship beneficiaries
Dear Patron, the organization has a wealth of social capital formed by Key Farmer Trainers and scholarship beneficiaries. These help us to carry our work in different areas in the country. The Key farmers underwent training in ecological organic agriculture and are now practicing on their farms, and the scholarship beneficiaries received education support from Kulika scholarship fund. Both categories are represented in this ceremony
(key farmers and scholarship beneficiaries are introduced by show of hands)
Our Guest of Honor, I would like to give you an insight into the beginnings of Kulika Uganda
The Beginnings of Kulika Uganda
Kulika Uganda started in 1981. It was founded by Patricia Brenninkmeyer who had been a social worker in Uganda. She saw the need around 1979 and 1980 to give opportunities to bright students to study when much of the academic and institutional infrastructure of the country was non-functional. Patricia had special interest in children and their feeding. This led to the development of the agricultural programme to feed the children, and educational scholarships, to empower them.
Community Development
The initial academic program was the provision of postgraduate scholarships, but this was soon followed by the implementation of a community development program, mainly concerned with the promotion of ecological Organic Agriculture for food security and income. This has since expanded through training communities in sustainable livelihoods, and thereby enabling them to provide for themselves through acquisition of skills and knowledge to improve food and income security. In doing this Kulika Uganda is actively contributing towards the realization of the global sustainable development goals. To date over 20,000 farmers have benefited from this community development program.
Education
Kulika has supported students to study at vocational tertiary institutions, and at University levels, for certificate, diploma, Bachelors, Masters and PHD levels, in Uganda and abroad. Many are now contributing to the development of this country in different capacities, and some are present in this gathering. To date over 1,500 learners have benefited form this support.
Our Guest of Honour and Patron, with the Vision of Improved quality of life and environment for all communities reached, Kulika’s work inspires communities, households and individuals with confidence, knowledge, and skills to harness their resources and be productive for lasting changes in their lives.
Kulika Uganda’s interventions and experience of over 30 years inspires creativity and innovation, health and nourishment, and environment protection for rural transformation. The focus areas, as stated in our recently released strategic plan (2023 to 2027), are:
Ecological Organic Agriculture and Climate change mitigation
Youth entrepreneurship and employability by promoting vocational skilling, scholarships and infrastructure development for self-reliance.
Research, Advocacy/Policy influencing and development.
Networking and Partnerships
Current projects
Kulika is implementing several projects
Name of the project
Funders
District of Implementation
Locally-driven co-development of plant-based value chains towards more sustainable African food system with healthier diets and export potential
EU/ InnoFood Africa
northeastern and central region in the Kaberamaido, Ngora and Wakiso
Energy Solutions for Displaced Setting
MIT/DLab and GIZ
West Nile region
Improving livelihoods through employment opportunities for vulnerable youth from refugee and host communities in West Nile, Uganda
Malteser International and BMZ (Starting 15th March 2023)
West Nile region in the districts of Madi Okolo and Terego Districts
Mainstreaming ecological organic agriculture in agricultural systems
PELUM Uganda and Biovision Africa Trust
Central region in the districts of Luweero, Masaka, Mubende, Mukono, and Nakasongola
Strengthening the capacity of 200 women to improve inputs, extension service, value addition of maize and soy bean production and marketing.
Erbacher Foundation/ Malteser International
Central region in the district of Wakiso
MSC in Development Management
Open University and Scholarship Commission
National
Female Centred Permaculture
Girls of Tommorow Foundation
Central region in the Rakai District
Early childhood development
Kulika Uganda
Kampala, Ggaba and Natete Markets
Key Farmer Training
Kulika Uganda
Based at the Kulika Training Centre
Internship Program for Students from Institutions of higher learning
Kulika Uganda
Based at the Kulika Training Centre
All these projects are contributing to the vision and mission of the organization but also underpinned by the UN development goals and the Government of Uganda National Development Plan 3.
Partners
We thank all the partners who have supported us in this journey, and specifically wish to recognize the following current partners for contributing towards the vision and mission of Kulika Uganda;
InnoFood Africa
Malteser International
Pelum Uganda
Bio vision Africa Trust
MIT-DLAB/GIZ
Bicton Overseas Trust
Open University and Common Wealth Scholarship Commission
SCOPE Uganda
What is still needed?
Our Guest of honor, as we look ahead, we continue to invite all of you to journey with us as we continue to address the challenges being faced by communities. There is still a lot to do to bring about self-reliance and improve the quality of life. Together we will make significant contributions by supporting Community Development initiatives, education and research.
Gratitude
Our Guest of Honor, allow me to thank the following.
Patricia for supporting and watching over us as we grew into a strong, healthy organization.
Family members (especially Mr. Thomas (MHSRP) and Fr. Paul Brenninkmeyer) for their great interest and support to the work in Uganda.
Jane Leek, and the Kulika 1981 Trustees, for their invaluable encouragement and direction
We thank all our Partners, Networks, and Collaborators, the Key farmers and Education scholarship beneficiaries.
Another round of applause!
Patricia Brenninkmeyer in her own words
Our Guest of Honor, I want to end with Patricia’s own words.
‘I have had the very great luxury of being able to fulfill my dreams through the hard work of utterly dependable, tolerant, versatile people who had the skills which I lack. I am immensely grateful to them’
To all of you, Patricia may not be actively involved today, but she knows everything is taken care of by dependable, tolerant and versatile people, with the skills required to ensure the vision that she started in 1981, will outlive all of us and continue for generations to come!
Launch of Kulika Annual Day and Patricia Fund:
Our Guest of Honour and Patron, as we have heard about Patricia and the seed she planted in Uganda, it is our commitment to see the seed keep growing, and plant more seeds. In that regard, today we will have the privilege of launching the Kulika Annual Day in which we shall be showcasing/exhibiting the work we do with the different partners.
We will also be witnessing the launch of the Patricia Fund for scholarship beneficiaries.
We appeal to our dear Partners to walk with us in these new interventions.
Long Live Kulika Uganda!!
Our Guest of Honour and Patron I wish to invite the Chairperson Board of Trustees to make his speech and lead us to the next phase,
We are Magdalene and Gillian, trainers working for Kulika Uganda. We are passionate about seeing that people engaged in agriculture adopt sustainable farming practices which are easy to implement and have benefits for the people and the planet.
Kulika is a non-government organization working with rural communities to empower people to build their livelihoods and that of their communities with skills and technologies in Ecological Organic Agriculture alongside, social and business education and creative capacity building.
Let us introduce to you Lovinsa, a farmer who lives with her husband and five children in Lutisi Village, Namayumba Sub-county, Wakiso district where they have two acres of land. The family used to grow bananas and legumes on this land but until they came to us they could not meet their food and income needs. Lovinsa was always looking for ways of increasing the productivity of their limited land and improving her farming activities. In her community, extension service workers hardly reached the farmers and this meant that farmers couldn’t get support to improve their farming methods.
When she learnt about Kulika Training Center through her friends, she made an effort to visit. During the visit, she was introduced to different agricultural technologies and practices. With encouragement and support from family and group members, Lovinsa then, full of excitement, registered to attend an eleven months Ecological Organic Agriculture Training course organized by Kulika Uganda. From the course, Lovinsa learned of a basket of options for family farming from which she could make choices.
She was particularly interested in the food forest as a sustainable way of improving her farming systems. Lovinsa learnt ecological organic agricultural technologies and practices such as planting in rows, making organic manures, looking after livestock, agroforestry and integrating animals and crops.
As trainers, part of the challenge of teaching this course is to help the farmers to let go of their conventional ways of farming which is not always easy. For example, training farmers to switch from one crop combination to a more convenient one is usually met with some resistance”
The training has 11 modules, all structured to support the improvement of household agriculture. The trainees’ learning is divided into residential blocks (at Kulika Training Centre) and on-farm periods in between to allow utilization of knowledge and skills learnt. This enabled Lovinsa to practice what she learned.
The frequent follow-up visits by Kulika field officers coupled with her own interest and commitment meant that Lovinsa and family members would develop confidence in the processes and start believing in themselves. This unlocked her potential which led to the success of her food forest.
She worked hard and followed all the steps, establishing a food forest in a quarter of an acre with the help of her family members as well as the group members. All the materials for establishing the food forests were obtained from her own savings and from the group members.
Lovinsa learnt that household waste is valuable in contributing to the fertility of the land. She established rubbish holes for both biodegradables (crop refuse and peelings) and non-biodegradable materials (plastics, broken bottles etc.). That contributed not only to the manure for the plants but also to better sanitation at home.
A food forest is a garden which has all types of food crops all year round, regardless of the season. In the garden, there is the maximization of the productivity of the land as the crops are carefully established following their characteristics e.g. feeding habits, nutrient needs, growth patterns and maturity periods. This promotes biodiversity and stabilizes the ecosystem. With all this in place, disease and pest incidences are reduced.
Kulika Uganda provided the extension support to help her set up the garden and build her capacity to practice what she had learned.
You should pay her food forest a visit now. If you do, you will be inspired to find a wide variety of vegetables, bananas, potatoes, maize, fruits, leguminous plants (caliandara, climbing beans) and cassava. With this mixture of crops, by the second month of the first season, Lovinsa was able to feed the family with vegetables.
In her own words, moreover, with a smile on her face, Lovinsa told us; “As a family, we were so malnourished. Consuming a variety of foods from our forest garden, we now eat a balanced diet and we are healthier. Even our neighbours comment on how healthy we look! When I have visitors, I do not worry about what to feed them. I simply go to my forest garden, get the food and prepare.”
“I used to suffer so much during the dry season without green vegetables, but now I can enjoy vegetables throughout the year. This is because we use different manures to fertilize the soils and practice mulching. We have also channelled most of the runoff water into the gardens and with all that, our crops are sustained longer than before. We also adopted a small garden near the homestead where vegetables like kale are planted”.
She told us she was now so happy that she did not need to spray her crops with harmful chemical pesticides. With the knowledge she got, she would easily prepare her own bio pesticides and bio fertilizers using locally available materials. The husband added: “Our home used to be dirty, but with these new technologies, especially the making of organic manure from the household waste we improved the hygiene in our home”. That practice saved the family income from buying chemical pesticides and at the same time improving soil fertility.
We at Kulika are encouraging farmers to revive traditional approaches to farming from our ancestors, and to be proud of their local and indigenous knowledge, combining them with modern organic, permaculture innovations. Moving away from harmful chemical pesticides and fertilizers not only produces better food and saves input costs but also restores the soil which absorbs carbon dioxide and can contribute to climate cooling.
After six months, Lovinsa and her family realized that the pilot forest garden could not give them the needed income, as most of the crops were consumed by the family members. So, she demarcated another ¼ an acre for a second food forest. Although the food forest was established, the family had to wait for six more months to begin earning income from vegetables and other crops.
From their savings, the family added livestock to their farm: 2 pigs and 10 local chickens and a cow. This became an additional source of manure to enrich the fertility of the land.
With the improvements on the farm, Lovinsa started receiving visitors. Agriculture extension officers and other organizations came to learn about the food forest. She became a role model in her community. She got additional income from organizations that took their farmers to learn from her food forest garden and she was also hired to train groups of farmers by other development partners.
The family was now able to meet their basic needs: “We have enough food to eat at home and we enjoy a lot of fruits. My parents are able to provide us with books and pens for our education.” one of the children told us with a proud smile.
Lovinsa realized that a family can become food secure if the land is made productive by using simple and effective technologies. Her home became a meeting venue for her ten group members and they would always learn from her garden. Lovinsa remarks with the lovely sense of a leader:
“I want all my group members to adopt the food forests in their homes because I have experienced how beneficial it is!”
Whenever they visit Lovinsa, they observed new improvements in her garden such as new seedlings planted, healthy crops and also her family’s commitment to the success of the garden. They realized that a family can grow a variety of food using food forest technology on a small piece of land! This was motivating to the members.
They all expressed an interest to start their own garden with the help of their new trainer! Thereafter the group members worked together on a rotational basis to establish forest gardens in each member’s home.
The members also established a routine for visiting each other to encourage, advise, learn and pool labour to support one another where needed.
The members told us “We now have a learning centre and agricultural trainer in our reach. We can access home-grown agricultural extension assistance easily!”
She is receptive to technologies that add value to her agricultural production. She has new ideas on how to improve her farming methods and increase her income. Lovinsa observed that with the increased number of visitors to her farm, it was important for her to incrementally improve the quality of her work.
She plans to continue training the group members and provide her services to other organizations. Her farm has been registered as a model farm that hosts other farmers during Kulika’s 11-month training.
Kulika Uganda has continued supporting the family and other group members through extension visits and connections to other partners. Through social innovation, Kulika will ensure that Lovinsa becomes part of a training team to not only build the capacity of other farmers but as a source of encouragement and inspiration.
There are too many farmers needing support. It is through the experiences of local farmers like Lovinsa that the new ecological approaches, like food forests, can spread horizontally, far and wide. We need to cultivate local models, like Lovinsa, to spread the skills and technologies through farmer-to-farmers extension outreach.
Ogwang Denis 54 years from Alebere parish abolet village Barr Sub County in Lira district. We have lived here for 30 years and have 6 children with 1 grandchild. Life here has been difficult especially during the Lord’s Resistance Army war. We have since childhood derived our livelihood from agriculture and specifically tilling of land. We used to undertake farming using different methods that we were used to and saw our fore fathers using, although we never realized any changes in the farm output. However the story changed in 2011 when we were selected by Kulika Uganda and we were trained in Sustainable Organic Agriculture. We adopted practices like growing crops in line, not burning the field, making nursery beds for vegetables among others.
Through the groups, we are able to bulk our crops and keep it in our nice store as we wait for prices to get better to enable us sell. The VSLA Activities the group and pay back later, through this arrangement I have been able to access money and pay fees for my children because I sell produce and get more money as a result of selling with others. We now eat well as we grow vegetables like tomatoes, pumpkin, fruits like mangoes and we eat as well as sell some. This has also helped to bring some more money.
Patricia as a baby.
Patricia on her graduation from St. Andrews
