Two meals a day. That's what our child-headed and vulnerable female-headed households now have. Before they might have one a day or
one every other day.
Our Ugandan soil produces some of the best produce (e.g. coffee) in the world, and we have two growing
seasons due to our unique climate. We should not lack for food.
And yet hunger ravages our partners. In late 2009 famine hit,
the result of floods which destroyed food crops. The next year, we had a severe drought killing many fruit trees.
Sadly, when
we do plant gardens, unless we have the money to fence in large plots of land, theives, including neighbors, steal crops - especially
if they know that children or elderly women are the only ones around to protect the crops. It's not fair, and we also do not have
a system that can provide justice. We must help our own communities by being there for each other and standing up for each other as
we might within our village meetings.
With the American Jewish World Service, we were able to search out those most affected
by the famine and teach food security. We fed kids and their guardians and taught them the best practices for farming. We also provided
them with drought resistant seeds and tubers for maize, simsim, cow peas, sorghum and cassava stems.
The result: food aid and
the restoration of livelihoods.
Floods, drought, famine, and crop theft will not stop us. We will rebuild our community.
Helpful facts:
- From 2009-10, the CCYA identified 20 child-headed households and 10 vunerable (elderly) female-headed households. To
these 30 families we procured and delivered 3,600 kg of maize and 1,800 kg of beans.
- Our staff conducted agricultural training for
101 households in 3 subcounties on: land preparration, planing, weeding, pests and diseases, harvesting and post-harvesting handling.
- We
work within community systems to identify who needs to be trained. Our excellent networks facilitate finding the most deserving people.
- Our friends are vulnerable: elderly or living with deadly diseases. When our friends die, we are there for them. We attend their funerals,
we hold the survivors' hands and listen to them. We hug children. We provide what we can to their families to help them rebuild, and
we do what we can to help cover medical costs.
- Our tree seedling sales helped fund our transportation to these rural areas by allowing
our team to purchase and fuel motorcycles.
Food
security