Growing a Better Tomorrow ~ August E-Pearls

"Uganda is truly the pearl of Africa" ~ Winston Churchill

Greetings!

We are feeling the scorching summer heat here at Children of Uganda; and yet, there's little reason to complain in our air conditioned office with easy access to clean drinking water and restaurants downtown. While most of us are fortunate enough to enjoy these daily comforts, we know this is not the reality for countless others facing severe temperatures and drought this month.

In fact, over 10 ten million people in the Horn of Africa (Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Uganda) are struggling to survive in the driest period on record in 60 years. Very poor rainfall has led to crop failures and livestock deaths in the region, which in turn has resulted in rising food prices in an already unstable economic environment (Unicef).

Our hearts go out to the children and families across East Africa who are facing severe malnutrition and economic strife as a result of this current crisis.

At Sabina Primary School we are making continued strides in our Food and Water Security program (FWS) to help safeguard our kids from the devastating effects of drought and food shortage (read more below). Thanks to your remarkable support, our children have access to all the resources they need to stay happy and healthy.

Please continue to e-mail your story ideas, questions and comments to pearls@childrenofuganda.org. We look forward to hearing from you!

Food and Water Security

A Sustainable Plan for our Future

A short three years ago, we introduced the concept of permaculture (permanent agriculture) to our staff at Sabina with the intention of giving them the tools to grow more of our own food, store more water, teach the children sustainable agriculture skills, and move towards food and water security at our school.

Our staff took up the challenge, in spades! We now have over 100 fruit trees producing mangoes, jackfruit, avocadoes, and pawpaw for our children. Thanks to new water tanks that store wet season rain, our gardens also produce many types of potatoes, carrots, beets, pumpkins, eggplants and other vegetables that add valuable nutrition to their staple diet of posho (corn-based porridge) and beans. Eggs are now a weekly addition to the children's diet, too.

Our kids enjoy added nutritious greens with their posho and beans!

But, perhaps the most vital crop reaped is the garden's new role as a learning tool, which sprang from the participation of seven of our teachers in a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course held at our school in 2010. Those seven teachers have since drafted a new curriculum in partnership with the Department of Education that will integrate our permaculture-based garden into every classroom subject - sciences, math, arts, reading and writing, as well as agriculture.

Indeed, the Department of Education has proposed using our school as a model for experiential learning - taking the children out of the classroom and into the garden for hands-on activities. (How many ways can you cut up a jackfruit to get one-half: two quarters; four eighths; one quarter and two eighths - so much easier to see a fraction when you have your hands on it - and get to eat it at the end of class!)

An edible teaching tool ~ fresh jackfruit from Sabina's garden.

We are so proud of our teachers and our students. Their energy levels are up in so many ways - proof in the pudding that good nutrition grows the body and the mind!

Sign up for updates on our blog at http://childrenofuganda-permaculture.blogspot.com/. We will be updating it shortly, following technical difficulties over the past year.

In Their Own Words

"At school life is very good becuase we are feeding on a balanced diet and sleeping under mosquito nets. Our school has a very good compound with pretty flowers and trees. My life is okay and I thank God for that."

~Cate

P6, Sabina Primary School

Taking a bite out of good nutrition!

Did You Know?

Uganda has two rainy and dry seasons per year. Rainy seasons run March to May and August to early November with dry

seasons in between.

Chicken Project

Sabina's chicken house has expanded with the second generation of healthy chickens producing enough eggs to add to the children's morning tea and sufficient to sell at the market to cover the cost of their feed. Our eggs are the ones with bright yellow yolks; the result of all those greens the chickens forage!

Sabina Leading Uganda!

In 2009, Prue Gill, an Australian master teacher and Kitchen Garden Foundation board member, spent 10 days working with our teachers on experimental approaches to learning.

Prue returned this June to follow-up on these workshops and the collaborative document our teacher team produced called Sabina Leading Uganda! Prue was delighted to see Sabina's progress and the teachers were also happy to have her back to assit with their new curriculum.