Preparing Students For Success

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

FARMING IN UGANDA

Did you know that 60% of employment in Uganda is in agriculture? Much of this work, particularly in northern Uganda where Social Promise is involved, is subsistence agriculture. This means the people involved are really making just enough to feed their own families. The future well-being of the children who live at St. Jude Children's Home is dependent on their mastery of farming skills.

Cultivating a Garden

Two afternoons a week, 15 of the older children living at St. Jude work in the vegetable garden located on the home's grounds. The mothers, whose salaries you support with your donations, teach the children the skills they need to learn. Through this work, they learn not only how to grow and maintain crops, but also how to collaborate as a team through problem-solving and the sharing of ideas. Children with behavioral issues find these skills-building activities particularly important, but the determination, discipline and sense of personal responsibility that this work builds are truly essential for any child to successfully negotiate life independently. And as the children’s sense of responsibility over their work grows, they develop pride in their work and its outcomes.

The Farm

In addition to the garden, St. Jude Children’s Home owns a 200-acre farm on the outskirts of Gulu. The farmland was purchased in 2010 to produce the food needed for all the residents of St. Jude’s. Any excess food is sold and the profits directly benefit the Home. Crops such as corn, rice, cassava, beans, sunflowers, bananas, papaya, avocado, and other citrus fruits are cultivated on the land.

Rudimentary dormitories were built on the land to offer senior and university students the opportunity to receive agricultural training when they are not in school. During the COVID-19 lockdown, 50 high school students and university students have lived on and maintained the farm together. In that period alone, the students planted 61 acres of corn, 12 acres of rice, 12 acres of cassava, and 5 acres each of sunflowers and beans. Thanks to their hard work and steady rain in the area, the crops are growing well, and a generous harvest is expected.