SUPPORTED BY PERMAFUND’S DONORS
Thanks to the generous contributions made to Permaculture Australia’s gift fund, Kitgum Permaculture Practitioners Association was one of the 20 organisations that received a Permafund grant in 2024. Their community is in the Alango ward, Pandwong division and Kitgum district of Northern Uganda.
Project manager Patrick Paul Kidega has sent us this report about their Grandmother Kitchen Gardens project. “It came about in response to the urgent need to solve the food crisis affecting elderly people, mostly widows & widowers, as a result of their grandchildren not caring for them by providing basic needs since most of them stay by themselves and as such, cannot keep up to speed with their daily needs.”
“Our association conducted a needs-based assessment which highlighted the need for this project. It was also backed & supported by the local council and the Lowest Administrative Units where the elderly people stay.”
“Using permaculture principles and ethics, especially that of care for others and incorporating zoning, we designed a very simple, effective and efficient kitchen garden system that is manageable by the elderly.”
“This Project was designed to benefit 30 elderly widows, single mothers and also a widower. It has a multiplier effect since these elderly have dependents, mostly grandchildren, who have been left behind by their children either as a result of HIV AIDS-related death or divorce. According to our survey of the 30 households we found that this project will directly support 134 people, which is something to be proud of.
Objectives of the project
1. To provide instant affordable food supplies to the elderly in need.
2. To use permaculture and its principles to help answer the community’s most pressing problems such as poor food security and bad agricultural practices such as chemical-related farming.
3. To help spread permaculture to the local community through demonstrations, since it is still a new concept.
4. To help enlighten the community that we can farm anywhere and that it doesn’t require much land to farm, using the different gardening styles;
Steps taken in project implementation
A. Identification of the beneficiaries was done by the field staff of the organisation with the support of the local council leaders. This was followed by the immediate selection of the 30 successful beneficiaries based on their needs and ability to contribute to the project by offering labour such as watering, weeding and daily care to the garden which can’t be done by our organisation. Those who were a little bit strong and had grandchildren stood a better chance of selection but also we included those whose neighbours promised to help them do the work.
B. After the selection we spent 3 days training the beneficiaries. We gave them background on the project and its benefits, We trained them in simple management skills like fencing their gardens to prevent animals from eating their produce. We taught them the basic principles of permaculture and the importance of using organic materials and not chemicals, the need to water the gardens and keep them mulched.
We also taught them about the types of veggies that they would need and useful tree seedlings to select. The meeting was well attended and was much appreciated by the beneficiaries.
After the inception meeting, as an organisation completed these steps
- We visited the sites to assess the sizes of their land and help us with the designs of the gardens
- After the visits we drew plans of the various gardens according to the available land and also put in some creativity while being fully aware that in designing we must make sure that water is the centre point and the flow of water and maintaining water in the system is key, so we designed from pattern to design.
- After coming up with the designs we set out to work and every day we made two gardens. It is important to note that we break the soil first to loosen it before the actual design begins.
CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED:
- The lack of tools and training manual is still very much affecting
- Inadequate species of native trees and water problems as our sources of water are far apart and we live in a dry area that receives very little and unpredictable rainfall.
- Shortage of airtime and data bundles for effective communication
- Means of transport for rounding up & mobilising people for activities.
- Community attitudes such as stealing and also destroying the gardens at night since the elderly cannot keep watch.
- Problems of labour shortage after setting up the gardens as the grandmothers can not effectively handle management given their age.
- Stray animals such as cows, goats, pigs and birds like chickens, and ducks encroaching on and destroying the gardens since it was not fenced.
- The funds were limited
WAYS FORWARD AND RECOMMENDATIONS: We recommend that;
- We need to do more community training on permaculture so that everybody can copy and try it in their homes
- Provide local means to fence the small gardens.
- Development of effective work plans and budget
- There is a need to carry out constant community dialogue to help improve their mindsets and learn to coexist and help the needy
- Provide water cans to help water the gardens during dry and days that rain did not come.
- Lobby for more funds to enable us to do more.
- Administrative unit, smartphones and laptops for easy reporting
- Develop training manuals for references during and after training
Conclusively the Grandmother Kitchen Gardens project is a big success and an eye-opener as many people took an interest and copied the ideas, tried them in their homes and requested for more information to be extended to them. The little grant fund was timely and so much appreciated since it enabled us to realise our objectives and goals for this project.
In this report, there are photos of some of the kitchen gardens we developed. It is amazing to see how simple ideas of permaculture can greatly impact and transform the lives of the intended recipients.
With this illustration, I hope and believe that there is value for money in any permaculture project done honestly with a people-centred approach, and do encourage us all to embrace permaculture to help solve our current problems and I, therefore, call for more funds to be directed towards permaculture since it has proven to be the most pragmatic approach to problem-solving. In permaculture there are no wrong or right answers, everything we experience is a response that requires us to fully be in union with Mother Nature as the response to our actions tells us either or what to be done or not done.
Much appreciation to the Permafund team for the trust placed in us.”
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