Gender Equality Uganda Project #48520

1,000 Women's Gardens for Health and Nutrition

by Rwenzori Center for Research and Advocacy

Project Report | Jan 18, 2022
Progress Updates and Future Plans, January 2022

By Doreen Kansiime and Robin Marsh | Horticulturalist/project leader; Project advisor

Harvesting pumpkins (can you see them?)

We are glad to report good news that last month 1,000 Women’s Gardens for Health and Nutrition received a grant from a Bay Area based small family foundation. They were especially impressed with the holistic approach of RCRA in meeting the integrated health and livelihood needs of women in western Uganda, with food security and nutrition as the core focus. With this new grant we will be able to add a component on reproductive health knowledge and services for young mothers, and adopt additional measures to improve household and community climate change resilience including multi-purpose tree planting adjacent to gardens and distribution of water tanks for rainwater harvesting.

Now that Benjamin and Wycliff have joined the team as garden technicians, graduating from their internships, they have taken on more tasks, including monitoring Phase 1 gardens. Of the 100 gardens established, they report that 65 have continued to garden on their own, buying and using saved seeds, with an average of four crops growing in the gardens. Of the 65, 17 have compost pits (see photo). The project is encouraging others to build pits and showing how to make fertile compost out of local waste.

By mid-December 2021, the team had completed Phase 2 gardens, with all 75 household gardens and eight community gardens in the harvest stage. In November and December trainings were convened and carried out in organic pest and disease management, soil and water management – including composting, and seed saving/. With 65 Phase 1 gardens, 75 Phase 2 gardens, and 16 community gardens, there are more than 300 families harvesting vegetables for home consumption and sale (photos below).

The project has developed a work plan for 2022 that includes an impact survey mid-year to gather information on the nutritional, health, income and savings benefits of the gardens, and how to spread these benefits more equitably to families with greatest vulnerability.

Testimonials

I look after six children in my house. How I came to know about the 1,000 Women’s Gardens, it was in March 2021, through Doreen. She came and told us how to plant seeds on raised beds and I learned another skill through her that is plant spacing, when I am planting my seedlings, I use a proper space, and we have also learned how to manage our plants. Through trainings we have also improved on planting vegetables in our kitchen gardens. So, we have reduced on buying vegetables from the market. We are hoping to get seeds after the harvest, so we dry our seeds ready to plant for the next season. We have also learned how to share views and knowledge with other members, and to talk in public.

I have 19 years and I’m having two children. In order to take care of my children, I sometimes go in people’s farms and dig for them to make money and buy them food. The little money that I earn is not enough to take care of me and my children, since their father cannot, and my parents cannot either. In July 2021, Doreen, and extension workers with RCRA, came to our village to encourage the young mothers to go for kitchen gardening, so when they came to me, I looked into it and saw it was a good program for me. From kitchen gardening I am hoping that I will be able to get food for my children, and the surplus I will take to the market and sell to buy medication, clothing, and other basic needs. ….. Also, the money I may earn from the community garden might pay fees to learn a simple skill like tailoring.

My family is one of the beneficiaries of the 1,000 Gardens program that we got to know through my wife. Before the program of kitchen gardening I used to get angry with my wife because of not fulfilling the domestic needs of the family. But after the garden, we have enough food in the locality to eat…. we no longer need to buy vegetables from the market like tomatoes, cabbages, sukuma wiki. As the leader of the household I do the fencing where the nurseries are, and also the mother gardens to prevent stray animals from ruining the vegetables, I also maintain the nursery beds, and prepare where to transplant the seedlings from. Through the training I’ve come to realize that working together as a family, the man and the woman in the kitchen gardening, is very important, it reduces fighting in families, and helps with raising up children who will take an example from us.

All GlobalGiving donations go directly to support women’s gardens. Please contribute here and thank you!

1,000 Women’s Gardens for Health and Nutrition.

A final note, we are saddened to report that the father of Jostas Mwebembezi (ED, RCRA) passed of complications from Covid-19 on January 13^th, at 65 years old. May he rest in peace.

Woman shows off new hoe bought from garden sales

Young mother - testimonial

Mother of six - testimonial

Husband - testimonial

Project team & grandmother

Compost pit, local materials

Small garden

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Sep 20, 2021
Progress Report, September 2021

By Doreen Kansiime and Robin Marsh | Horticulturalist/project leader; Project advisor

weeding before transplanting

The first phase of 1,000 Women’s Gardens was completed by the end of July with 100 gardens established and families beginning to harvest tomatoes (photo), pumpkin (photo), local spinach (dodo), kale (sukawamiki) cabbage, onions and eggplant. In addition, families are harvesting and sharing collectively from 8 community gardens. While women are the main gardeners, spouses and children are beginning to join in on the tasks and the trainings offered by RCRA horticulturist and project leader, Doreen.

In August, two student interns joined 1,000 Women’s Gardens from the School of Agriculture and Environment, Mountains of the Moon (MMU) in Fort Portal, just north of Kasese District. This association has worked out very well for all involved – the garden team is strengthened, the interns are gaining valuable field and research skills, and the gardeners feel additionally supported. The interns carried out a simple 10 question survey with all Phase 1 households focused on vegetable production challenges, and needs for technical assistance (photo). The data are being analyzed and main findings will be available to share in the next Progress Report. One finding we are already aware of are vegetable losses due to transplanting of some crops after the main rainy season, and lack of access to river or tap water. Having learned from this experience, Doreen timed the transplanting this season to come just before the main rains (occurring now), and losses are anticipated to be much less.

Below is a summary table that shows the mobilization effort for Phase 2 during August. Of the 100 households mobilized –27 are young mothers (ages 13 to 19), 43 are households with orphan and vulnerable children (OVC), and 30 are grandmothers caring for grandchildren. Of the eight community gardens, five are for groups of young mothers. In the photo, Doreen is guiding young mothers on how to cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil after being sown in the nursery bed. We have a special interest to meet the nutritional, income and socialization needs of these adolescents, and their babies, and soon will be introducing knowledge on sexual and reproductive health as well. In Maliba, we are also piloting work with a primary school to establish a school garden, but this has not started yet due to COVID-19 related delays.

The photo below is of the two male interns showing a young mother in Kyabarungira how to do thinning of tomato seedlings in the nursery bed. The temporary shade structure (photo) has been removed to harden the seedlings. In another photo Doreen is showing gardeners how to weed the nursery beds before transplanting to reduce pests and disease. The recent photo below is of Doreen and the interns showing young mothers how to make raised beds. The office sack garden is also up and running for a second season, providing fresh vegetables to RCRA staff (photo).

In the next few months, the project will concentrate on establishing Phase 2 ‘mother’ gardens, group trainings, gathering data on garden nutritional, health and gender impacts, and fundraising to pay the costs of Phase 2 and Phase 3. We will appreciate continued donations through GlobalGiving to carry out the important work described here.

thinning plants in nursery

office sack garden

tomatoes

intern and gardener, survey

temporary shade structure

planting seeds

making raised beds

Links:

More about 1,000 Women's Gardens for Health and Nutrition

Attachments:

table.pdf (PDF)

9 Attachments

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May 14, 2021
Progress Report, May 2021

By Jostas Mwebembezi and Robin Marsh | RCRA Executive Director (JM), Project Advisor (RM)

Community garden training

1,000 Women’s Gardens for Health and Nutrition – Progress Report, May 2021

As you can see from the table below, the first phase of 1,000 Women’s Gardens, is nearly complete, with 100 household vegetable nurseries established, and 90 of these transplanted successfully into ‘mother’ gardens. The remaining ten will be transplanted in Mubuku, the last community to get started, by the time this report goes out. All eight community gardens have been sown collectively on the land provided by one group member. Community gardens average eight women members. Therefore, adding up, 100 households plus 64 community garden members, the project is already benefitting more than 150 families, and close to 1,000 individuals. The main vegetables sown (by seed availability, marketability, and nutritional value) are: local spinach (dodo), pumpkin, tomatoes, cabbage, onions and eggplant.

All along the way, these women gardeners are supported and trained by the lead project coordinator and agronomist, Doreen Kansiime, with two part-time assistants, and the facilitative support of the RCRA Executive Director and the Senior Technical Advisor. In addition to individual visits to distribute inputs (e.g. seeds, watering cans, liquid neem) and help establish and monitor the vegetable nurseries and gardens, Doreen has conducted several group trainings on key topics: establishing raised beds, composting and mulching, and pest and disease management .

For instance, in the photos below Doreen is teaching women to manage insects and diseases, such as early blight in these tomatoes, by cutting off diseased leaves, picking off visible insects, and, generally keeping the beds clean of weeds that can harbor and transmit pests. Liquid neem can be applied for a variety of diseases if these initial measures fail. She teaches not to fear some incidence of pests, but to keep the populations down to manageable levels.

Women are beginning to harvest their first garden crops for home consumption and sale, such as the cabbages seen in the photo below. In August, we will be conducting surveys to learn changes in family vegetable consumption, especially among children and pregnant and lactating mothers, as well as income generated from garden sales, and uses of the money. We will then have a better handle on the full range of health and welfare gains for gardening families, including improved knowledge, self-confidence, and opportunities for peer socialization. Men are joining women in some of the trainings, which bodes well for sustained participation by women and reduced domestic tensions.

Doreen has also set up a sack/container garden outside of the RCRA Office in Kasese Town, for staff members to enjoy and for visitors to see what gardening can be done even in small spaces (see photo below). Collectively we are generating a lot of enthusiasm and buy-in for this project, which will be necessary as it scales-up to the second and future phases toward our goal of 1,000 household gardens and nearly 100 community gardens. For the next phase, the project will focus on three sub-groups in the same geographic area: 1) grandmothers rearing grandchildren; 2) young single mothers, and 3) people living with HIV-AIDs, and will assist to establish the first primary school garden.

Pest and disease management training

Cabbages recently harvested

Sack garden outside RCRA Office, Kasese Town

Links:

https://www.rcra-uganda.org/

Attachments:

Phase 1 Garden Accomplishments (PDF)

5 Attachments

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