On November 24^th, Joint Effort to Save the Environment (JESE) under the Rwenzori Agroecology Platform (RAP) with support from Iles de Paix (IDP) and CARE are organized an indigenous seed and food fair in Rwenzori Sub Region.

The event took place at Reinah Hotel in Fort Portal Tourism City and was concluded with an exhibition of indigenous seeds and food.

The major objective of the activity was to showcase the actual and potential contribution of farmer-managed seed systems on conservation of agricultural biodiversity, food security and food sovereignty of smallholder farming communities in Rwenzori Sub Region.

It should be noted that JESE, IDP partners, CARE and other RAP actors have been working with communities to improve food security through agroecology and increasing resilience of rural communities for a long time.

Globally, we observe increasing and overlapping levels of malnutrition, including undernutrition and over nutrition, and related non communicable diseases. Worldwide,795 million people are not able to meet their minimum dietary energy needs (FAO, 2015), 2 billion people lack essential minerals and vitamins (FAO ,2013) and over 2billion people are overweight or obese (WHO,2015).

Almost half our global citizens now experience food shortages and food nutrition insecurity to the extent that they cannot be active and healthy lives. Increased scrutiny of global food resources and food security has brought attention to shrinking diversity in major food crops in national diets.

According to the findings of continental Accountability scorecard launched by the African Union and the African leaders for Nutrition (ALN) in 2019, data shows that in African continent, 8 million children under5 years are stunted, 58.4 million of these stunted are in Africa.

Malnutrition is not only one of the worst killers of children under five years of age but prevents children and adolescents from reaching their full potential and traps entire populations in vulnerability. Through its negative effects on the development of human capital and its productivity, malnutrition contributes to the delay in African countries ‘economic and social development, with unacceptable human consequences on African individuals, communities’ and nations. Nutrition and Resilience concepts are strongly interlinked: nutrition is both an input to and an outcome of strengthened resilience. Reducing malnutrition is crucial to strengthening resilience because well nourished individuals are healthier, can work harder and have greater physical reserves; households that are nutrition secure are thus better able to with stand, endure more longer and recover more quickly from external shocks.

Conversely, households that are least resilient are more affected by shocks and therefore face the greatest risk of malnutrition; thus strengthening resilience is essential in efforts to reduce malnutrition.

The food and agriculture sector is essential to human nutrition and to communities ‘resilience, but approaches designed to increase house holds’ resilience to shocks do not always contribute to positive and sometimes even have negative nutrition outcomes. Specific attention is required to make resilience –building interventions “nutrition- sensitive.”

Indigenous and traditional food systems have served as a major source of healthy diet that ensures food and nutrition security. Access to secure, nutritious, and healthy food is one of the aspects offering greater human security and societal stability. Indigenous and traditional food systems have served as a major source of healthy diet amongst the local communities. Indigenous peoples are the world are stewards of nature and holders of vast local knowledge and traditions, handed down from generation to generation, that guide them in living interdependently with the environment.

Indigenous and traditional food systems represent a treasure of trove of knowledge that contributes to wellbeing and health, benefiting communities preserving a rich biodiversity, and providing nutritious food. Indigenous and traditional territories are home to 80 per cent of the planet’s biodiversity and often play a wider role in environmental conservation.

At the Indigenous Seeds and Food Fair, farmers showcased different agroecological practices, indigenous and traditional foods and seeds in Rwenzori Sub Region, and how these are preserved, prepared and consumed. 2

The event also created awareness on the value of indigenous/ traditional food systems, agroecology and their contribution in strengthening the resilience capacity of smallholder farming communities to climate change related stresses. Also, it provided a platform for experience sharing and dialogue on creating an enabling policy environment for scaling up agroecology as a driver for enhancing ecosystem health and transformation of food systems towards resilience, equity and sustainability.

This was achieved through discussions and speeches by selected key guests on indigenous seeds and foods, nutrition and other components and exhibition of indigenous seeds and foods, value added products, indigenous products display, herbs and herbal products displays that took place at the Green Belt along Balya Road in Fort Portal Tourism City.

The Fair was attended by Rwenzori Sub region community, Civil Society organisations, Private Sector, Local government leaders, Cultural leaders, media and Key farmers in the districts of Rwenzori Sub Region.

On November 22^nd and 23^rd, JESE conducted a training of key stakeholders from Agago District Local Government on using the Menstrual Health Management (MHM++) manual.

The manual targets women and out-of-school girls and was developed by MHM master trainers along with Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) with support from Nuffic and funded by Orange Knowledge Programme.

In conjunction with Geregere Sub County Community Development office, key stakeholders were mobilized and these included; District officials (Gender officer, District Health Inspector), technical and political leaders, sub county personnel, Parish chiefs, health centres’ in charges, heath assistants, schools’ management committees, parents’ teachers’ association representatives, Village Health Teams (VHT’s) and wetland community management committees. 

A total of 65 people (Males= 27, Females= 38) participated in this training.

The MHM master trainers from JESE and HEWASA Caritas conducted the training in an intensified manner, covering all the 04 modules; Puberty, Myths and misconceptions; Sex and Gender, Understanding the menstrual cycle and its challenges; Knowledge on menstrual health management, and Communication of information around Menstrual Health.

This was crowned by categorical action planning for District/ Sub County officials, heath centres/ schools representatives and community based structures cadres (VHT’s and wetland management structures).

Participants were actively involved both in experience sharing and functional drawing such as body parts with much preference on men with majority of the participants who ably identified the gaps in terms of their involvement on MHM issues. All participants promised to disseminate MHM information with immediate effect.

Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) are a valuable social safety-net for vulnerable groups of people. They provide a sort of adaptation financing and increase financial choices for poverty-stricken populations in the face of climate change
and Pandemics.

For us JESE, we learn that VSLAs are a valuable social safety-net for vulnerable groups of people. They provide a sort of adaptation financing and financial choice in the face of climate change. Poor people can draw their reserves to invest in climate Smart Agriculture, healthcare and education.

For the 30 years of its existence, JESE facilitated the mobilisation of over UGX10 Billions in Western Uganda that have been re-invested by rural households and providing alternative livelihoods. In this magazine, we share some of the stories of beneficiaries of this village financing model. Below are the stories of change:

Atuhaire Grace

I belong to a VSLA group called Kyembogo Bakyara Tukorre Hamu. I am a Community Based Trainer (CBT) but also a group member since I could not sensitise the community about an initiative that I am not part
of. So, I am the 30th member of my group. I started saving well like I was taught by JESE.

During the first cycle, I saved only UGX 520,000 and received UGX 620,000 at share out, which means I had a profit of UGX 100, 000. I learned that saving is one way to minimise the misuse of money because we save weekly. I also learned that saving money helps me make priorities. I learnt to prioritise and where
I need to spend; practices that I had never done before. It helped to avoid unnecessary expenditure.

The money I shared out in the first cycle was used to expand our coffee plantation by half a hectare. This was in collaboration with the entire family, here we all work on the farm including my husband. In the second cycle, I also saved UGX 520, 000 because we maintained the share value of UGX 10,000. We saved for 52 weeks, I received UGX 680,000 with a profit of about UGX 160,000.

We did not have a vehicle then when we started expanding our farm. We had challenges in transporting our coffee and bananas, so we waited for the share out and topped-up to purchase a pickup. It’s old but it serves the purpose that when we harvest coffee, we are able to take it for processing and no longer sell it to middle men. I got a loan of UGX 400,000 in the second cycle to start a piggery project. I am starting small and have bought one piglet at UGX 200,000. I also got another loan to support my children at school. My children are encouraged to study well.

VSLAs supports diversification into off farm enterprises

On-farm livelihoods are increasingly facing climate change risks, including uncertainty of seasons, pests
and diseases and the resultant farm losses. Such risks and vulnerability forced Allen Twinomujuni to diversify into the business of groceries, while drawing empowerment from the VSLA approach to obtain the much needed startup capital. VSLAs enhance sustainable access to credit and provide
opportunities for financial inclusion, income diversification and expanding the asset base.

Allen Twinomujuni is one of the many beneficiaries of VSLAs supported by JESE over
the past 10 + years and she narrates how VSLAs provided the launch pad to start her grocery
business.

My name is Twinomujuni Allen. I am the chairperson of Kyerenga Village Savings and Loans Association and an active member of Kyerenga Wetland Conservation Association. I am also a retail trader, operating a grocery in Rwaibale. I have been involved with JESE since 2019 when I was trained in VSLAs and taken for learning visits in Fort Portal to see how other farmers do things differently and profitably.

Since that time, I was personally challenged to be creative and pursue agribusinesses that have stable income streams. So, when I started out in my VSLA, I was inwardly persuaded to take out a loan of 300,000 Shillings to invest in crop growing. However, I lost it all when the crops failed. I paid off the debt with other produce I had kept that season. I dared the second time and took out another 500,000 in loan and this time I invested it in a grocery, selling a variety of food stuffs like tomatoes, potatoes, beans,
cassava and fresh vegetables, a thought that I had invested wisely this time.

From the grocery, I am able to save 20,000 every month and the rest of the money is invested in food production and a piggery project. I am also working towards establishing a zero grazing dairy project”
I am grateful to JESE for introducing to us the VSLA initiative because the women do not have to stake their land and other assets any more to guarantee loan acquisition. The process is easier and friendly
to our status as women who in most cases do not own land or assets to raise collateral required by
the banks.”

My name is Kaija Paul from Matiri in Kihuura Sub County, Kyenjojo district. I started working with JESE as a farmer from the year 2000, when Kyenjojo was actually still part of Kabarole district. JESE came with its agenda that included transforming agriculture, environmental protection that included planting trees, Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), marketing of our farm produce, and how to improve sanitation and hygiene among others.

Those days, we used to get water for drinking from rivers and would be so dirty. As a result, typhoid cases got so high but when JESE came, they built for us boreholes and taught us how to boil the water to prevent typhoid cases. I remember very well how the cases of these diseases were reduced. Even when the schools were very few, they encouraged us to educate our children.

In the year 2002, they brought us cows and introduced zero grazing to us. They also brought us goats, which were imported from South Africa. Here in Kihuura, we were very lucky because we were the very first to have those goats in the region. These goats multiplied and they could be in the whole country now. On farming particularly, they taught us many good practices. In Kihuura here, we used to collect grass and burn it when clearing the fields for the planting season. But JESE staff stopped us from doing that. They told us that when we burn the grass, we reduce the fertility

levels of the soil. They told us to start burying the grass, and we did that. We were taught how to dig vertical and horizontal trenches to tackle soil erosion and other challenges. From that time, our harvests increased, and our incomes also increased.

They also brought us improved varieties of Irish potatoes and bananas and we started growing them on a large scale. On my side, I am so grateful and proud of JESE because of the transformation they made in my life. First of all, they gave me a cow which I looked after for a long time and I really earned so much from it. They gave us varieties of coffee, bananas and coffee which I still have up to date. By the time I met JESE, I had very young children who were just starting to go to school, but they encouraged me and showed me ways how I could educate them.

Right now, I have eight (8) degrees in my home. These include doctors, nurses, teachers, accountants among others. My last two children have just completed S.6 and they passed very well. All these were educated with money I earned from JESE interventions and advice. I have built a permanent and beautiful house and I have some means of transport now. I have never gone to the market to buy food for my family because we grow enough food here.

The five hectare of coffee that I have can enable me to harvest over 100 bags per season. That is really some good money in my advanced age now. During those earlier training, we were also taught how to integrate trees in our coffee gardens. I now have mango trees where I can earn over Shs 150,000 per harvesting season per tree. That is also some income for my family.