Uganda 2009 Trip Report
The report from our 2009 trip to Uganda contains updates on several items. You can read them all below:
Goat upgrade
There are some places where a single goat can make a big difference. The Africa Fund has been supporting a rural project in 11 villages in the Teso region of Eastern Uganda. We have helped form a local development board, train village facilitators and plan a project to provide goats to needy families – mainly widows.
The principle is simple. A needy family is provided with a goat. The goat is mated with an improved he-goat. The first kid is allocated to another needy family, after which all subsequent kids can be reared for food or to sell. 300 goats have been provided over the last 18 months.
We visited the village of Kituba where the local facilitators Amongin Margaret and Omuron Richard showed us around. 32 families have been provided with goats. 27 additional families have received first-born kids – so 59 families have benefited so far. In all 112 kids have been raised to date.
Seven recipients have even been able to sell their kids and save enough to upgrade to a cow! We took a walk around the village and met four of them – Teki Theressa, Malaya Mary, Alupo Margaret and Petula Asana who were absolutely beaming with gratitude.
Now that’s what I call rural development! We gave a further £500 for additional rural projects.
Carpentry project comes to fruition
A carpentry training facility has been a long-term vision for our partners in Soroti, Eastern Uganda. Over the years we have helped them construct a suitable secure building, establish a governance system and provided training on project planning. In 2008 we funded the involvement of a carpentry expert to help formulate the project plan.
Some small-scale carpentry activity had previously taken place, but this year’s visit saw the project swing fully into action. The Board has purchased essential carpentry machines and has now appointed three carpenters to get production underway. We saw an initial product rage including a table and chair set, bed, folding chairs and office desk. We were presented with a wooden briefcase which really showed off the impressive quality of workmanship.
But there is still a long way in moving this from a ‘project’ to a ‘business’. The vision is that the business will pay a rental for the building, which will help support the church. Start up finance is in the form of a loan, which will be progressively repaid to the Development Board to fund other projects. Business profit will be used to fund the training of apprentices.
We spent an afternoon with the Development Board under a fig tree working through business principle like product costing, overheads, cash flow, write off and stock-take. We are encouraging the Development Board to select a member to attend a short business accounting course.
Honey and groundnuts in DR Congo
Getting into Congo was not easy and took up a lot of time and trip budget (this does not come out of Africa Fund giving). But we got there and our friends at Imbokolo were so appreciative.
The honey project is now firmly established. The strategy has moved from buying honey from local farmers to establishing apiaries and developing a hive loan scheme – participating farmers receive a hive and commit 25% of the honey harvest for three years as repayment. The project also employs local people in hive production and apiary management. We provided further finance for hive construction.
The project works across the Uganda/DR Congo border, with honey being taken to Uganda for marketing. We have encouraged the establishment of a development board and the Uganda members travelled with us to meet with the Congo members. We talked late into the night, discussed team roles and agreed improved operating practices. It might sound a bit boring, but establishing these principles of governance is one of the most valuable things we can impart.
One of the board members, Rebecca Ajio, had a new idea to trade groundnuts across the border to generate profits to support widows and orphans. We provided a small grant for Rebecca to establish this project.
