Young Girls Improve their Families' Income in Africa

Another inspiring story submitted (#434)  to Nicholas Kristof's "Half the Sky" contest. 

Here’s an example of 12-to 18 year old girls in Uganda who are increasing their families’ income through their schools’ projects. Most families expect kids to become productive members of society AFTER they graduate from school. At the Uganda Rural Development and Training (URDT) Programme’s Girls’ School, 240 girls increase their families’ incomes every year by training, organizing and inspiring their family members. Here’s one of their stories:

Namata Eva, a student at the URDT (URDT.net) Girls’ School, has witnessed changes at her home because of sustainable income- generating Back Home Project and she had this to share:

“Back Home projects are series of activities we do at home as we have learnt them at school. They are family projects because every member has a role to play in implementing these projects.

Earlier, our family back home projects were growing pineapples, sugar canes, beans, maize and other traditional crops. However, in 2007/2008 we were introduced to organic farming for income generation with a specific focus on Sesame and chillies. Our family chose to grow Sesame but did not abandon the pineapples.

Through back home projects, we have built a permanent house and can afford to save at least four thousand (4,000) per month through a revolving SACCO fund. We make other savings, pay school fees for other children in the family, and provide them with the necessary school requirement – this was not the case before I joined the URDT Girls school. The family is now proud of this saving culture because we meet all our needs without straining so much.

Through back home projects, we can afford a balanced diet because we grow a variety of crops including vegetables. Before these trainings, we used to depend on cassava as our daily meal. In brief I can say that the back home projects have become a backbone of our rural livelihood”.

Submitted by Alida Bakema, Girls' School Curriculum Development

Comments

[paramour]

You are welcome for the question. I think it is a fundamental one.

No one can fake it with a farm. It is a simple proposition of daylight, hard work, soil, seeds, water, some luck from the weather, and time.

A farm is the purest expression of what Ayn Rand had in mind. And what Adam Smith was talking about. (And, amazingly, what all those Chicago-based classical economists who organized and, in the 1980's, despite all of Willy Nelson's brave protestation, killed American farming.)

I have heard a rumor that Goggle Earth is getting ready to introduce a new version that enables the user to peel up an acre of the patchwork in Uganda, and swap it for an acre of the patchwork in eighteenth century United States. (Those guys from M.I.T. are simply amazing.)

When it is all said and done, one patch will produce the highest yield. And when everybody copies the techniques of that one, the people prosper. (John Seybold knew that.) When the printers and farmers prosper, only then do huts become homes. Villages become neighborhoods. Children sing songs and then go to sleep comfortable. And the world is a much better place for it.

[Patty Seybold]

URDT does track the yields and documents the inputs and outputs of various crops in different parts of its DEMONSRATION farm. The farm is run by a couple of skilled agronimists.

I do not think they are posting their results online anywhere, but that is a good suggestion that I will pass on to the farm manager.

There are also farmers' cooperatives that have been organized by URDT. There the farmers themselves compare notes on practices and yields.

For the small-scale farms that are part of many of the Girls' "Back Home" projects, information is collected once a year about the crops grown and the income generated for the family. It's fairly anecdotal ("we were able to buy a motorbike and pay school fees for the other kids in the family") is usually how families report these results.

Professor Amy Smith from MIT's D-Lab will be visiting URDT in October. Her students focus on the design of appropriate technologies for developing countries. Agriculture is one of the many areas they pay attention to. I believe that one of her graduate students will be doing more research on the Girls' School Back Home projects as a repeatable innovation. Perhaps he will be able to find a better way to document these results. Thanks for your question.

[paramour]

Some time ago, a gentle man offered some rather unsolicited suggestions whereby maximal agricultural farm yields might be determined for the URDT community farm. I believe he suggested setting up some "mini-farms" and following a strict adherence to a set of carefully structured farming practices, which could then be measured. This technique would enable the URDT community to identify those techniques, seed sources and fertilizer application schedules that would result in the highest yield.

I believe he suggested that once those a goodwill adherence to such strict guidelines were in place, this experiment were underway, expert guidance would be eagerly forthcoming from M.I.T., Harvard, and Michigan State University.

I am curious, were any of his ideas implemented? Were they even discussed? It seemed like a very sound set of recommendations, although I question his agricultural credentials at making them. I wonder why he was ignored so casually.

Incidentally, how did the farm overseen by URDT students do? How does it compare to other Ugandan farms? What were the yields? Are the numbers posted anywhere? Are there photos?