Amasiko

Farm development

noreply@blogger.com (WilfriedMpagi) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:33:00 +0000

Besides the work on the eco-san toilet we are also working on the development of farming activities. One very interesting innovation is the purchase of a treadle pump, a water pump with a capacity of 3000 L per hour operated by stepping.

before we had to fetch water for the shower and for irrigation by hand with jerrycans. Now we pump it within a few minutes up to about 10 meters high, which is a real improvement.

Actually we were eating fresh roasted maize and fresh vegetables during the dry season when all surrounding fields were dry.

we also started a trial to plant Irish potatoes durign the dry season in double dug beds. By planing early before the rain start we hope to prevent the infection with fungal airborne diseases. we we will see.

Back in the air!

noreply@blogger.com (WilfriedMpagi) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:39:00 +0000

Well it has taken some time, but finally we are back in the air. Our Internet service has been terribly poor and almost not accessible. Since a week it has improved so let me try to write some news.
We have been very much restricted by our finances. I had the opportunity to go for some very interesting consultancy work in Karamodja, 1000 km east from Kabale. And this time was lost for Amasiko work. Actually this remains a challenge. Working for family income reduces the time available for Amasiko.
We have got some small funds and are now busy building some essential infrastructure such as an Ecosan (composting) toilet, shower, a wooden house, camping site. As I wrote some time back, we got a machine to make Interlocking Soil Stabilised Blocks. (ISSB). we made some trials and the result was surprising. The blocks are strong and heavy. We left some of them for 24 hours submerged in water and they stayed perfectly well. We are now using those for the Ecosan building.

Although the place is not ready, we think that we should start operating as soon as the shower and toilet block are functioning. We have got some tents (Christina thanks again for all the equipment you left behind). Many youth are coming to us asking for training opportunities so its time to start with the little we have!

Back in the air!

noreply@blogger.com (WilfriedMpagi) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:39:00 +0000

latest news

noreply@blogger.com (WilfriedMpagi) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 08:22:00 +0000

Dear friends, my excuses for not updating the blog. We had a serious problem with the Internet connection which made it almost impossible to send any mails. Seems to be solved and its time to continue writing!
Well many things happened:
Hamukaaka village has really managed to start their projects. Groups are meeting once a week to work together and plan for the next steps. Now Irish potatoes are planted, handicrafts are made weekly in the group.
Some basket made in Kabale,

And the first 11 pupils have started schooling.

Our Appreciative Inquiry team went out for a second time and worked with another community. This was also successful, Similar groups are made. Main Target is to expand the existing primary school from 2 to 6 classrooms.

Mukurizi (old man, a respect in Rukiga) and his wife, The two eldest participants in the AI workshop

Ans myself I am working on some guidelines for the use of Appreciative Inquiry in rural communities.
In Kabale the rainy season has actually started. Farmers are busy planting. At our side we have constructed a few ditches and trenches along contour liens and planted leguminous scrubs (Typhrosia) and grass (Vetiver grass and Rhodes grass) for soil stabilisation and as fodder. between the trenches we inter-cropped beans and maize in rows. Our neighbours watched full of amazement, how someone can spend all that time on planting in rows. Their broadcasting is much faster, so why wasting time. Now we are praying that we have a good harvest to show the benefit!
Kabale has strange soils. Dusty during the dry season, very had with a slippery surface in the rainy season. This makes roads on hills and slopes almost impassible. even fur wheel drives glide sometimes of the road. So every planned journey starts with a look to of the window to see if rain is preparing come. Last Sunday rain surprised me on the way from Amasiko to Kabale (20 km) going down the slopes was like driving on black ice and it took me almost one hour.
Will I reach in this rain?

Africa remains a Continent full of challenges, surprises, magic and miracles.

Hamukaaka Community Primary School takes off!

noreply@blogger.com (WilfriedMpagi) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:50:00 +0000

On Friday, community members sat together at the church and took some good steps to get the so much desired primary school going. First they agreed on a name: Hamukaaka Community Primary School. A school development committee of 7 people was selected. The members agreed to start in February with a nursery class of 35 children. The class will be held in the church. Next week the members will come together an start constructing a pit latrine. The committee appointed a young lady as nursery teacher. The lady has a certificate as nursery teacher and some working experience. Also a budget was prepared with necessary equipment and three months salary for the teacher. Parents have agreed to pay each 4 Euro as school fees to cover this expenses. what a wonderful development!

The appointed teacher presents one of the action plans during AI

2nd Appreciative Inquiry at lake Bunyonyi

noreply@blogger.com (WilfriedMpagi) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:35:00 +0000

After the 1st AI session we went back to Kabale town for a hot shower, a nice evening out at our local pub with the two teenagers and some shopping for Christmas. Then back to the Lake, buying a sheep, slaughtering it and hanging it for the night in a cool hut. Next day marinading and roasting it on a slow fire for hours and finally enjoying tender lamb with roasted potatoes and a glass of red wine. What else do we need in such a place? We had a nice and relaxing Christmas, with swimming, canoeing and giving swimming lessons to some kids from the village! Imagine, people are living at a large lake, using dug-out canoes and don't know how to swim! This week gave us really a taste how visitors can come, relax and enjoy their stay here.

After Christmas, we had planned for a second AI session. On arrival at the venue, we were so surprised about the impact the previous session had made.The community had actually formed three groups and registered participants for Poultry rearing, Handicrafts project and communal Irish potato growing respectively.
The poultry group registered 70 members, each had contributed Ush 1000/=, a location for a chicken house was found, and a day set for construction of the house, whereby each member will bring construction material and participate in the construction.
The handicraft group had registered 24 members, all contributed Ush 1000/= . A leader was identified based on her knowledge of weaving local baskets.
The Irish Potato group registered 14 members so far, but more wanted to come. Each person had already paid an amount of Ush 3000/=, a sac of seed potatoes collected and a piece of land for rent was identified and a rent of Ush 80,000/= agreed with the owner.

Finally the community discussed about the purpose of these income generation activities, namely to construct a primary school nearby. They agreed that the first step is to start a nursery class. The catechist agreed that the first class will start in February in the nearby church.

The community appointed a leader for the school project and planned for a meeting on 9th of January. During the meeting, they will select a school committee and agree on conditions for the appointment of a teacher.
What a transformation, from asking for hand-outs to so much self-initiative!!!

Appreciative Inquiry at Hamukaaka Village

noreply@blogger.com (WilfriedMpagi) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:49:00 +0000

On 18th December, a crew composed of 2 farmer/facilitators, 2 Community Development facilitators, 2 observers and I went to the Amasiko site to facilitate a three days Appreciative Inquiry (AI) workshop with the residents of the village where Amasiko is located.
While working for a Broederlijk Delen a Belgian NGO, from 1999 to 2004, I was exposed to AI and got a training in the TCDC training centre in Arusha Tanzania. It was a rather difficult paradigm shift to move a way from the conventional Problem Solving Approaches to an approach looking for success, achievements. what people are proud as a basis for a vision and development planning. Introducing it in rural communities here in Uganda has been a great challenge. So many communities have worked with external facilitation and learned about problem solving. How do you feel when every time a stranger comes to your village and s/he asks about what is wrong in your place?, what are your problems? Finally one sees his place only as place full of problems, without development opportunities. In some areas it's even worse: The more problems a village can produce in front of facilitators, the more help will come, is a believe in some communities. depressing isn't it?
Also in Hamukaaka village we faced a similar problem: During the introduction meeting, leaders expressed that their village is are poor, resident have no money, there is no development, no help, harvests are poor, there is sometimes famine..........
When we went for the Appreciative Inquiry Workshop, facilitators were wondering, will this AI make a difference?
Well the answer is easy: YES, IT DID MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
Christina, one of the two observers wrote a beautiful story on her blog: http://christinaswwworld.blogspot.com/2008/12/special-holiday-treat-appreciative.html

I believe the village as a whole has made a paradigm shift and action is going on. Three groups developed a vision for the future, three themes are selected as plans for immediate action:

Women want to put their capacities together, train each other in specific handicrafts items, produce and market as a group.

Men are starting a commercial poultry farm

Youth formed a new group to save money, make bricks and build permanent houses for for each of the members in turn building one house after another.

After Christmas a second workshop is agreed upon, to work out detailed action plans.

Women prepare a vision for the village

participants make a combined village vision

preparing a meal for all participants

CELEBRATION!!!!

Amasiko's immediate plans

noreply@blogger.com (WilfriedMpagi) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:38:00 +0000

Amasiko is still in it's infant shoes. In the last two years, neighbouring farmers came and sold us so far 12 small plots, totalling to about 1 ha of land, all sloping down to the lake shore. About 2/3 is along the shore of Lake Bunyonyi and very suitable for recreation, half of it is covered with eucalyptus threes and has good shade. Here we want to build a camping site and some cottages. The other 1/3 is agricultural land, and in use to grow some crops and rear some small ruminants (goats and sheep). This area for agriculture is still small and we want to buy some more land as soon as farmers offering more. This normally happens when they find a better piece for themselves, more fertile or nearer to their homes. At present a neighbouring plot is up for sale at 3 million Uganda Shilling, i.e. around Euro 1200,-

For the time being, we want to concentrate on developing camping facilities:

renovate a local house to become a kitchen, and construct a firewood saving oven out of clay estimated @ Euro 300/=
build an Eco-san toilet (composting toilet) with bathroom and a safari shower (uses firewood to prepare hot water, a solar heater is planed for once the eco-camp starts operating)Euro 3000/=
levelling some five places for tents and planting with lawn grass Euro 200,-
Construction of a jetty to allow easy access to the lake, (yes, lake Bunyonyi is free of diseases and one can enjoy swimming) Euro 100,-
Construction of a chicken house to get them out of the vegetable gardens and off the camping site. Euro 300/=
Renovation of one Mud&wattle house as staff house Euro 200/=
Constructing of a log house Euro 500/=
Building a water tank of 3000 litres with rainwater harvesting. (drinking boiled lake water is fine, but not very appealing to many foreign visitors I believe) Euro 250/=
Buying some equipment such as tents, beds, mattresses, chairs, tables, kitchen equipment,
Estimated at Euro 1,000/=

When all this is done, I am sure the place is attractive for people who like simple life in nature. and I hope to get visitors from around Uganda and neighbouring Rwanda to come and spend some relaxed time at our site. This should give us enough income to cover our operational costs and to develop the place further.
First of all we want to expand the agricultural land and secondly to set up some demonstrations in erosion control, soil improvement, vegetable and fruit growing, animal husbandry (dairy goats, chicken, pigs, later a dairy cow on zero grazing), thus al kind of activities local farmers could copy from us and which could become training facilities for disadvantaged youth.
Thirdly its our wish to build five cottages where people really can feel comfortable and spend some good time. we are still in a planning phase. we are just asking ourselves how luxurious these should be? And how big? Some friends advised to make it European standard, with a decent bathroom attached, bathtub, shower water-borne toilet, sitting room, two bedrooms all properly tiled. Together with an architect, we made some drawings of a round cottage with split level (as we are on a slope, this will save some land). each cottage to cost Euro 4000/=

So many plans are made and we are looking for ways of getting all this done! And we need all the support we can get, but also want to offer opportunities to get involved. If you have any ideas, plans, suggestions, questions or of you are interested to get involved, please contact us!

Involving the neigbouring community

noreply@blogger.com (WilfriedMpagi) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:14:00 +0000

For over two years, I am a regular visitor on the peninsula, sometimes staying a few days, alone or with visitors; just for a rest or doing some work on the site; sometimes to negotiate with a farmer who offers a plot for sale (actually we have bought 12 plots now totalling to roughly one ha, imagine the way land is split up into small plots, all a result of the high population growth rate, promoted by the Ugandan president).
In this way I had a chance to interact with many people living on and around the peninsula. I realised that expectations were high. "A muzungu (white man) always has a lot of money and now we are all going to benefit" is a message I hear repeatedly.

Neighbours come after work for a chat

During my work with communities in Uganda, I realised that there is a great dependency thinking, whereby rural communities believe that everything has to come free from outside. In fact I often was very disappointed, wondering what was wrong with so many rural people, making themselves so dependent on the outside world, not taking real action themselves to develop.
In the recent years, I got some training in Appreciative Inquiry and there is maybe an answer for this so important question: many years development workers have used problem solving approaches to identify needs, problems and deficiencies in rural communities and to find interventions to improve on those. However, it is not a surprise that local people stay behind looking at their village as a place full of problems which have to be solved by people from outside.
Appreciative inquiry is a strategy for purpose change that identifies the best of "what is" to pursue dreams and possibilities of "what could be". it is a cooperative search for the strengths, passions and life-giving forces that are found in every system to be used to create development.
In past employments as development worker i had the chance to use AI on a small scale and I was impressed by the change of mindset by rural people.
Two weeks ago, when i walked into our village, I was greeted by some youth calling me a real resident of the village. Than I realised that besides developing our Amasiko project, we should work with the surrounding communities, not by giving hand outs as expected, but bringing my capacities in to work together and make a development plan for the whole community using Appreciative Inquiry as a starting point.
Yesterday, I went to the village together with 4 farmers/facilitators I worked with in the past. we had a meeting with local Authorities LC1 village Committee and the parish chief. Of course the first questions where about what we are going to bring the village, how they can get development (money, animals, seeds............) from us. But after some deep discussions and examples from my farmer/facilitators, a meeting is agreed upon.
Next week we will spend 4 days with the community to work with AI as an approach to make a start for a Community Action Plan!!!!

All inhabitants, men, women, youth are invited and we expect around 80 people. each day to be ended with a shared meal, farmers have promised to bring the stable food, we are to supply some vegetables for the sauce, what an exiting proposition to learn more about my neighbours, know their achievements, capacities and dreams! And hopefully we are able to bring a change into the midset of our neighbours to beleive in their own capacities to bring positive change into their community.

Imani Rehabilitation Home

noreply@blogger.com (WilfriedMpagi) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:58:00 +0000

In the previous blog "Amasiko 2008" I wrote about African values and that it seems that these are getting lost. Yes it is true, the influence of Western culture and especially Western media is very big and pulls people away from traditional values. Many young people want to live a modern life, with all those interesting gadgets seen on CNN, MTV etc, that make you a "real" person: modern clothes, mobile phone, ipod, vehicles........ The sky is the limit. But what else can we expect in a country where foreign organisations and institutions are enforcing the search for permanent economic growth and instilling the need for completely free markets as the way to development. BUT: How can we have continuous economic growth in a world with limited resources?
Recently I read an interesting book written by an economist: Richard Douthwaite, "THE GROWTH ILLUSION, How economic growth has enriched few, impoverished the many and endangered the planet".
It gives many explanations for the ever-increasing gap between poor and rich and many solutions for the creation of a more sustainable economy with a better and fairer distribution of wealth.

But back to the African values:
Last week I was invited for a graduation in Kampala. During a three days Journey seminar last year in Kenya I met a young woman working in an orphanage. She called me to come and attend the graduation. She had come with 8 other Kenyans to celebrate the graduation of one of her friends. One would say: well nothing special about that! But there was something special: All these kenians were actually orphans and grew up in a slum area. They live in the Imani Rehabilitation Home which was initiated some twenty years ago by a lady, Faith Imani. She came from a rural area and found so may children living in real poverty. She took some of them home, gave shelter, food and education. By now there are 6 children homes with over 350 children. One of the first kids, Julius Irungo, has now graduated at the Kampala International University with a Bachelors degree in business Administration (Bsc BA). What a courage and commitment to help the poorest in the society. The young man gave a speech where he expressed that he only managed to succeed because their Mother Faith Imani, had instilled values and principles into them, values of being honest, committed, have integrity and respect for oneself and others. Faith is religious person and attributes these values to the Christian religion, but are these not universal values, available in all world religions?

He described the temptations of the campus of much freedom, getting into alcohol, drugs, girls………which spoiled many of his friends. He himself only resisted because he had to think about the values of his mother, her sacrifices to bring him up to even University and all those brothers and sisters following him.

For me this was an extra ordinary experience, giving me hope for the future and showing me that there are people who do have values and principles, live according to them and try to hand them down to others. But all this is only possible if a secure and save heaven exist from where those values are practised. All in all Faith Imani is a good model for our project and example we should follow. I wish her all the best and hope she can find supporters to keep her good work up.

We got the ISSB brickmaking machine!

noreply@blogger.com (WilfriedMpagi) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:05:00 +0000

Good things are happening: We got a donation of one Interlocking Stabilised Soil Brick (ISSB) making machine! This is unbelievable and a real step forwards. With the donation from the foundation in the Netherlands and this donation, we start constructions in an environmental friendly way!.
What is an ISSB press? Well a lot of research has been done, e.g by an Engineer at Makerere University in Uganda. Soil from excavations is mixed with some cement and manually pressed into blocks. These are as strong as the burned bricks but don't need to be fired and therefore no trees need to be cut down and we save our environment.
Tomorrow I will travel to Kampala to collect the press. More info follows!

There is soo much to do!

noreply@blogger.com (WilfriedMpagi) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:53:00 +0000

All those good ideas are giving us a wonderful and exiting vision for the future. Imagine such a place, where people work (hard) to make a living in good harmony and sharing resources and income mutually.
A place where young people in need find a shelter and a home where to start a meaningful life from and all this with income generated from the organic farm and eco-lodge and with support of national and international volunteers, guests, visitors, tourists, well-wishers!
A community build on values of co-operation, harmony, sustainability and sharing instead of materialism, consumerism and greed!

What a challenge to get going!

As I have been working for many years in various development projects the most obvious way forward was to make proposals, and look for funding with some organisations. But soon I realised that taking about alternative ways of living is actually not part of the vocabulary of development organisations. Moreover, these days the North of Uganda is attracting a lot of attention making it difficult to find funding for Kabale area. An one has to realise that many families only eat once a day, and have problems to find even firewood to cook their food!

So friends in the Netherlands have started a foundation to support our activities and some small funding is coming in.
The first development is to construct a proper ecological sound ECOsan toilet. (sqatting on a locally made pit latrine is not everyone's favoured way of .........) We would like to construct with ISSB Blocs, as these don't need burning of bricks and need less cement than conventional building.
Now we are looking for a way to get an ISSB press, either on a loan basis or maybe as a grant from someone who is not using it any more.

Other plans for the near future are to get a camping site going, build a shower with a safari heater, renovate one house as a kitchen and build housing for chicken en goats.

An than we need visitors to enjoy the place, help building it, bringing in ideas, know-how, strong arms, making PR; training in cooking, catering, bricklaying, organic farming or permaculture ....................., and last but not least learn something from and about Africa and having a lots of fun.

After a good night sleep, a visitor comes out of our tent!

Visitors enjoying a canoe ride!

So lets put hands together and get this place going:

Even the kids from the neighbourhood enjoy some holiday work (collecting stones form surrounding fields) and to earn some pocket money for Christmas.

Amasiko in 2008

noreply@blogger.com (WilfriedMpagi) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:58:00 +0000

After buying our first piece of land many things happened. Neighbouring farmers offered us some more plots for sale and slowly we managed to buy 11 other pieces of land now totalling to one ha.

The initiators came together with some supportive friends (2 prominent business people from Kabale, one social worker, one Community Development Facilitator) and registered an Association. A lawyer is contracted for advice and help with all legal matters such as membership, landownership etc.

And work at the site has started:
A farm manager, a young woman trained in agriculture, is permanent at the site. She develops erosion control measures, vegetable gardens, plants (fruit) trees and takes care of some small livestock. She has a female helper who gets training in sustainable farming. Once a while youth from the surrounding communities come for some training.

Learning how to plant leguminous scrubs along contours to control erosion and as fodder

At the same time, ideas continue to evolve and we expect the whole project to grow organically. So far a few things are agreed upon:

Amasiko has to become an alternative community, living on an ecological farm where young people in need can get a shelter, training, healing and hope for a better future. Training gives them skills in sustainable agriculture and eco-tourism such that they can become self-reliant entrepreneurs who take their knowledge back to rural communities.
The centre has to be self-sufficient, producing organic agricultural foodstuffs for home consumption and sales. Also the eco-farm has some accommodation for visitors and opportunities for a relaxed vacation, as well as a chance to engage in some activities and to interact with the members and trainees.

But we want to be more:
In the last 10-15 Uganda has embraced a free market policy and capitalism as way to develop the country. On one site this has attracted foreign investments and created some industrial production. But it seems that only a relatively small part of the elite has benefited. People in rural areas are still poor while the availability of consumer goods has increased the felt needs tremendously. We have noted that most young people are only having one real value left in life “Making money”. Where are those traditional African values left?

Amasiko wants to become a place where:

traditional values are respected, embraced and promoted.
economic and social sustainability is ensured without damaging our environment and without wastage of resources.
people life in harmony and respect for each other and for the nature as a whole.
Surrounding communities have opportunities to see sustainable organic farming at work, exchange experiences and acquire relevant skills
Visitors are welcome for exchange, learning, healing.......................

History of Amasiko continued

noreply@blogger.com (WilfriedMpagi) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:17:00 +0000

My girls had a clear picture of the situation of the girls we should help: Orphaned or only one parent, mainly from rural areas, and due to lack of funding, unable to finish any professional education. And this group is big! Uganda has universal primary education and many girls manage to go to a rural primary school and follow a few years of secondary school. Know more or less how to read and write, speak some English. But with this level of education, they are unable of getting a job. Choices are few, either staying alone (taking care of other siblings) or getting married at early age. And unfortunately some are also ending up in abuse and or prostitution.

So what could we do?

Uganda has orphanages where many orphans are supported and send to school, often up to 18 years and allowed to finish A-level. But once again there is often no gainful employment! So for us this was not the way to go.

Finally we agreed to focus on girls who stopped schooling end of primary school, or somewhere in secondary school. In rural areas these girls remain often in real poverty.

As women are doing the major work in agriculture, training in sustainable agriculture, hygiene, sanitation and some simple business skills should help these girls to improve on their lives and make them even self-reliant. Moreover it will spread those skills within the community and could have a positive impact on poverty reduction, making agriculture more sustainable and increase environmental awareness in the area.

Another important consideration is that Africa had a very strong social security net based on extended families. This net seems to break down which leaves many people in dire situations. How could we build our project on those African traditional values of living together and caring for each other? Can we build a place for communal living based on African traditions without falling into a communist system? And how to make it a self supporting place without being dependent on continuous outside funding?

And last but not least how to make such a community self-sufficient and independent from permanent outside funding?

After termination of my contract in 2004, I spent several months Europe, which gave me ample time to read and develop some of my interests.

Two topics became very exciting:

1. Reading, learning and experiencing how some communities are experimenting and developing social, economic and ecological sustainable forms of living. I had a chance to visit an interesting place in the Vosges in France called ECOlonie. Interestingly members of ECOlonie are exactly doing what we discussed in Kabale: Self reliance, sustainable self-sufficiency and a no nonsense business approach. An interesting place which is now part of our network.

2. Having a painful injury which doctors were not able to find a relief for, I started searching into healing. Finally I came in touch with The Journey. This became an interesting experience and after undergoing some inner journeys, the injury healed. I realised that these inner journeys are a way of working on past negative experiences and could therefore be useful for my girls and their companions.

Back in Uganda I discussed all with my girls and we started looking for a spot to start an organic farm and eco-lodge. And it is just unbelievable: From 1999 to 2004 I passed for my work on a small road along Lake Bunyonyi. Every time I a saw a beautiful peninsula. And at this time of seeking a land, the point was put up for sale!!! We went for it and bought one small plot with some trees and two local mud and wattle houses.

The project was taking off!

That's our first property! One acre of land, some 15 trees, two mud and wattle houses and a pit latrine.

History of Amasiko

noreply@blogger.com (WilfriedMpagi) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:34:00 +0000

It has been a long way for me to reach the point where the Amasiko idea developed.

Trained in tropical Agriculture and in Rural Development I came to Africa in 1980 and worked here for almost 25 years in various fields and organisations. All this was based on principles of solidarity and Christian values.

Since 1989 I am in Uganda. From 1999 till 2004 I worked for an indigenous NGO, an umbrella for a network of 17 women and farmer groups in Kabale, which gave me ample opportunity to learn about the local conditions, culture and way of life. I realised that although the environment of Kabale District looks very attractive to national and international visitors, for the local people (Bakiga) is poses great challenges and there is a lot of hidden poverty.

Besides this official work something unexpected happened, I got a young girl (Viona, 3 years) in my house which I finally adopted. She is now 1 very confident young lady and in secondary school (S5). And with these girls in the house, others followed. with help of some friends I managed to support 5 girls in need (orphaned, no place to stay, no school fees....) , paying school fees, giving some shelter at home, but most of all offering a place where they felt at home. Now all are doing well; three finished professional education and are working, others are still schooling.

Here we are celebrating Christmas 2007!

Those girls proposed to start a project together to give other girls in need similar opportunities. As they all explained, the most important help was to have a home, someone to call a parent and to get new HOPE in life = AMASIKO in Rukiga, the language of Bakiga! And there the idea started growing!

An introduction to Kabale

noreply@blogger.com (WilfriedMpagi) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:22:00 +0000

Hi Christina, this is really a new and exiting opportunity to stay in touch with the outside world. Staying on a peninsula at Lake Bunyonyi is beautiful, but it’s also very remote. Blogging is new to me so let me try learn and write some good info about our site, ideas, plans, developments so far...........

Lake Bunyonyi one of the deepest lakes in Africa at an altitude of (water level) 1980 meters above sea level, in Kabale District in the Southern part of Uganda. At this altitude the climate is rather cool (average of 20-25C), which was, together with the (previously) fertile soils favourable environment for agriculture. With continuous increase of the population, circumstances have become difficult, land is divided into small plots and soil fertility has decreased due to permanent utilisation and traditional farming methods based on shifting cultivation which are not suitable to cope with the new situation. Also the present system leaves land bare and prone to erosion.

A view on the peninsula with an impression of the divided and scattered plots of our neighbouring community

One of our objectives is to introduce sustainable/organic farming methods at our site and in the surrounding communities to improve sustainability, erosion control, agricultural production and thus all aiming at a reduction of poverty in rural communities.

Another result of changing from “slash and burn” agriculture to permanent systems in Kabale is that male farmers have last their cultural labour activities (bush clearing). Only few have been willing to get involved in so-called female activities of planting, weeding, harvesting etc and are looking for petty trade, or small jobs. Many are more or less idle and becoming alcoholics.

We believe that an improvement of agricultural methods, on-farm income generation and training of young male and female people to work together, can change this situation and give men pride in agriculture related work. And as Kabale is such a beautiful district, eco-tourism offers a real opportunity for rural communities to become self-reliant.

A gift with blessings

noreply@blogger.com (christina) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:49:00 +0000

I've invited my friend Wilfried to join the ourwwworld team of people learning to blog sustainably from and for Africa. It is my hope that we can develop this space together in a way that serves the development of the Amasiko project that I've written about at my own blog.

To Wilfried: nobody is watching yet except you and me, so start writing! Between now and 1 November, I will work on customizing the look of your blog for you, while you work on creating at least 5 new posts. Once you have 5 posts (I will also do some minor editing for you, as requested), then we will start working on inviting an audience to see what you've created. There will be some stuff happening in November that might earn you some cash, so that's why the 1 Nov deadline for 5 posts. After that you can slow down to about 2/week.

Meanwhile, please subscribe by email to the ourwwworld team blog where I'll be posting some relevant tips and bigger picture knowledge that will help you build a sustainable blog.

Hugs and blessings to you. Have fun, and good luck!