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(photo credit: Bernard Pollack)
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One thing you immediately notice upon meeting
Edward Mukiibi and Roger Sserunjogi is their passion for kids and agriculture.
Their eyes both lit up whenever they talked about the students who are part of
DISC, Developing Innovations in School Cultivation, a project they founded
after graduating from Makere University in Kampala. When we met Edward, he had
just gotten back from the World Food Summit in Rome, where he was representing
Slow Food International’s Youth Delegation. He works during the week at the
Ugandan Organic Certification Company. Roger is a school teacher and
administrator at Sunrise School, where DISC launched its pilot project in 2006.
Edward says that after fulfilling their goals
of being able to go to university, he and Roger wanted to “help other people
realize their dreams.” And they wanted to spread their “passion for producing
local foods to the next generation.” By focusing on school gardens, Edward and
Roger are helping not only feed children, but are also revitalizing an interest
in—and cultivation of—African indigenous vegetables. The schools don’t use any
hybrid seeds, but rely on what is locally available. Students and teachers at
DISC project schools are taught how to save seed from local varieties of
amaranth, sumiwiki, maize, African eggplant, and other local crops to grow in
school gardens. They learn how to both dry the seeds and how to store them for
the next season. With support from Slow Food International, DISC is
establishing a seed bank to, according to Edward, “preserve the world’s best
vegetables.”
Improving nutrition is especially important
for boarding school students, who eat all of their meals at school. These
children come from all over Uganda and DISC tries to make them feel at home by
growing varieties of crops that are familiar to them from both the lowlands and
highlands. According to Edward, “a child needs to see what she’s used to” in
order to appreciate its importance.
At both day and boarding schools, students
work with school chefs to learn how to cook foods—giving them the opportunity
to understand food production literally from farm to table. And unlike most other
schools in Uganda, DISC project schools get local fruits with their breakfast
and can harvest their own desert at lunchtime. DISC is planning the “Year of
Fruits” for the next school year, which begins in January or February depending
on the school—each school will be planting its own fruit trees on campus.
Roger explained that in addition to the
monkeys who live around Sunrise School and who like to eat some of the crops
from their garden, the biggest challenges for DISC involve transportation and
equipment for the schools. Because DISC doesn’t have its own vehicle, the
coordinators, who need to evaluate gardens and make sure that the children are
actually getting the food they help grow, often have to scramble to find
transportation. And they lack good ways for the schools to communicate with one
another about disease outbreaks and other problems.
But as the project receives more
interest—from teachers, students, parents, and policy-makers (the local
extension officer for the National Agricultural Advisory Services is a member
of the local Slow Food convivium)—and more funding, they’re likely to overcome
these challenges and make farming a more viable option for youth in Mikuni and
other parts of Uganda.
Original Article Here
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