I recently had the opportunity to participate in an evaluation of one of World Renew's partners, PAG-West Teso, which is near Soroti. The work World Renew supports is done by KMDP, the development arm of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG) denomination in that pastorate (West Teso).
It is always exciting to hear the stories of how peoples' lives have been transformed by what they have learned and implemented in their homes and communities. Many of the people we met during the week are part of a savings group, called a "Self Help Group", or SHG. They said they preferred this type of savings group over the ones other people had promoted to them, because you never divide out all of the money from the savings. Instead, it is kept, continues growing, and is always available for group members to borrow.
We heard stories from Simon, about how he grew up with parents and siblings who were alcoholics and as a result he didn't have resources for getting married. But after going through some trainings with KMDP, like PEP and conservation agriculture (CA), he realized he could start with what he had to make progress in his life. He began by making charcoal, then used the proceeds to buy chickens. He let the chickens multiply, then sold some and bought a sheep. The sheep gave birth to triplets(!), one of which he gave to the church as a tithe, and the other two he kept. As he continued to raise more animals and sell some, he worked his way up to goats and cows and got enough to pay a dowry and get married, with animals left over. Here are some of his goats and sheep, including the original one he started with:
Simon is a community facilitator now and in that role he monitors the progress of CA among his neighbors, helps form new SHGs, and teaches against gender-based violence. He said there are now men in the community who will collect firewood and water for their families, instead of relying only on the women to do it!
Another cool result from trainings given by KMDP was concerning advocacy. In several communities, several of the SHGs came together to form a "cluster level association" (CLA). Since the CLA represents a larger group of people, they were able to use their new knowledge on advocacy to lobby for support from the local government. As a result, they received financial support from the government to start carpentry projects, buy goats and sheep for group members, for work on roads, etc. It's exciting to see how this brings some of the services they should be getting out of their tax money and from the government which represents them.
We visited the home of a farmer who learned about CA through trainings from KMDP. He is using cover crops in his orange and mango orchards to help keep down the weeds. He has also landscaped his yard beautifully and is making his farming into a profitable business to put his children through school. His children are learning from his example and realize that farming is a desirable occupation.
I met some of the conservation agriculture promoters I spent a lot of time with years ago. They remembered cooking lablab leaves with me and said they still eat them. One man said he likes them better than cowpea leaves (which are a very common vegetable in the region)!
One of the farmers we visited, Helen, is a widow who has really taken CA to heart. Her intercropped soybeans and maize looked beautiful and she said she has been borrowing money from her SHG to help her hire workers for weeding the garden when that needs to be done.
She also is keeping the soil covered by mulching, especially on vegetables, but even around her cassava (see the picture below), in order to keep moisture in the soil. She said that since starting to use CA, her yields are improving and she has less weeds in her garden.
Of course, there is always lots of food to be eaten:
One of the things I love about the work of KMDP is the way the development staff and the church pastorate staff are united. Anthony and I have seen members of the pastorate traveling to visit the work KMDP is doing in the communities and encouraging them in that work. And the staff of KMDP participated in TLT along with pastors and church leaders back in 2014.
In the end, we discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the partnership between World Renew and PAG's West Teso pastorate. We looked at areas to work on improving and areas which need to be focused on more because they're going so well.
These are great stories!
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