JUST A SEEDLING (JAS) PROJECT

introduction :

Nakivubo C/U Primary School, Kayunga district is a rural school with about 800 children of 6-16 years age range, 80% of whom come from households that entirely depend on agriculture as source of livelihood, both for commercial and subsistence purposes. However, the commercial purposes outweigh the subsistence, resulting in an imbalance in the quantity and quality of nutrients the children obtain from the food they consume. The resultant effect is malnourished and impaired children who miss out on school.

The JAS project aims at empowering children with the knowledge,tools and seedlings to grow their vegetables within the home compounds thus supplementing the food crops cultivated at home. This not only reduces the malnutrition cases but also promotes household food security, environmental consciousness, and fostering valuable life skills to meet their full potential. The project targeted SDGs 2, 4 & 13.

Our goal: To empower children with knowledge and seedlings to address food insecurity in their households using climate – smart vegetable growing

Objectives:

Healthy eating

Foster balanced meals through vegetable supplements as children harvest their own produce to supplement on the food provided in their households thus promoting nutrition and well-being.

Educational Empowerment:

Enhance children's understanding of soil health through experiential hands-on gardening practices within their compounds

Promote Environmental Awareness

Cultivate a sense of responsibility towards the environment by encouraging children to actively engage in nurturing plants and understanding their role in ecological balance.

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The JAS Project was supported through SeedMoney donations. The project implementation period was for 7 months. In the past 7 months of our project, we raised 600 vegetable seedlings and gave them out to 20 girls, each receiving 30 seedlings consisting of collards, eggplant, spinach, and flowers, along with a fruit tree.

The girls were guided on how to grow the seedlings and tasked the mothers to guide and support them in monitoring their gardens while at school. 

Results: While assessing the outcome of our project, 70% of the children assessed, shared that they are harvesting at least 4 times a week and no longer have meals without stew like how they did before.

 

  • Shamina, 15 years old, received 30 vegetable seedlings to start her vegetable garden, her mother seeing this beauty, bought eggplant seeds that was grown by the girl to expand on her garden. On harvest, she sold the vegetables and was able to contribute 20% to her school fees totaling USD 22. The mother supported irrespective of the fact that she’s always grown food crops not vegetables.
  • 5 out of 20 children shared how they sold some vegetables to buy scholastics like books and pens while eating at home.
  • With the evaluation meeting, 10 mothers learned about the nutrition aspect of vegetables in their children’s meals and the family, how to prepare vegetables and how often to include them in their meals

Lessons Learned:

Women are great agents of change and need to be involved in every aspect for children to stay in school and grow into better citizens

Stakeholder engagement is crucial for the success of any project as we need to seek out more stakeholders to help out with the final stages of the project – ensuring sustainability of the project and improved agricultural practices.