Kikondo, UG – Grandmother opens garden for grandchildren’s health – 5 Aug 2016

When the grandmother of the OCM family saw Wamukisa’s demonstration vegetable garden, she knew she would do whatever was necessary to start her own garden. She has struggled for years to keep her seven grandchildren well-nourished and a constant supply of vegetables has been critical to preventing anemia.

Jaja OCM (jaja means grandmother in Luganda) looks after seven grandchildren on her own. Her husband passed away in 2013 leaving her with a large plot of land. Since he died she has found it difficult to keep all of the grandchildren healthy and she used to spend most of her money on medicine when they got sick. Doctors eventually discovered the children were suffering from anemia. Their recovery plan required eating vegetables at least once per week. Since then she has been buying vegetables at the market every week. This helped the children feel better but increased the family’s already difficult expenses. When she saw Wamukisa’s demonstration vegetable garden providing a daily supply of nutritious vegetables, she was desperate for an opportunity to start the project.

She attended Wamukisa’s first training about water harvesting in preparation for opening up garden beds. Then she attended the garden trainings “Vegetable Garden: Design & Build” and “Vegetable Garden: Protect & Operate.” At these trainings every participant agreed to start a garden bed with half cabbage and half kale. Participants set a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goal of harvesting 15 heads of cabbage and 40 bundles of leafy green vegetables by the end of August.

Jaja OCM was so excited she started two garden beds and each one is on track to exceed the SMART goal. She has already started feeding her grandchildren from the garden and her neighbors have been asking if they can purchase vegetables from her as well.

Jaja OCM believes vegetables present an exciting opportunity for her to improve her family’s life with healthy food and consistent income. However, before she can expand the project she needs to improve water access at her home. She is currently considering improving her water harvesting system and hopes to eventually be connected to an extension of the community water program. Her dream is to open up a 12-bed garden, like the one she saw at Wamukisa, and additional gardens for commercial growing.