Kikondo, UG – OOR family’s children harvest nutrition and education from Food Always In the Home (FAITH) vegetable garden – Feb 2024

Whether picking nutritious greens or learning at Benam nursery school, the OOR children have benefitted greatly from the family’s FAITH garden.

OOR family has four children and has been operating a FAITH garden for the last 6 years. Two older children have left the house leaving two young girls who attend Benam Nursery School. These two girls were born when the FAITH garden was producing vegetables for the home. The family has benefited from having fresh vegetables every day, now producing 6 kgs of vegetables a week with demand for vegetables from its neighbors.

The family sells 4 kgs of vegetables every week at 1000 shillings per kilo, earning 4,000 shillings (about $1.10) which it saves with Zinabala VICOBA. So the family earns after sales of vegetables but cannot add beds to their garden because their home lacks space. It misses growing of some vegetables in the dry season because it lacks a constant water supply for its FAITH garden. Their children are too small to carry free water 200 meters from a water source. They also operate a small grocery store in the village that earns profit they save. Their earnings enable them to pay nursery school tuition.

With VICOBA savings or a loan the family will expand its grocery store to include sales of food Destiny School students like to buy, such as milk, soda, and snacks. It hopes to buy a 5,000 liter water tank from its savings at the end of this year. It has been saving money for the last 3 years with the VICOBA, with a target of buying the water tank at the end of this year. The tank will help irrigate their FAITH garden and save some of the 2,500 shillings (about $0.70) the family pays every day for 100 liters water to bathe, wash, and drink.