Permaculture Sabina

Location: Ssanje, Rakai District, Southern Uganda, Africa
Project Start Date: July 2008
Expected Completion Date: July 2011 (To be managed by local people within 3 years)

Project Concept:

Sabina Home and School is funded and managed by Children of Uganda (COU) a registered U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit and a registered Ugandan NGO. The mission of Children of Uganda is to support and empower hundreds of orphans and vulnerable children in Uganda to lead successful and productive lives.

Detailed Project Description:

Design for part of site - click for full view

Children of Uganda provides housing, food, medical care, psychological and social care, and primary and secondary education to children who have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS. In addition to the boarders, day children from the community attend the primary school, which is co-located with the Home and receive lunch (often their only meal) each day. The diet of these children is severely restricted, consisting of posho (maize meal) and red beans with occasional fruits and vegetables due to budget constraints and low production from the food plantation.

In June 2008, Rowe Morrow, Director of the Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute, NSW, Australia visited Sabina and volunteered to teach introductory permaculture workshops to the school staff and local community. Responding to the concerns and needs of all the staff, children and local community involved with Sabina Home and School, Rowe worked on a site design with the long-term aims of producing all of the home’s food and fuel requirements onsite as well as creating a functioning demonstration site. Developing Sabina into a permaculture learning centre would enable accredited permaculture teachers to conduct workshops and seminars for the staff and student body of Sabina Home as well as for local District Agriculture Officials, community-based organizations, and individual farmers and others in the community. As a result of Rowe’s design, a Food and Water Security Program was put in place, and implementation of the program began in July 2008. The Program vision is to achieve food and water security (and eventually sovereignty) for Sabina School and Home, and knowledge of sustainable agriculture for the surrounding community.

You can follow our progress at http://childrenofuganda-permaculture.blogspot.com.

Achievements to Date (June 2008-June 2009)

Design and education

• Formal Introduction to Permaculture workshops by Rowe Morrow to engage the community
• Completion of the initial site design by Rowe Morrow
• Informal workshops on specific aspects of permaculture practices for Rakai District Agriculture Officials, Peace Corp Volunteers, and other community organizations (e.g., local Community-Based Organizations working with very poor families affected by the HIV+ pandemic.
• Integration of the Farm Manager’s responsibilities with the food and water security program
• Integration of the Program with the school agricultural classes, with three classes per week doing practical work with the team
• Advising the Housemothers on their construction of a vegetable garden for their families’ needs
• The design and implementation of a garden at the home of a member of the community, via a “permablitz” to provide a model for other home gardens

Infrastructure

• Construction of water-management earthworks (swales) to divert rain water to fruit trees
• Implementation of a mandala intensive vegetable garden to allow two meals per week with vegetables
• Planting of 180 fruit trees (mango, guava, avocado, jackfruit, tangerine, mulberry, pomegranate)
• Installation of 4 x 24,000 litre water tanks and associated piping of roofs at Home and School to collect rain water during the wet seasons and to deliver drinking and bathing water to the children and for watering of the gardens during the dry seasons
• Commencement of a Large Vegetable Garden to enable four-to-six meals with vegetables per week
• Construction of a new chicken shed and straw-yards to house 70 layer chickens (expected to be producing 200 eggs per week by the end of 2009)
• Commencement of a covered compost-making area adjacent to the Large Vegetable Garden (to be completed by August 2009)
• Construction of volunteer accommodation (“bandas”) capable of housing a mix of 10 volunteers, experts, interns and students (to be completed by July 2009)

Short to Medium-term plans (July 2009-end-2011)

Design and education

• Establishment of a formal Memorandum of Understanding partnership with the Rakai District Agricultural Office (RDAO) whereby RDAO will provide expertise on local crops, traditional agriculture methods, animal husbandry, etc. and COU will build up a collection of materials on sustainable agriculture practices and will offer regular workshops by its on-site and visiting experts for the staff of RDAO, local farmers, and other members of the community
• Selection of a site and design of a ‘core’ food plantation to provide a better nutrition balance, at less cost (substituting sweet potatoes, cassava and other carbohydrates for store-bought maize meal which is both expensive and less nutritious)
• A two-week, internationally accredited Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course in January 2009 by Rowe Morrow for Sabina staff and attendees from RADO, Community-Based Organizations, and the community
• Residential workshops to be delivered by on-site permaculture-accredited volunteers on areas of their expertise (building techniques; water-collection techniques such as swales, collection and storage of rain water; composting; building good soil; etc)
• Informal non-residential workshops for RADO staff and other community organizations, farmers, etc.
• Production of education materials appropriate to a tropical climate, and adaption and translation of existing tropical literature into Lugandan
• Identification, recruitment, and permaculture-accreditation of a future Ugandan Food Program Manager to enable management of the program to shift from the volunteer base (who would continue to be drawn on for specialist expertise) by 2012.

Infrastructure

• Extension of the chicken system to provide income-producing day-old chicks for sale
• Completion of the Large Vegetable Garden
• Establishment of the ‘core’ foods plantation
• Planting of an expanded eucalyptus woodlot, and establishment of a coppicing program, to enable firewood costs to be reduced
• Design and establishment of a food garden at the school for the use of the teaching staff and their families
• Establishment of bee hives for Home consumption and sale of honey
• Identify other potential income-producing crops or agriculture services
• Propagation and planting of suitable species for a thorny living fence around the boundary of the property
• Expansion of accommodation to provide sufficient housing for up to 18 teachers and students at resident workshops

We are very keen to take on PDC-accredited interns and experienced teachers to assist in achieving food and water security, and to put together an appropriate education curriculum for the community, staff, and student body. Please contact Jan Smart at smartjuanita (at) earthlink.net if you are interested in becoming involved.

If you are interested in obtaining your PDC certificate, please check out our blog at http://permaculturedesigncourseinuganda.blogspot.com. There are opportunities to stay on for an internship following the PDC that will run January 8-24, 2010.