Udongo Kwa Maisha is the name of the school garden and school meal project at two schools in Siaya County. The school has made available land for school gardens. The parents and staff members grow crops and learn up to date regenerative farming approaches. The school meals benefit from the produce. The families of the parents active in the school gardens also receive their share. Children are made familiar with vegetable gardening and experience the cooperation of the parents as a positive part of their lives.

 

In this way the schools are positioned as hubs for nutrition, learning, and regenerative environmental stewardship. In this way the schools are supported in educational performance, child well-being, vegetable growing, community building. Not only undernutrition, but also climate resilient solutions are shared in this way.

 

The activities of the project have the following objectives:

(1) to support these schools with school meals,

(2) to support the families of the parents with healthy vegetables from the school gardens,

(3) to familiarize parents and farmers with regenerative farming strategies, and

(4) to include commercial activities for further growth, leading up to an independent business.

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Amaranth production

The project also has the objective to lead to an independent business in amaranth cakes production. In this first phase, amaranth cakes production is for demonstration purposes and for building up experience in view of a larger application or acquisition of investment capital. For that reason only 20% of the land is used for amaranth production.

 

The amaranth cakes production will take place on one of the schools. Both schools will use 20% of the land for amaranth production. Taking into consideration the average production of amaranth this leads to 3 ½ tons of grain for amaranth cakes production. The profits from the activity are spent to the school meals project itself for further growth.

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Partners in the cooperation

Two primary schools are involved.

a. The St. Anthony inclusive School Awasi. This school is primarily targeted at the disadvantaged and marginalized.

b. Dr. James Nyikal mixed Secondary School Akonya.

This school is serving a predominantly low-income rural population.

The schools are only a few miles from each other and this makes the cooperation quite easily.

 

The schools are each supported in this project by two NGOs.

a. Ndaloh Heritage Organisation (NHO), with five years of experience with nutrition, education for students with a disability, community development.

b. Janfrephebe Sustainable Food System (JSFS), a foundation focused on regenerative agriculture and sustainable food systems.

 

The project is also supported by an agricultural advisor with broad experience in regenerative farming, Jan Willem van Es, founder of Amelia Farms in Uganda, also cooperating in Busoga Flower Food Company.

 

Seed2Feed (Seed2Feed.net) is the name of a Dutch foundation for the promotion of horticulture for food security in African countries. This foundation is the Dutch partner for fundraising and for the contact with “Wilde Ganzen”.

 

Wilde Ganzen (https://www.wildeganzen.org/) is the Dutch foundation that has committed itself to one third of the costs of the project, or else one third of whatever funds are raised in support of the project up to a maximum of €45,000 (one third of that amount).

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Challenge to be addressed

Despite fertile soils and proximity to Lake Victoria, Kisumu County faces persistent structural challenges. An estimated 24.7% of children under five are stunted—significantly higher than the national average of 18% (KDHS, 2014)—reflecting chronic food insecurity that also contributes to school absenteeism, poor concentration, and weak learning outcomes. These challenges are compounded by widespread poverty, with approximately 40% of households in Kisumu County living below the poverty line, limiting access to diverse, nutrient-dense diets. As a consequence the potential of modern farming techniques such as regenerative farming for community development remains unlocked, due to little means, lack of appropriate knowledge, lack of organized cooperation. The schools are at the crucible of both the problems and the solutions, since school attendance of undernourished children negatively affects learning outcomes, and at the same time the schools are meeting places of the parents, staff and the children, so that the schools are well-positioned to become hubs of change, making a difference in community cooperation. This combination of challenges is addressed by this project.

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Outreach via the website

The constant flow of information about the activities at the school, the methods of regenerative farming, the amaranth production is shared on the website of Ndaloh.

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Regenerative farming

The example of the schools in the amaranth production, together with the workshops on regenerative farming leads to growing experience with regenerative farming. The focus on the quality of the soil and natural and biological inputs for soil improvement make regenerative farming to a generally applicable farming strategy also for farmers with little means for increasing production.

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Motivation and community spirit

The successful project at the two schools, together with the amaranth production facility, make a difference in motivation and community spirit. It causes a break with the general belief that nothing works and that there is no way out of the cycle of poverty, marginalization, lack of income, and again lack of motivation. It shows that where people cooperate, and cultivate confidence and trust each other, share the burdens, and chip in in the ongoing activities, people can work miracles and re-create the world.