Knowing When to Pivot
One of the practices I'm most proud of at CLP is our ability to respond quickly to needs and pivot and make changes in our programs when we find a better way.
In daily communication with our team in Uganda, they let me know the progress of our programs and where we need to make changes. I let them know how fundraising is going and we review our budget.
This is how we work from the inside out. Our team lives the reality each day and knows the challenges that children and families face. They experience in real time how an increase in prices, or an illness, affects a family, wiping out their financial resources, leaving them without food or school fees.
One pivot we are making is with our school garden projects. The team has realized that maintaining the gardens during the long school breaks is not sustainable. It was too difficult for the teachers and students to keep everything going and watered while the students were not in school. They all had other responsibilities at home.
Hilda checking on the crops and the trees we planted!
In early February, we provided Buwanume Primary School with the seeds and seedlings needed for the school garden. They did the cultivating and planting and will tend the gardens. Now, they have ownership over the gardens and will use the harvest for school lunches. This is much more cost-effective for CLP and will yield a better outcome overall. Corn and beans will be harvested soon.
Last October, during my visit, we planted many trees, and most are now about 5 feet tall! The trees are planted to provide a canopy for the crops, so they require less water and help prevent soil erosion.
We are now going to focus on improving nutrition at the family level with smaller gardens near people's homes. We call these “kitchen gardens” that have a concentration of nutritious vegetables that are hardy and can be more easily maintained. We have been helping several families through our Bridge to Success projects through Donorsee already.
Crops closer to home and a healthy harvest!
Our team is working with the local council members, and an agricultural extension advisor will be holding education sessions in the villages. So much of the diet in rural Uganda is starch (corn and cassava) and we are trying to get more high-protein and high-nutrient foods into the children's daily diet. By shifting this focus, children will be better nourished year-round. This helps them stay in school, perform better, and improves their health!
As we all know, growing and farming can be quite challenging. When you have only the food you grow to live off of, the stakes are high. Climate change is making subsistence farming even more challenging with heavier rains and longer periods of drought.
As stewards of your donations, we are always looking for solutions that have the greatest impact on the causes of poverty and that are cost-efficient and sustainable.
Thank you for all you do to help lift children out of poverty!
With Gratitude,
Mary
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