By Channie Cheung and Yuki Tabata | Member of Advocacy Team
Dear valued supporters,
We are writing to express our deep gratitude for your generous support for our project in Uganda. Your contribution has allowed us to make significant progress in our mission to empower local communities and improve their livelihoods.
Terra Renaissance started an irrigation-based self-sufficiency project in the Karamoja region in northeastern Uganda, which has been the most underdeveloped area in the country. Due to drought and the effects of the Ukraine crisis, food prices in the African region rose, causing poverty to strike the local population.
In particular, where our activities are based, has a large number of people suffering from food shortages, and more than 1,600 people died of starvation last year. While one-time support such as food aid is of course necessary, it ends when it is no longer needed.
Yet intermittent food assistance by aid organizations has created dependence on assistance among local people. It is important for people in this region to be able to produce food locally so that they can support themselves in the medium to long term.
With this in mind, we have launched a self-sufficiency support project through irrigation-based agriculture. Even now, many people in this area cannot eat one meal a day, which is the minimum requirement for human survival.
What they need is water and food. Agriculture can be done as long as there is soil and water. And if they can produce food, people can survive. There is vast land and fertile soil in the Karamoja region. If there is water, agriculture can be done without doubt. This was the beginning of the irrigation project.
Currently, the construction of a reservoir to store water to support this irrigation agriculture is underway.
In late April, miraculously, just as the excavation of the main body of the reservoir was completed, heavy rain fell, and a huge reservoir with an area of about one soccer field and a depth of 5 meters was filled in just one day. Although it is a semi-arid area, it does rain. If rainwater is properly collected, agriculture can be done.
In May, agricultural training for the poorest 150 households began. The selection of beneficiaries was focused on those who really needed support, including single mothers, households with disabled people, elderly households, and households with chronic illnesses. In the first training session, we emphasized the importance of self-sufficiency and provided a detailed explanation of the project.
Most of the participants were young people who were committed to self-sufficiency through agriculture. Of course, there are still some people who have received only food aid up to now and wonder why they are not given food that they can receive immediately.
We repeatedly emphasize the importance of acquiring agricultural skills and "making their own food with their own power". We will continue to convey the message that "you can do it" through our project. As shown in the photo above, the beneficiaries have started to develop their own farmland. From mid-May, planting of major grains such as corn and beans, which are the main food in the local area, will begin.
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