Seeds and Skills for Women to Grow Vegetables

Nathan Rwabulemba, Executive director of our Uganda partner organization TAPA says the possibility of creating a prosperous community with improved standards of living is his inspiration. Below is a recent report summary shared by Nathan.

“TAPA has supported individual women and women’s groups in economic strengthening since the inception of the organisation.  We reach women through mobilization and organising group formation of Village saving and Loaning associations (VS&LA), supporting women with domestic animals for income generation, supporting backyard gardens and small farms run by women. Our main goal is to improve the nutrition of children and other family members,  women empowerments on their rights to reduce gender-based violence. Most of these women are caretakers of HIV/AIDS orphans that have been denied and ostracised by their communities. These women are all recipients of SPI seeds. The seeds and the Training provided by TAPA Agronomists has improved many lives and livelihoods.

We are aiming to support the orphans and other vulnerable children and their families through approaches that address their livelihood, mainly vegetable gardening. We also provide Agricultural training alongside other training topics, like child protection and rights, and the rights of their caregivers; plus sensitisation and mobilisation activities to improve incomes in the households that these marginalised and vulnerable people live in. In addition, TAPA is providing psychosocial support and hope to some sections of the community where it operates, which are hard-hit by the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic through comprehensive social and health care in Kyegegwa District.

TAPA is also implementing an education improvement project guided by integrated community-based strategies; by putting up structures for teaching and learning to take place; amidst realistic and motivating socio-community environments. Some school structures have been set up, although the buildings are not enough to meet the desired targets.

TAPA is currently working in Kyegegwa district with 9 sub-counties, 42 parishes, 551 villages. The increase in SPI seeds for us will allow us to reach more people than we have in the past years. Thank you for your support and caring about the people of Kyegegwa.”

It is because of your support that we are able to reach this marginalized community of people in Uganda. Thank you.

A typical woman in Liberia has a lot of work on her plate in addition to the work of managing her household. And to be clear, this is work, often unpaid and unacknowledged — gathering firewood, fetching water, cooking, hand washing clothes, and taking care of family members. Household work can be a huge burden that limits a woman’s ability to take on paid employment or broaden her skills through training and education.

In Liberia, much like many other developing countries around the world, large gender gaps impair women's ability to provide for themselves and their families. Even though the number of hungry people has declined worldwide in the last decade, it remains unacceptably high in places like Liberia. REAP is working hard to change the narrative for Bentol City.

“Women frequently achieve lower productivity than male farmers because they do not have access to the same resources. From the beginning, our goal has been to identify locally available interventions that will improve and increase the productivity of all our program participants.” — REAP founder Christine Norman

A long-term SPI partner in Liberia, REAP (Restoration of Education Advancement Programs), understands the vital importance of the work women accomplish in their communities — both paid and unpaid. REAP’s Women’s Empowerment Program supports women who are taking charge of their own economic advancement through gardening and education, while also accomplishing their daily household work and familial responsibilities.

This program provides women and their children with a supportive space where they can learn, grow a livelihood, and improve the lives of their families. Specifically, the program strengthens the value chains for vegetables and other food these farmers grow in their gardens. Offering agricultural and business training, women farmers put theory into practice using vegetables they grow in the school’s garden. As of early summer, their focus was on potatoes, cassava, okra, and eggplant.

Not all the vegetables stay in the garden or with the families. Women apply business skills they learn, like processing, packaging, labeling, and pricing, by selling vegetables at the local outdoor market and roadside stalls, and by supplying local supermarkets. Besides topics offered by the school, REAP partners with the Ministry of Commerce to offer additional training on marketing, branding, labeling, and pricing. What a fantastic way to connect their hard work to the cash economy market!

REAP and Mayor Christine Norman have made significant progress in their efforts to keep women in the community engaged and involved as a way to eliminate hunger and disease. They’re always looking for new relationships and resources to enrich their programs, and we’re always excited to hear about their new connections.

Your support helps to make these programs possible. Thank you!