2023 FEATURED Project: Looking Above and Beyond

Mother earth is lush and generous in Uganda. Anyone experiencing the mango season in the country’s northern region immediately becomes fascinated by the sight of thousands of fruits hanging from the many trees along paths, in fields, communal courts, and schools. It is not uncommon to see children climbing trees and grabbing ripe fruits from the highest branches to share with the youngest. Mangoes are so abundant that many end up on the floor, spoiled and contributing to food loss. 

Looking above a mango tree, and beyond food insecurity, our club’s community project aims at improving livelihoods and empowering women in rural Kaberamaido district, among the poorest in Uganda.  

Women and girls in Kaberamaido district

With a population of around 250.000 people with very limited access to essential services, communities are unprivileged and marked by poverty. Their major source of livelihood is subsistence farming. Close to 60% of the population live below the poverty line and 50% suffer from malnutrition.

Women and girls provide most of the efforts to maintain their families (up to 80%). Lacking livelihood options, they turn to agriculture as source of household income. Women and girls oversee household chores and family care, adding to that fetching water, laboring their land, planting, weeding, harvesting and post processing the yield to sell in local markets and provide income for the household. This burden and the lack of family resources results in girls dropping out of school, not finishing primary education. 

Food insecurity

Life in rural Uganda is rhythmed by seasons and natural cycles. As we witnessed during the mango season, the country is blessed with plenty and a wide variety of food. Food varieties include maize, beans, banana, cassava, sweet & Irish potatoes, millet, sorghum, rice, peas, groundnuts, sesame, soya bean, to mention but a few.

However, subsistence farming still uses rudimentary conservation methods like sun drying on uncovered ground. Poor drying and handling results in product contamination and shorter preservation, perpetuating food insecurity. As a result, it is estimated that in Uganda, an average of 30% – 50% of the annual grain and fresh fruits and vegetables harvest in terms of weight is lost. In the district of Kaberamaido, rural and poor, food losses and waste rise to 70%.

Pilot project: enabling food security 

Inspired by the abondance and waste of mangoes at peak season, the quest for finding a viable and sustainable solution to tackle Kaberamaido’s food insecurity and boost women empowerment began. 

Initiated in 2019, a pilot community project was seed-funded by a club member and driven by POPOW, a local NGO directed towards community development. The pilot consisted of transporting and training POPOW staff and community members to the use of two prototype food dehydrators (capacity of 30 and 60 liters). The equipment has been developed and produced by a young Ugandan engineer in Kampala. Powered by solar energy or garden waste, the food dehydrators dry fruit, vegetables, and cereals quickly, making them last for months instead of days. 

During the initial phase of the pilot, POPOW and the community tested the dehydrator in a variety of food: pineapple, bananas, vegetables, sweet potatoes, cassava, mangoes and oranges. In the second phase, the organization started drying mostly cassava and sweet potatoes which were packed and distributed to the most poor and vulnerable families unable to acquire food. Sweet potatoes and cassava take a shorter time to dry, and POPOW could produce about 40 kg of dehydrated produce in a day (about 12 hours) with two 30-liter capacity dehydrators. The highly nutritive dehydrated food became the main meal of many vulnerable families.

Shortly after this, the COVID pandemic hit. Kaberamaido went in total lock down, followed by floods and severe droughts. The food driers were put to intensive use. It helped POPOW dry and store sweet potatoes and cassava, later sold with a profit to buy a variety of essential foods to feed the increasing number of starving families - especially children - in their community due to weather extreme events that undermined the community farming efforts. POPOW fed at least 160 children during the pandemic and continues to do so.