Embedding eco-friendly solutions in Tororo, Eastern Uganda

Last year, Medical Mission Sisters in Tororo, Eastern Uganda, were delighted to receive a grant from the City of Vienna, enabling them to engage in eco-friendly agricultural activity supported by their Austrian partner organisation, Jugend Eine Welt. The results have far exceeded expectation - with 250 local people benefiting from the activities.  As Sister Clicent Tumukunde explains, Tororo is located in a region severely affected by climate change, where 80% of households, who are dependent on agriculture, have become vulnerable to shifting climatic conditions and resulting food insecurity.  The scarcity of accessible drinking water is having dire effects on public health, increasing the risk of waterborne diseases.

The project was initiated in response to an urgent need for sustainable environmental regeneration in Tororo District and implemented in line with Pope Francis’ second encyclical letter, Laudato si’ on Care for Our Common Home.  Working across 44 Catholic parishes in the Archdiocese of Tororo, MMS’ team has equipped local communities with skills to promote and improve environmental stewardship.  Small holder farmers, including women who head up households, often lack knowledge about sustainable, ecological and profitable methods of cultivation, animal husbandry, and how to market their produce. Supporting their transition from subsistence farming to small-scale, sustainable and profitable agriculture is crucial, states Sister Clicent, if local agricultural productivity is to be boosted and risks of crop losses mitigated.  The local community needs to be empowered to make this transition. 

MMS’ innovative activities included a ‘Training the Trainer’ approach designed to ensure that the know- how and new practical skills are passed on widely to others after training in the following areas:

• Mandala gardening - which is broadly circular and uses geometric patterns to symbolise the universe, is not only pleasing in design, but also very practical, permitting an improvement of soil building and pest control. Maximising ‘edges’ increases the yields from an organic garden.  After the training, small plots of previously idle land were put to use to provide kitchen gardens - and significant results were achieved. Local families are now harvesting vegetables from their small gardens and improving household access to well-balanced diets;

• Use of Lorena cooking stoves and briquette-making - were skills passed on, with great success, to a total of 50 women and young mothers in the deaneries of Kwapa and Namisindwa. This involved learning how to make green charcoal briquettes, using locally available resources and vegetable waste.  These briquettes are now being made by the women, not only for cooking purposes, but also to generate income through sales. This initiative is reducing local dependency on firewood and is already improving the lives of our beneficiaries.  Through the sale of briquettes, the women are now able to buy household essentials, such as soap, cooking oil etc.;

• Sack gardening - for kitchen gardens attracted over 100 women trainees.  The methods shared with them are helping to control environmental pollution by repurposing cement sacks.  Creation of sack gardens enables residents in urban areas to grow vegetables in limited spaces, thereby supplying nutritious food for their families;

• Bottle gardening - relies upon farming in recycled bottles. This not only prevents environmental pollution, but also conserves water by enabling efficient drip irrigation;

• Keyhole gardens - are also proving essential for urban farming.  The gardens use distinctive, circular raised beds that have a central section cut out of them, giving the appearance of a keyhole.  At the centre of the cut out is a composting basket, which is integral to the design. The basket is filled with yard and kitchen waste, which decomposes and diffuses nutrients into the rest of the raised bed, when watered.  Continuous vegetable growth, using ‘grey’ water, is fostered to reduce environmental pollution from household waste;

• Digging swales - is proving an effective method of slowing down water flow and preventing flooding in mountainous regions, prone to landslides during heavy rains.  Through planting vetiver grass in these swales, the project’s trainees are now helping to stabilise soil and reduce its erosion;

• Raised beds - are promoted to facilitate water management, preventing soil erosion through the effective channelling of water flow.  The beds help to organise gardens and make planting easier;

• Composting - by recycling garden waste into home-made compost is already helping to regenerate local soils, severely depleted due to over-cultivation and not allowing the land to rest. The compost improves soil quality, increases nutrients and is very environmentally friendly;

• Liquid manure and natural pesticides - are being promoted as natural fertilisers - made from animal droppings, urine and vegetation to improve soil quality sustainably;

• A model tree nursery - has been established on MMS’ land to support community greening efforts and to provide fruit trees and other environmentally friendly species for intercropping;

• Animal care and management - is already enhancing local livestock production, whether through improved animal health or better breeding rates; and

• Plastic and polythene recycling - is increasingly happening since MMS' training demonstrated proper garbage disposal methods and encouraged waste separation to mitigate against risks of land and water pollution.

Through this project, a rise in income generation and improved food security are apparent in and around the district of Tororo.  This is mainly due to increased crop production - notably, crops of cassava, millet and peanuts - as well as the introduction of greenhouse farming which enables all year-round growth of fresh produce, including tomatoes, onions and cucumbers. The different groups of beneficiaries were given starter kits, including seeds and tools, which are equipping them for serious vegetable gardening, as can be seen now in a number of parishes and deaneries. Strengthened environmental stewardship is also leaving its mark across the district through improved waste management and recycling, while social entrepreneurship, community development and economic empowerment are also evident after MMS’ training in baking, candle-making, soap-making and packaging has developed productive, new skill-sets. 

One of the main challenges for the project team was the unexpectedly high turnout of participants. However, the trainers were very pleased to include, among the beneficiaries, girls from Budadiri deanery, who had dropped out of school after the global pandemic, and marginalised young mothers, seeking livelihoods skills. 

Otherwise, Sister Clicent reports that after a year of dedicated work, there are promising signs that economic and ecological resilience are on the up-turn in the under-served district of Tororo, thanks to the project’s activities.  Wholeheartedly, she and her team in Tororo thank the City of Vienna and Jugend Eine Welt for their most generous support and encouragement. 

Impressive results, thank you, Sister Clicent and team!