19 Mar
Economic Empowerment

Transforming Lives Through Agriculture and Savings

Bernadette Nyabenda Advancing Livelihoods Through Agriculture and Savings

Bernadette Nyabenda expresses her deep appreciation for the work of Shared Action Africa in empowering women through financial literacy and agricultural training. Through their support, women in her community have gained valuable skills in savings and modern farming techniques, enabling them to improve their livelihoods and food security.

“We appreciate Shared Action Africa for teaching us, women, how to save and develop ourselves. With the knowledge we acquired, we started saving, and once we completed one savings cycle, we moved on to another. This practice has significantly improved our financial stability and enabled us to invest in better farming methods,” Bernadette shares.

One of the key agricultural lessons imparted by Shared Action Africa was the proper planting of crops such as maize and beans using line spacing techniques. This method has greatly improved the quality and quantity of their harvests. The women also learned how to cultivate kitchen gardens, which provide them with a steady supply of fresh vegetables. These gardens are strategically designed to grow multiple types of crops in different sections, ensuring food security and better nutrition for their families.

“Our kitchen gardens are of high quality, and we now have access to vegetables without any difficulties. The ability to grow various crops in different garden sections has enhanced our nutrition and overall well-being,” Bernadette explains.

Beyond planting techniques, SAA trained the women in post-harvest handling, a crucial aspect of sustainable farming. They learned how to differentiate and properly store seeds by sorting dried seeds from undried ones. This practice ensures the longevity and quality of their seeds, preparing them for future planting seasons.

Additionally, they were taught innovative and cost-effective methods of seed preservation. Using polythene bags and improved granary storage techniques, they can now protect their harvests from spoilage and pest infestations. These skills have minimized post-harvest losses, ensuring they have enough food and seeds for the next planting cycle.

“Thanks to Shared Action Africa, we now have the knowledge to properly store our seeds and preserve our harvests. This has helped us reduce waste and maintain food security in our households,” Bernadette adds.

Through these initiatives, SAA continues to transform the lives of Refugees women farmers, making them more self-reliant and economically empowered. The training has not only improved agricultural productivity but also fostered financial independence, strengthening the resilience of the community.

19 Mar
Economic Empowerment

The Making Of Compost Manure Has Benefited Women Farmers

Basasa Vangelina’s Journey to Sustainable Agriculture in Nakivale settlement.

In the refugee communities of Nakivale Settlement, access to agricultural resources remains a significant challenge for many women farmers. Basasa Vangelina, a dedicated farmer, shares how Shared Action Africa has empowered her with skills in manure-production and application and sustainable farming. Despite challenges with irrigation and pest control, she remains determined to improve food security and generate income for her family through farming.

“My name is Basasa Vangelina. I thank Shared Action Africa for teaching us how to make our own liquid and compost manure. SAA came and mobilized us in our savings and business group as local women farmers who were struggling because our gardens lacked the fertility needed for crops to grow well. Through training, we were taught on how to dig three pit holes for compost manure production.  In the first pit, we place our organic waste for decomposition. After three weeks, we then move the decomposing matter to the second pit for two weeks. In the third and final pit, the organic matter stays for one week while decomposing. After that, we collect it and apply it to our gardens. This replenishes soil with nutrients and helps our crops grow strong and healthy,” Nibasasa said.

Vangelina has several gardens where she practices agriculture by planting a variety of crops. She has been trained by Shared Action Africa o look as a griculture not only as a way of reducing food insecurity at home but also as an income-generating activity.

“We take pride in carrying out agriculture as a group. As tomato growers, we have gained a lot although we are still challenged by the harsh weather conditions and because of this, we have to continuously collect water from the lake using the watering cans provided by SAA to irrigate our gardens  we hope that in the near future, we shall buy a water pump such that we can pump water from the lake to water the vegetable gardens and also rent out our pump to other groups and earn an income.,” said Vangelina.

 

19 Mar
Economic Empowerment

How Agricultural Training Transformed Nyiranziza’s Life in Nakivale

I Can Now Plant Seeds Appropriately – Nyiranziza Said.

In Nakivale Settlement in Isingiro district, women farmers are transforming their lives through post harvesting agricultural training provided by Shared Action Africa under the Economic Development and Climate Resilience program. Nyiranziza Francine, the leader of Twisungane savings and business group in Nyakagando, praises SAA for equipping women with skills in modern farming techniques, climate resilience, and economic empowerment. Through these trainings, Francine has improved her farming practices, increased her income, and enhanced food security for her family. She highlights the importance of seed preservation, kitchen gardening, and development strategies learned from the program. With these new skills, women in the community are becoming self-reliant and ensuring better nutrition for their children.

“I appreciate Shared Action Africa for the work they are doing in my community. SAA came and trained us, as women organized in a SBG, and taught us development strategies. Shared Action Africa taught us on proper planting techniques, and later came back and trained us on how to harvest our crops and dry them properly. We also learned how to store our seeds safely to prevent weevil attacks using cost effective methods. We appreciate them for the progress they have helped us achieve over the period of time that we have been working them. We also learned how to grow crops on keyhole and kitchen gardens, which allow us to grow and eat vegetables all year round and provide nutritious food for our children. As a result, our children remain healthy and are not at risk of catching diseases associated to malnutrition like kwashiorkor. I appreciate the Shared Action Africa team for the work they are doing to transform the lives of the refugee women through agriculture and their willingness to share more knowledge with us so we can improve our livelihoods,” Francine said.

 

18 Mar
Economic Empowerment

Post-Harvest Training and Techniques

Shared Action Africa Empowering Refugee Women Farmers in Nakivale Settlement where Harvesting and post harvesting Training Transformed Esperance’s Harvest Preservation.

In Nakivale Settlement, refugee women farmers are gaining vital skills to protect their harvests, and they have expressed their appreciation for Shared Action Africa. Through specialized training, women like Mujareshema Esperance have learned effective harvesting and post-harvesting techniques to prevent yield losses caused by weevils and spoilage.

Previously, Esperance struggled to store her beans and maize, often losing a substantial portion of the same before finding buyers. However, with new knowledge on proper drying, granary use, and storage methods, she is now confident in preserving her produce and increasing her profits. This initiative is transforming post harvest handling practices among refugee women, empowering them to achieve food security and financial stability.

“I am from Nyakagando B and a member of Umoja savings group. I used to lose my harvest to weevils, which would attack the seeds and spoil them before I could find a buyer. As a result, all my efforts would go to waste. However, I have now acquired skills on how to protect my seeds from weevil attacks,” Mukashema said.

Esperance expressed her gratitude to Shared Action Africa for the training provided on post-harvesting agriculture techniques, where she acquired valuable skills.

“We have learned how to store our agricultural products without them getting damaged. I have been practicing agriculture for a long time, but I was not making much profits. I would harvest my beans and maize, store them, and within a few days, weevils would attack the yields, hence causing loses. Sometimes, the seeds would even rot during storage. Shared Action Africa has trained us on the use of granaries, how to properly dry the hearvested crops using taurplins, and ensure they are well dried before storage. We have also learned how to use bags with polyethylene lining, which prevents weevil infestations. Additionally, we were taught to use pallets to store our bags, protecting the seeds from rotting. I am confident that this time, I will profit from my beans and maize because I am going to follow the recommended techniques and apply the knowledge acquired from the training,” said Esperance.

 

18 Mar
Economic Empowerment

Promoting Economic Development and Climate Resilience

Nzayisenga Faida’s Journey with Shared Action Africa 

Nzayisenga Faida, a member of Tafuta Savings and Business Group located in Nyakagando A, has transformed her life through Economic Development trainings by Shared Action Africa. Once struggling with high costs of vegetable, she now grows her own vegetables at home, ensuring food security and saving on household food expenditure. The trainings conducted by Shared Action Africa equipped her with essential skills on climate smart agriculture as well as harvesting and post-harvesting handling techniques including proper storage techniques.

“I am Nzayisenga Faida from Nyakagando A, a member of the Tafuta Savings and Business Group. I have no regrets getting involved in the agricultural initiatives organized by Shared Action Africa. Before the training, I used to buy vegetables at a high prices from the market for the sake of my children. However, after attending the training sessions, I learned how to grow my own vegetables on a keyhole garden, which now helps me feed my family and UGX 500,000. Shared Action Africa has helped us, as women in the savings and business group, to transform our lives. They taught us better farming methods, including to establish and maintain backyard gardens all year round, which provide us with a steady source of vegetables for our families. Since adopting these techniques, we have had no problems accessing nutritious food (vegetables). We also learned harvesting and  post-harvest handling techniques of our produce from the communal gardens, including how to safeguard our produce from pest and disease infestations during storage. Additionally, we were trained on proper seed storage, using well-protected sacks with polyethylene linings to prevent spoilage and the importance of proper drying of our harvest,” Faida said.

 

18 Mar
Economic Empowerment

Empowering Women through Agriculture

Leocardia Benefits from Economic Development and Climate Resilience

Shared Action Africa conducted a post-harvesting farming training session for the women of Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Nakagando Village. The training session aimed at equipping women with the skills to increase production, ultimately boosting their income.

Nyiratabaro Leocardia, a member of the Tupendane Savings and Business Group, shared how the training transformed their agricultural practices in seed sorting, drying methods, and improving quality of the yields. With newfound skills in farming techniques and financial management, the women are now empowered to increase their profits through sale of produce and support their families, while sharing their knowledge amongst themselves.

“After the training, we, as women in SBGs, gained the skills and knowledge to improve quality of our harvests straight from our gardens. The training on harvest and post-harvest handlinghas benefited us and will contribute to our development. Due to lack of knowledge, we used to make a lot of mistakes after harvesting which resulted in spoilage of our agricultural produce. As a result, we couldn’t earn much from sales made. Now that we have acquired harvest and post-harvest handling skills, we will put them into practice and improve our harvests. As women in Tupendane Savings and Business Group, we thank Shared Action Africa for training us and giving us this great opportunity to learn even more. Now, we are experts, and we will train other women who were not part of the training. I also thank Shared Action Africa for teaching us how to save, borrow and also encouraging us to have a  goal as to why one is saving. We can now save our money effectively and with a purpose. We are now able to support our families by buying necessities at home, assisting our husbands meet some needs thus reducing on our financial dependency as women, and also financially support our children’s needs. I also thank Shared Action Africa for teaching us how to grow food/vegetables on keyhole and kitchen gardens and providing us resources like improved seed and bricks to establish the same. The SAA team has gone ahead to train us how to practice farming techniques like bottle irrigation on the keyhole and kitchen gardens such that we are able to grow vegetables on our backyard gardens all year round. We have also learned how to sort our produce and improve quality, which will lead to generation of higher profits when sales are made. Thank you Shared Action Africa,” said Leocardia.

16 Mar
Advocacy, Sexual And Reproductive Health & Rights

Promoting Menstrual Health & Hygiene

Savings Groups Promote Menstrual Health

Adolescent girls and young people have come together to promote their menstrual health and hygiene, which is one of the leading sexual and reproductive health care challenges faced by women of reproductive age in the refugee and host communities in Nakivale and Oruchinga refugee settlements. It is for this reason that Shared Action Africa supported 30 adolescent girls and young women to form a savings and lending group that they named “Oruchinga Youth Protection Group”, with a membership of 25 girls and 7 boys.

The group was initially formed as a savings and lending group to help members pool their meagre savings on a weekly basis, but also as forum through which members would be provided sexual and reproductive health counselling and services. It is through subsequent meetings, where members noticed consistent absenteeism by female members around the same period every month, that the leadership decided to find out from their members why they were not attending group meetings on a regular basis.

It was then revealed by members that lack of access to sanitary pads during menstruation hindered them from joining group activities, and it is for this reason that they jointly decided to seek training on how to produce handmade sanitary pads.

To support their efforts, Shared Action Africa provided them UGX 150,000 which they used to buy some materials that they are using both during training, as well as in the production of reusable sanitary pads for their own personal use and for close family members.

“The sanitary making group activity has not only strengthened the social connectedness of members, but it has improved the menstrual hygiene and health of members. This is because we not only meet to save and lend out to each other, we also meet to receive education on how to promote personal hygiene during menstruation. We are working hard to improve our skills in the making of sanitary pads so that we can grow beyond making sanitary pads for our own use into turning it into an income generating activity for both individual members as we as for the groups.

We are grateful for the support provided to by Shared Action Africa and African Women’s Development Fund. We plan to share this knowledge with other youth led groups so that they can also have a group activity that does not help them bond, but also addresses their menstrual health because we also believe young people are the best agents and drivers of change amongst their peers, and the community they live in.”

16 Mar
Climate Justice, Economic Empowerment

Empowering Health Workers

Arinda Isaac’s story | Empowering Health Workers to Provide Youth Friendly SRHR Services.

Increasing the utilization of sexual and reproductive services is greatly dependent on the positive attitude of the health workers towards its provision to young people of ages 15-24. It is for this reason that Shared Action Africa is amplifying the contribution made by Isaac Arinda, a health worker and advocate for increased utilization and access of sexual and reproductive care of adolescents and young people at Nshungyezi HCIII in Oruchinga refugee settlement. Prior to receiving specialized training, Isaac had a very poor attitude towards adolescents and young people that sought sexual and reproductive care at the health facility where he worked. Like other members of his community, he though that providing contraceptives to young people was tantamount to promoting promiscuity among these age group. However, after the training he provided, it was he has been one of the biggest advocates for adolescent sexual and reproductive rights among his peers.

“As health workers, we often are not interested in helping young people access sexual and reproductive health care due to our own personal biases, beliefs, and prejudices. Prior to my training on adolescent sexual and reproductive health care and rights, I was among those health workers would decline to serve young people because I believed I would be perpetuating moral decadency in our community. However, after learning that access and use of SRHR services is a human right, but also that it works as a preventive measure against several societal evils such as unplanned and teenage pregnancies, I was won over.

It is for this reason, that when the first youth friendly space was established at Nshungyezi health facility, I applied to be the person in charge of managing this space. I am therefore happy to be working in partnership with Shared Action Africa to provide counselling to the youth and I feel honored to be the person privileged to pilot such as initiative that will have a lasting impact among our communities. This is because when young people are offered an opportunity to access services and information concerning their reproductive health, we would be mitigating against early childhood pregnancies and are rampant in the settlement.

I am confident this will happen gradually because I am part of the team that is promoting voluntary family planning among young people, and also encourage them to not only conduct regular testing for HIV, but also advise them to always use protection whenever they uninformed about their partner’s HIV status. However, for those that find themselves in a situation where they have had unprotected sex, we provide them with not only emergency contraceptive but also encourage them to seek Prep treatment to prevent HIV infection.

However, while we have established a youth friendly corner at Nshungezi HCIII, we need further support to help equip it so that young people are encouraged to come and come interact with others as they are counselled on their sexual and reproductive health care and rights as well as receive services that meet their needs. There has been an integration of youth friendly services in outreaches as this gives the youth a chance to confidently show up and participate in health education talks. We have also allocated Saturdays as a special day for them to attend to the youth. “

Isaac Alinda, offering counselling on sexual and productive care to a young lady.

Mukundwa Ejidiya
16 Mar
Economic Empowerment

I regret why I Married Early

Mukundwa Ejidiya | I regret why I Married Early

Mukundwa Ejidiya, 18, is a Rwandese refugee residing in Michinga 1, Oruchinga settlement, in South Western Uganda. She dropped out of school at the age of 16 because she couldn’t wait to marry her boyfriend and also start a family. Although she lives a life of regret, she feels that her confinement in the projects of Shared Action Africa (SAA) console her from overthinking and stress.

“Before I chose to get married to my boyfriend at the age of 16, I was a Primary Six student in one of the community schools in Oruchinga refugee settlement. All was going smoothly until tension from school fees thickened its nerve. I was left in the dilemma of either pressing on with studies or moving in with my boyfriend to start a family. When I was won by the latter option, I conceived in a short while and gave birth to my first child.

Months later, I started experiencing unbearable marital issues that left me with a life of regret. Regardless, I am thankful for the project that SAA extended to the youth in our settlement. I’m now more informed and aware that health facilities exist for people of all ages. Each time I need services from the health facility, I ask for a referral form from one of the peer educators. I am now on family planning and this has helped me to ensure spacing of my children. I have a reason to take care of my child until he is five years old for me to think about having another child again.

16 Mar
Advocacy, Sexual And Reproductive Health & Rights

Krematic’s Story

KREMATIC’S STORY | Surviving and Healing from Sexual Assault & Trauma

Krematic a 23-year-old survivor of rape is rebuilding her life through the psychosocial that she is receiving through the Youth SRHR Friendly space created at the Rubondo HCIII facility in Nakivale Refugee Settlement in southwestern Uganda. At the age of 18, Kremestic, a Congolese refugee was sexually assaulted at age of 18 as she returned from school. At the time, she did not know how to access information and support to take the steps taken to immediately following a sexual assault. For instance, to get the care she needed to prevent unwanted pregnancy, and never found justice for the crime committed against her. Consequently, at the age of 23 she is still picking up the pieces after this traumatic experience that happened 5 years ago. She was banished from her home by her parents due to the stigma associated with raising a single mother coupled with the burden of caring for an additional person in an already resource constrained environment.

The sexual assault impacted my lives in so many ways that I struggling to recover from. I was chased from my home, and I had to find shelter for myself and my child. I was not ready to become a mother and had no support. I was interested in pursuing an education with the hope of improving our lives as family, because it is very hard to survive as refugees in another country. I struggled to find employment and take care of my child at the same time. It is not until I heard about the Shared Action Africa and the programs, they were implementing in my village that I got interested on how I participate to help with my personal healing, and also help others that might be going through the same struggles recover and start a support group that will help us bond around specific activities that we could do together like starting joint income generating activities or forming a savings and lending groups from which we would access small loans to meet our financial needs.

After receiving training from Shared Action Africa on various topics related to adolescent sexual and reproductive care, and learned about how to prevent unwanted pregnancies through emergency contraception, prevention of STIs, particularly HIV through Prep, menstrual hygiene among other topics, I was motivated to serve in the capacity of Peer Educator and Advocacy Champion. Serving in the capacity of advocacy Champion, I am part of Youth SRHR Collective, that brings together 170 other adolescent girls to advocate for spaces to be created at some health facilities so that the young people like myself can access sexual and reproductive health care in a safe environment. Also, through the knowledge acquired through attending group meetings where we are sensitized by our rights to sexual and reproductive health and rights, and the services available at the health facilities, I not only counsel my peers on the same subjects, but I more empowered to make informed decisions, in case I encounter the same situation as I did five years.

In addition to being part of team of committed young people making a difference in our community, I am also earning a monthly stipend from providing SRHR related services to my peers. Similarly, through training provided by Shared Action Africa, I joined a savings and lending group through which I can access some small loans, whenever I have a financial need.

I am particularly happy with the reflective community dialogues conducted for adolescents together with their parents to discuss subjects related to sexuality, a subject that is culturally never discussed by parents with their children. I am very supportive of this activity because if my parents had an opportunity to participate in the same, I would probably be living with my parents now. Such programs are important to change the mindsets of our communities about allowing adolescents and young people to access sexual and reproductive health care to improve our lives.
I would like to urge Shared Action Africa to bring us vocational training programs for single mothers like me so that we can get a second chance in life.

Thank you, SAA, for changing our lives and my community.

Load more postsLoading...