Uganda Children’s Centre is one of the few organizations within Kampala Peri Urban with land for agricultural activities. UCC use part of this land to practice urban agriculture through training
children under rehabilitation. During the lockdown, the organization engaged children from the streets to learn and practice different agricultural activities. Emphasis was put on urban
agriculture since our size of land could only allow for small land practices.
They learnt how to use small space to grow plants. Methods of draining water-logged areas without spoiling crops, Planting sweet potatoes sugar canes, maize and yams in a swamp. Inter
cropping.
Timely harvesting and soil management: some of the children came from the villages and had taken longtime without practicing agriculture. This was an opportunity for them to do agricultural
practices. Some of them still had the skills and were able to showcase them.
Food harvested from this garden is eaten by the children. The food contributes massively to the daily meals with additional nutrients. The children and the staff are always happy for this value addition. UCC management every year ensures children have basic agricultural training and introduction to different foods grown in the garden.
The agriculture sub department is not fully equipped with all the necessary tools and equipment but utilize the few that are available. However, steps are taken to ensure that basic tools are
procured to beef up the department. By the time children complete training and the rehabilitation process and ready for resettlement, a lot is learnt and ready to apply the same back home especially those from rural areas and a few from peri urbans.
Apparently, we are unable to hire a specialist to support this initiative due to meagre resources, however, our team of instructors give tremendous support due to their varied training while at college. We are grateful to the donors, instructors and UCC management for supporting this department to attain laid down objectives.