Sweet Gig

(Orphan caretakers in the field)

(on the way to work)

(the sugar cane fields next to my house)

(sugar from the factory)
So I realized besides my previous post I haven’t really explained what I am actual working on here in Uganda. So what am I doing? Hunting lions and fair-trade fur exporting. . . .
Okay, really, I am doing an internship with a local nonprofit called KORD, Kakira Outgrowers Rural Development. KORD is a unique partnership between the Kakira Sugar Works factory and the farmers, basically each entity gives a certain amount of money to the organization based on how many tons of sugar cane are brought to the factory. In exchange, KORD focuses on improving the life of the outgrowers (farmers and families) within a 30km radius of the factory through various projects. Most of the 30km catchment area is only accessible by rural, damaged dirt roads and contains 16 sub-counties with numerous vulnerable children, farmers and households who are dependent on the crops and live in poverty. KORD works on the following projects: orphans and vulnerable children projects, malaria prevention, construction of schools, rebuilding of rural roads, solid waste management in the villages, diary improvement through create of feed, construction of a fuel station, a farmer’s loan project, income generating activities workshops, school scholarship fund for orphans, water purification and access and installation of improved cookstoves.

The main project in which I will be using my seed grant and focusing on is the installation of improved cookstoves. Mostly all of the population in the peri-urban and rural areas of Uganda still use wood burning or charcoal stoves to do all of their cooking. As you can imagine there are numerous consequences by using these type of natural resources and form of cooking on a daily basis, such as destruction of forests for firewood, dramatically poor health from smoke, increased pollution, inefficient burning and cooking times, burns and fires from stove accidents, etc. There is currently a large push in India and Africa to replace the stoves with more efficient ones and the possibility of biogas. As a result, KORD has received a nice grant from AFREPREN to facilitate a pilot project of installing 8 improved institutional cook stoves in 6 schools in the outgrowers’ catchment area where vulnerable/orphans attend. I will be facilitating this project and grant. (more details to come!) I will also be working on assisting with the orphans and vulnerable children projects which include handing out schools supplies, paying school fees, facilitating a sports and psycho-social support event, and helping caretakers with income generating activities. In addition to writing grants for more projects, helping improve the website, recruit volunteers and develop a fundraising program.

The office is nice due to its partnership with the factory and they have a nice consistent source of funding and several successful grants, but there are only two main staff and an infinite amount of need from the outgrowers. There is lots of work to be done and I am busily working between the office and the field. I will give updates as they come.