Volunteer: Plant & Teach Permaculture in Uganda

Permaculture: permanent agriculture, is a farming/gardening system that can stand the test of time. We humans are part of our eco-system, practicing peramculture allows us to create a way of living, farming and gardening that enriches the area we live in as well enriching our bodies with a variety of quality food to support our overall health.

Initially a permaculture garden demands a lot of thought and care from imaginative people like us. This is why the garden can be a wonderful place to express our talents and connection to nature. A good permaculture design will produce a mature garden that can be maintained by simply spreading the compost on the soil, light pruning, and eating.

A Permaculture approach to agriculture can make a small community self-sustainable with high quality food resources.

Permaculture practices in Uganda are especially efficient in this area for many reasons including:

1. Uganda is an equatorial country. With plenty of sun light the soil never freezes in Uganda, which creates the potential for a year round garden/food supply.

2. Uganda has "man power". Many countries have monoagriculture crops which use machines to do repetitive technical work instead of "man power", which eliminates the possibility for people to use their imaginations to yield food more efficiently. Monoagriculture crops have the advantage of inital high yields and the disadvantage of deteriorating the soil, dependency on fertilizers pesticides and GMO's to maintain production and protect crops from disease and predators, which pollutes the soil and ground water and which causes illness in humans and other animals that eat from the crops.

In Permaculture the soil is the first thing to nurture: enriched soil = high yield.

Permaculturalist use natural fertilizer for the following reasons.

• chemicals fertilizers are costly pollutants.
• natural fertilizers are readily available
• natural fertilizers are good for the soil
• using natural fertilizers is a smart way to dispose of waste.

What are natural fertilizers?

• food leftover
• fish
• goat
• cow bones
• egg shells
• rotten vegetables
• news papers
• old clothes
• hair
• banana stems
• chicken or dried cow manure

Where do I store my natural fertilizer?

In a compost.

How to make a compost:

Making a compost is easy, the idea is to collect the organic waste of the family or community to one place where is rots and becomes humus.

Find a shady place where you can create a few piles of your organic matter.

Create a layer of leaves or grass to keep the pile aerated.

Cover the leaves and grass with organic waste.

Cover that layer with leaves and grass and repeat the previous steps until your pile is big enough to start a new one.

The piles can be any shape and about 0.5m X 0.5m or larger depending on the size of the community. It will takes about one month for each pile to become humus. Each month you can begin a new pile a leave the old one to become hummus. (If it's a dry season add a bit of water to your compost)

Once you have humus you can use it to fertilize your garden by mixing it into the soil.

How to Start a Permaculture Garden:

Make a nursery in a shaded place.

Think about water.

The garden should be connected to a water supply. If there is no water supply or pump you should consider creating a rainwater catchment system from the roof with tanks. It’s possible to use clay bricks that your huts are made of to catch water in.

Plant it close to the compost pile

Protect plants from animals, like goats, cows, and chickens.

Build raised beds.

Garden beds should be made from naturally fertilized soil. It is important to break up hard clumps of soil and till the soil to make it fluffy and airy. Beds should be at least 40 cm high with canals on each side of the bed to catch the rainfall and prevent runoff.

Cover the beds with ground cover.

Dry grass can be used to cover the soil and protect it from direct sun, preventing water loss and keeping the soil cool. If it rains hard, ground cover will protect the water from washing away the seeds. Mature plants like potatoes or pumpkins can be used as live ground cover once the plants are mature.

Plant a variety of plants together.

Plants like okra, chili, peppers, or pigeon pee can provide shade to the lettuces. Plant onion garlic and basil throughout your garden to repel insects. Plant vegetation that provides a natural home for wild animals like lizards and small birds that eat insects. The more varied it is the less maintenance you will have to do.

A Few Suggestions:

Create seed stock.

The plants you grow in your garden are producing seeds that will naturally adapt to their environment; therefore it is better to have your own seeds. To do so let a few of your plants flower and make seed, collect it and store them in the nursery or just let seeds fall naturally.

Think about planting for future generations. Planting trees can take up to ten years to get the first yield.

Harvest the garden a little bit each day instead of taking everything at once. With time the garden will provide more food.

Cassava should be harvested just before the rainy season to break up the soil and prepare it for the new crop.

Use papaya trees in the garden as shade and as live polls to make structures.

Plant Pineapple, they need little care.

Jackfruit seeds can be used as food resource; boil them like beans.

Please contact me if you have any questions,
Eyal – fistuk@yahoo.com

All the Best,

Eyal

Re-writing Francis's letter still makes me cry.

It was during my last couple of days at St. Judes that Brother Elio asked me to visit Francis, a 23 year old medical student at the neighboring Catholic secondary school for boys. Brother Elio never ask me to do anything, he only told me what the children needed and asked me in what capacity I would like to serve, so the opportunity to go and speak to Francis at his request was an honor. He told me very little about Francis, only that he was a good student that seemed to be suffering from a bit of depression and anger do the complications he faced daily with his paralysis.

Francis appeared from one of the class room entrances, wheeling himself in a make shift chair. Beads of sweat poured from his brow, he was suffering from malaria symptoms, but explained he just finished taking an important exam that he could not miss no matter how ill he was feeling. Immediately I was astonished at his strength and will power. He showed no signs of depression or anger. He spoke eloquently and his speech was full of hope for the future. I was puzzled as to why Brother Elio told me otherwise. Although I was the Life Coach I felt I was receiving a lesson on how to face life's challenges instead of giving it. Fortunately I was accompanied by Vincent, a dear friend of mine from Kenya. He was wiser than me, and he saw past Francis's mask and knew to ask him questions that I didn't think to ask.

"How do you get along with the other boys here, do they treat you with respect?" "Where do you sleep, is it comfortable." "Where are the restrooms, is it hard to get to them at night?" "Do you have help getting to town?" "Does your chair cause you pain?"

Slowly, like the unfolding of rose petals the human side of Francis came out. In his eye's saw a young man that fought day in and day out to overcome physical pain, humiliation, mental challenges, and loneliness in order to make the most of his life so that he could give back and help others. For that moment in time I believe Francis could relax, could talk about his vulnerability without fear of being harmed.

It breaks my heart to see someone with so much potential and desire to do good that is stifled and tormented by things that so many people take for granted.

Because I respect Francis, I will not go into further detail about the challenges he faces on a day to day basis. I will ask you to read his letter, and to read between the lines. Put yourself in his shoes, and my God allow you to find it in your heart to donate money you might waste to a boy that is fighting against all odds to become a man that will be able to help save many lives.

Francis's Letter

I am called Ochap Francis, 23 years of age, a student in my final level at the secondary level.

My situation

I am paraplegic using a wheelchair.

How I came to be in such a situation

I never dreamed such a situation would happen in life, never, but I just found myself in this situation in 2004 May 7th, Friday around 4:30 p.m. I fell from a mango tree and I became paralyzed in my lower limbs.

My goals

In this world nothing is impossible and everyone is goal oriented. Therefore, I fortunately decided a long time ago I wanted to join the field of medicine and become a doctor in order to serve others.

My needs

I would like to kindly request the following:

Intermittent Catheters

Electrical Wheel Chair

Manual Wheel Chair

Air pumped sitting cushion

Books for school

Mattress

How my life will be different if my needs are provided

At the moment there are several workshops, seminars, practical researches that I am supposed to attend with my colleagues, currently I am facing transport and movement difficulties to destinations of those respective activities.

I was also recommended by the doctor for physiotherapy; the hospital is about 2km away and I cannot manage to reach it. However sometimes I can manage to take a taxi which is very expensive for me to maintain the cost because I am still a student. Therefore, if I was to have the electrical wheelchair, my quality of life will change because of movement accessibility's and I could go to physical therapy and serve my scholastic programs successfully.

When all these needs are provided, I will be out of trauma and will concentrate greatly in whatever I am doing.

Thank you for your time and consideration of me. May God bless you,

My Contact

Tel: +256773225752

Email: ochapfra1986@yahoo.com

Address: c/o Brother Elio Croce

Lacor Hospital P.O. Box 180

Gulu, Uganda