Kikondo, UG – Example families set to lead community in organic vegetable growing – 1 Jun 2016

Wamukisa selected five families to attend their first “Organic Vegetable Gardening: Design & Build” training on Tuesday, May 31. The families were selected by Wamukisa based on their interest in the program and their ability to be best practice examples inspiring other families to start organic vegetable gardens.

Prior to attending the gardening training, participants had to attend the Soil Nourishment training and then cultivate, raise, and fence one garden bed at home. Wamukisa invited the families to attend the Design & Build training after visiting each family’s prepared garden bed and providing improvement advice.

The training focused on three skills: seedling production, planting techniques, and mulching. In the coming days Wamukisa will be visiting each family to provide mentoring and advise best practice garden maintenance.

In addition to teaching new techniques, the training also focused on encouraging families to use the best practices they were already familiar with.

“Many of us know these best practices because we were taught them as children,” explained Wamukisa manager Michael Kiwanuka, “but over time we do not pass down the reason for each practice so we don’t know why it is important and we stop following that practice. In our trainings we want to remind people of what they already know.”

Kiwanuka’s hope is that as these five families maintain productive gardens, all of the families who attended the Soil Nourishment training will prepare land and be ready for the next Design & Build training at the the end of the month.