Mama Kevina Comprehensive Secondary School - SPG 2022 project story

Our 9th success SPG 2022 story is from Mama Kevina Comprehensive Secondary School, Tororo district in Eastern Uganda. Mama Kevina is both an orphanage and a boarding school that provides education and care for orphans in eastern Uganda. In this project, 84 students in senior one (7th grade) were involved and worked in groups of 10. At the beginning, students selected a vegetable of their choice, wrote a proposal for their project as this is a curriculum requirement while studying crop production. Their proposals were then verified by their Ag teachers who allocated them plots of land and officially started their vegetable growing project. At Mama Kevina, students planted tomatoes, kale, spider flower, cowpea, and egg plants. So far, most of our vegetables have been harvested and sold to, the school, staff, parents, and families in our community says Mr. Francis Oketch one of the lead teachers involved in the project. Money obtained from these sales is reinvested in the project. Currently, students transplanted kale and planted tomatoes in the nursery for their second season, and the school hopes to open up a poultry project soon. Francis mentions that the project has been very impactful to their learners, they have gained agronomic skills vital in growing vegetables, many know how to manage seedlings in the nursery and after transplanting them, students have learned to collaborate and work together, but most importantly, they have learned that growing vegetables earns you an income. We are glad that we are beneficiaries in this year’s school gardening project and as a school, we shall continue to provide our learners with practical agriculture education. Like many gardening programs, our project was affected by intermittent rains and diseases but intermittent rains affected us the most as they delayed our transplanting activity reduced crop productivity. In future, I recommend that YoFFA and its partners provide more support such as tools and equipment and even provide more vegetable seeds. Francis concluded. This four-teacher agriculture education program is led by Mr. Francis Oketch and assisted by Mr. Emmanuel Ecuko, Ms. Josephine Aleo, Ms. Esther Arau and supported by Mr. Sunday the gardener. We thank the school administration at Mama Kevina for providing the extra required resources for the success of this project. The School Gardening Program SPG 2022 is supported by Victoria Seeds (U) Limited Holistic eLearning Platform and the 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚 (𝐘𝐨𝐅𝐅𝐀) organization. Good job, Mama Kevina Comprehensive Secondary School!!!