Older Persons Program

AIDS has devastated Kiwangala and its surrounding parishes. In some families an entire generation has been wiped out. The elderly are traditionally cared for by their families if they become too frail. However, in many families only the grandparents and grandchildren are still alive. However, they are unable to care for themselves or their homes. Children’s Sure House has reached out with donations of food and household items like sugar and soap to individuals within the surrounding villages. They have even built new houses for families whose homes have crumbled from neglect. Now CSH plans to alleviate the long term suffering of the population by introducing programs that promote self-empowerment.

CSH’s Older Person’s Program will work together with its Home Sustainability Program to assist the older persons so that they continue to be productive in their homes and community.
This collaboration will develop the following activities to aid the elderly:

1. Provision of psychosocial counseling services.

2. Free education for the family’s grandchildren from Children’s Sure House and promotion of the Ugandan government’s Universal Primary Education policy.

3. HIV/AIDS sensitization through outreach.

4. Income generating activities through small-scale industries and
the use of locally available materials.

5. Persuasion of elderly property owners to lease out dormant land.

In addition, Makerere University’s Faculty of Social Sciences has partnered with Children’s Sure House to conduct field work on the livelihood of vulnerable members of the elderly population in the Kiwangala area.

This is a typical home in Kiwangala village. However, this woman cannot maintain the upkeep on the structure. The mud walls are caving in and rain leaks through the grass roof that has gone unthatched.

These are the participants of the CSH Older Person's program. They are caregivers to their orphaned grandchildren who are pictured below.

For most of his life, this boy lived with his grandmother in the house in the background. Recently, CSH was successful in mobilizing the community to build the family a more secure home.

Building a Firewood Saving Stove

In Kiwangala the majority of the village can only afford to cook on firewood or coal. Recently, collecting firewood has hurt the area's environment. The primary 7 class has built a firewood saving stove at headmaster Moses Kiwala’s home as a demonstration to the community. They have designed the stove out of bricks and clay so that wood burns more efficiently.

Below is a description of how CSH built their model stove:

This is a tea kettle set to boil in the existing cooking area. It was not much more than a campfire.

The students first dug a shallow pit, six inches deep, adjacent to the wall of the cooking wall. The depression was three feet long by two feet wide; the expected area that the stove would sit upon. Bricks were then stacked into place to create the general shape of the stove.

The new stove has two top burners for sauce pans. A passage way connecting the two opennings allows heat to circulate within the stove. There is also a small ventilation hole poked into the back wall that also promotes heat flow.

This is the hole where firewood is fed lengthwise one piece at a time into the stove. The bricks retain the heat so very little wood has to be burned for the stove to get hot.

Local clay was mixed in water and then used as mortar to fasten the bricks permanantly into place. Then the entire stove was covered and sealed with the leftover clay. The stove had to dry for about a week before it was ready to be used. However, that didn't stop the Primary 7 class from celebrating immediately after construction was complete.

Uganda's Ministry of Energy has also produced several good designs for firewood saving stoves. You can find them here.

Farmers’ Update

The farmers of Lukindu village are getting ready for August’s planting season. Before dawn, every Friday they drowsily meet at the village borehole to fill up their jerrycans and then trudge up the hill to John Ssentongo’s model farm to irrigate the fourteen nursery beds that they have planted.

The farmers have combined their skills and efforts into a co-op where they will share their agricultural knowledge and reap the fruits of their labors.

The seeds sowed include cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, peppers, onions, eggplant, greens, and flowers.

They have been experimenting with a variation of designs to fully utilize the strength of the soil. Most seeds were planted in traditional rows bordered by banana tree trunks and shaded from the sun by banana leaf shelters. Some plants will be grown circularly around a dirt hill with a manure-centered cap. Water is poured over the top and runs down the side to provide a nutrient rich snack to the seedlings.

They will donate the seedlings grown in Children Sure House’s nursery beds to 15 families in September. The benefiting families will be instructed in nursery bed care, receive the harvest, and learn seed saving techniques to sustain their nurseries for future planting seasons.

Ambrose and Tony

Two of Children’s Sure Houses’ teachers will not be coming back this semester. They have left Kiwangala for Kampala to further pursue higher education. Both Tony Ssali and Ambrose Kasiita will be studying at Kyambogo University. Ssali will be earning his B.A. in Economics. Kasiita will pursue his Bachelor's in Development Studies. They have been with the school from the beginning. They were the pioneering class of primary students that came to class when CSH first opened its doors in 1993.

Kasiita’s father died of AIDS in 1988. His mother managed to teach him the essentials of Primary 1 and 2 from home, but could not afford to send him to a real school. Likewise, Ssali’s family was too impoverished to pay school fees.

“After my father died, I really wanted to study.” Remembers Kasiita. “When the chance came that Children Sure House was offering free education God was answering my prayers.”

Kasiita had shown so much promise in Primary school, but at the time CSH had no Secondary section. Fearing that Kasiita’s potential would be wasted, headmaster Moses Kiwala personally tutored him while they waited for the Secondary school to be constructed.

Kasiita and Ssali eventually completed their Primary and Secondary studies at Sure House. Kasiita’s Economics in "Uganda Ministry of Education University Qualifying Exam Paper 1" received the highest score in the entire country.
After graduation they returned to teach.

“ I couldn’t have left Sure House because I had been helped,” said Ssali who has been teaching Primary and Secondary school since 2006.

Kasiita started teaching Primary school and Secondary Religion classes since 1999. He was promoted to head teacher in 2003.

Both teachers aspire to return to Children’s Sure House and Kiwangala village when they graduate from University. Ssali wants to continue to develop the CSH organization economically. Kasiita also has similar plans.

“We need to develop here.” Said Kasiita. “If we, the people who have been here in Kiwangala for many years can engage ourselves, we can bring the right stuff. They gave me free education so I needed to help the people in the villages with no money and who have lost a parent like I have.”

“I have Sure House on my heart,” added Ssali.

Godfrey's Solar Dryer

Godfrey Katamba, a Senior 3 student at CSH sells snacks to other students from his canteen. He's more than just an entrepreneur and definitely more than a teenager with an after-school job. At a young age he lost both of his parents and two of his siblings to AIDS. Godfrey’s canteen allows him to support himself as well as his brothers and sisters.

Some of Godfrey’s most popular items are sweet bananas. However, they don’t always get eaten in time and he has to throw them away. That is until now. Godfrey has developed a solar fruit dryer that uses the sun to preserve his left over fruit for quite some time.




Below are plans for a solar dryer like Godfrey’s.

The Seeds Have Been Planted

This past Sunday, the fruits and vegetables planted by the students in the Children’s Sure House nursery were ready to be transplanted. It seemed only fitting that members of the community’s local church be the first recipients. Cabbage, carrot, and melon seedlings were given to seven families. The progress of the plants’ livelihood will be followed closely by CSH as part of its Home Sustainability initiative.

The program is meant to introduce more variety of nutrition into the village of Kiwangala. By donating plants to its neighbors and then tracking their growth, CSH hopes to create a new network of farmers. The group will be instructed on new methods of agriculture CSH’s model farm.

A Model Farm

John Ssentongo’s home in Lukindu-Kiwangala, Uganda has been called a Garden of Eden. The fruit is in such abundance that it is literally falling off the trees. Anyone who visits Ssentongo, a key player at Children’s Sure House, is expected to take home with them as many avocados and papayas as they can carry.

While most Ugandans have subdivided and sold off their land, the Ssentongos have been farming the same five acre plot since the 1950s. The homestead is completely self-sustainable. It provides the majority of food for the family. The surplus generates income, feeds the students and teachers at CSH, and supports the diets of his neighbors.

Ssentongo is keenly interested in developing his property into a model farm where members of the community can come to exchange ideas on better agricultural practices. Below is an overview of Ssentongo’s proposal.

The Program

The Home Sustainable Living Approach Program is an initiative of Children’s Sure House to lead homes, the community in its operational area, and Uganda at large to sustainability.

CSH works to create self-sustainability in the country by harnessing the potential of individuals to develop themselves, their households, and their communities. CSH partners with groups at all levels, including local, national, and international organizations, in the developmental process.

Objectives:

1. To improve food security through introducing new techniques of farming and other income generating activities. Income generation schemes are demonstrated to the community to empower them with knowledge and inspire them to create their own projects.

2. To provide consultancy services to community groups and individuals in their efforts to attain socioeconomic development. CSH will carryout and promote research on government programs, development agencies, and civil society programs that influence policy formulation.

3. To offer technical services in the fields of environmental protection, and agricultural development.

Home Sustainability
The Home Sustainability Program is intended to transform homes through farming, environment conservation, income generating activities, and education. The program will be demonstrated in model homes throughout the community.

Farming:
Most homes in Uganda depend entirely on agriculture for food consumption and income. Currently, many families eat only once a day. The meal usually consists solely of matoke, a type of plantain banana, or posho, a cornmeal product. Other vegetables must supplement staple foods to create sufficient nutrition. Better farming methods must be put into place.

Seasonal staple foods and cash crops must grow alongside long life fruit trees such as jackfruits, avocados, papaya, mangoes, and oranges. Homes must be encouraged to grow a nutritional variety of vegetables. Improved breeds of plants and animals must be introduced to farms to stimulate higher production. Organic farming and agroforestry should be applied to preserve the fertility of the environment. Better irrigation systems and affordable methods of water harvesting should be introduced. Produce preservation and value methods should be practiced to completely capitalize on the harvest.

Environmental Conservation:
Human activity has tempered the environment causing harsh climate changes. Steps must be taken to bring back a safer environment. Deforestation has contributed to global warming and soil erosion. New trees must be planted and firewood-saving stoves should be used; use of chemical fertilizers and over grazing should be discouraged.

Home Small Scale Industries and Income Generating Projects:
Daily expenses of basic household items burden homes. If there is knowledge of soap, candle, and cooking oil production, then families will have a better chance of sustaining themselves. If a surplus is created, then the products can bring additional income. To maximize profit, income generating projects will use locally available, raw materials.

Home Sustainability Living Approach Program-
Proposed Demonstration Model Home at Lukindu Kiwangala

Size of the Land: 5 Acres
Agricultural Division of Land:
1. Farmyard: ½ acre. This area is occupied by houses and a compound. The compound will be used for box gardening and other demonstrations that could be used in an urban environment.

2. Coffee and Banana Plantation: 2 acres. Coffee and bananas will be maintained by agro-farming fruit trees such as avocados, jackfruits, and bark-cloth trees. In addition, ten beehives will be kept there.

3. Vegetables and Other Seasonal Crops: 2 acres. Vegetables such as pumpkins, cabbages, carrots, eggplants, green pepper, onions, corn, cassava, sweet potatoes, and other seasonal crops will be grown. Their seeds will be harvested so that the surrounding community can partake in the next planting season.

4. Fish Pond: ½ acre. When construction is completed, local fish will be farmed here.