Children are learning to grow their own food in Wasiko, Uganda. Kireka parish Wakiso district, Uganda, is a district located in the Central Region of Uganda that partly encircles Kampala, Uganda's capital city. It is a district with about 98,000 residents. When you search for Wakiso in Africa, you find there are no listings for glamorous resorts or tourist attractions. Digging deeper you will find there are, however, excited children learning to plant and tend to gardens full of nutritious produce at a future-focused food security agency, Kichini Gardeners.
Siobhan Shaw, Co-founder of Growing to Give says she has been fortunate to have connected through Twitter with my non-profit in this Ugandan region. She has seen the posts of the children excitedly growing food for the past few years and engaged with us on posts. I’m Irene Nagudi, an educator. I teach the young people to grow food and the merits of gardening, soil health and climate change. I do this in an attempt to make a difference in the food security of Wakiso and neighborhood districts. I strongly believe,
"Children can be the change makers we all look up to"
In 2021, my dream of engaging children in their schools and homes to encourage them to conserve our planet came true. I engaged 200 plus children. I arranged a non-profit called Kichini Gardeners. It was named this by the children I was teaching to grow food. It was my idea to make the name Kitchen Gardeners. The children got tongue tied saying kitchen and would say Kichini, instead. This organization was for the children so it was apt they named it!
My idea was to not only teach the children to conserve the environment and encourage them to embrace growing food, I want to change the mindset of their parents too. You see, many of the children are from rural areas and slums. Their families may be involved in growing food for the markets far away, but the family eats a limited diet. Some children eat only cassava flour and beans. They eat no greens or other nutritious food to supplement the flour and bean meals. The children are malnourished. My non-profit’s action plan is to supplement the meals they eat with fresh grown greens at their homes. To do this we must share the benefits of nutrition with the parents and engage the teachers as well. To create inspiration between the generations, teaching children how to grow food, make compost and take on climate action, means they are going home to share what they learn. The children are excited and are asking for seeds to keep growing. I know that,
"If we do something we can change the world"
Help Kichini Gardeners receive the gift of low water use garden systems that the children will place directly into soil in Kichini gardens or in large bags full of soil, and seed with healthy greens. With your help Growing to Give will send the children seeds, Crop Circle gardens and watering cans. Donate today through our non-profit partners, growingtogive.org. Thank you.
