BLOOM Sustainable Farm to Feed Orphans - Uganda

Hello again all,

Thanks again for the hosting scholarships before- have you seen my impact report in the general discussion section https://forum.biblepay.org/index.php?topic=218.0? The orphans you sponsored are doing great here in American on their summer trip!)

Today my proposal is for our newest project - a sustainable farm in Uganda. It is modeled on the "Farming God's Way" method, which has been very successful for African communities. We know this will work well in Uganda, because a little over a year ago, we purchased farmland in Sierra Leone and implemented this method successfully- the land is already growing corn and other vegetables that will help feed the children in the community we serve in Makulon later this year. (Bible Pay currently sponsors 4 orphans in this community, by the way! And we hope once this farm is up and running fully, we will no longer need food sponsorship for those kids).

We now would like to support a long-time friend and partner in Mukono, Uganda, at the Dove Primary School. Pastor Daniel runs this school which serves 240+ children, many of whom are orphans in the surrounding communities. Pastor Daniel Kaggwa is also a regional director of Christian Alliance for Orphans, Africa and Uganda Without Orphans. Because his school has so many kids, we do not have the capacity to set up a sponsorship program there for each child. We also believe the sustainable methods of sponsorship are best, which is why we want to help them launch a sustainable farm to feed the children there, as well as teach the community how to farm using this drought-resistant method. This keeps the community invested in caring for themselves and their own children, as well as re-integrating orphans into extended and foster families where possible once the entire community can sustain themselves through farming (including the school).

I'm copying much of the info about the project below, but please feel free to read about it on our website at http://www.bloomworldwide.org/sustainable-farming-uganda-raffle/

Note: We are currently raising money to purchase this farmland through a raffle (the prize has already been donated), as well as asking for individual donations. We are asking BiblePay to help us as a partner and donor to raise a portion -not to fully fund- this project.

As of now, we have already raised $6,500, and we need $20,000 total for a specific plot of land near the school. Since it is near Kampala, the capital, land is very expensive. We are due to make a deposit of $10,000 by next week to hold the land for final purchase. If BiblePay would be willing to help us get to this deposit goal of $10,000 by donating $1,500 so that we can hold the land for purchase once the project is fully funded, we would be so grateful. We will continue to fundraise to fill the remaining gap, and possibly submit another proposal next month if there is more charity budget available.

In sum, your donation would be $1,500 (718,973 BBP) of a $20,000 land purchase for the farm. I will certainly keep you posted on the farm's development over the next year once the land is purchased.

Also note, once the farmland is purchased, we will bring in a trainer (from Africa) to teach the community how to manage the farm, as well as hire a full time head farmer, just like we did in Sierra Leone. A separate project budget will include these costs as well as the cost of seeds to start the farm. Our partners in Uganda are responsible for raising at least 25% of the cost of the project locally as well. The community fully builds and sustains the farm with local materials once it is launched. 

Please let me know if you have any questions. We appreciate your support as a partner, as always. <3

Sincerely,
April Wareham
Executive Director, BLOOM

Sounds great

Is the farm a community project? This helps to lift the entire group (children included, but not exclusively?). I question whether the focus of helping poor children (in the charities supported thus far) may be diluted by supporting this specific project. I realize poor children need the help of adults to grow physically, emotionally, and spiritually... I just wonder if the focus of helping poor children is diluted by support this project as well. Thoughts?

Is the farm a community project? This helps to lift the entire group (children included, but not exclusively?). I question whether the focus of helping poor children (in the charities supported thus far) may be diluted by supporting this specific project. I realize poor children need the help of adults to grow physically, emotionally, and spiritually... I just wonder if the focus of helping poor children is diluted by support this project as well. Thoughts?

Hi there- Thanks for your input. This is a great question and I hope I can shed some light on deeper issues that surround orphan care. I hope I am understanding your concern correctly with my response, but if not, please let me know. A couple of things in my experience with international orphan care: It would be unfair to separate the poor kids from the orphans in the community, especially as orphans already face a stigma. We want to keep them integrated, not segregated, thus the school serves many in the community, the poor children and the orphaned. Also, there are many reasons in a community why children become orphans (not all "orphans" have no living parents, but many are not able to be cared for by parents, and they are just as much in need: Reasons for kids becoming orphans: kids are taken away through the court system due to abuse or neglect; their parent(s) pass away; the family abandons the child simply due to poverty. These are all problems that must be solved at a community level to prevent kids from becoming orphans in the first place. Otherwise, we will always face the "orphan crisis" and it will never resolve itself.

That said, a large number of the children at the Dove school in Uganda are orphans, and the project idea is to help develop the entire community so that orphans can be reintegrated into families. When it comes to orphan care, the entire community must be mobilized to care for their own, otherwise, there is no long term solution to help these children (we cannot do it all for them). Sponsorship is great, and necessary, as a short-term solution. Family-based care and community development as a long-term solution are needed to prevent families from giving up their children, losing their children due to abuse, neglect or poverty, or to prevent the death of family members leaving behind orphaned children. Putting on bandaids are needed, but this approach long-term will never break the cycle of children becoming orphans. They must eventually be integrated into families when possible, whether foster families or extended biological families, or we must try to keep families together.  The farm will be run by the community, teach the orphans valuable farming skills so they can employ themselves this way as one option in the future, and will even teach community members how to better produce food and lift themselves out of poverty. Much of the reason for kids in Uganda being orphaned is poverty of their parents. The parents either pass away from disease or malnutrition due to poverty.

There is much research that has allowed the international community to conclude that institutionalized care long-term is very harmful to children's development (assuming you can put kids into SAFE family-based care), and that community empowerment is a necessary step to long-term solutions. I'm happy to point you to some websites that show this for further research if you would like.  Thanks for your inquiry so we can provide some education on this topic. It was a very good question!

Thank you for your response. It reminds me of Ben Franklin, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."  Please point me to web sites with further research. I can educate myself and hopefully use it as a way to counter others if this point is brought up. Prevention is a difficult area because you can't quantitatively say x number of children were saved from being orphaned, as opposed to helping orphans after the fact. I believe using the term "poor children" is better understood outside of the industry and is inclusive of orphans.