Lack of food to eat, or food poverty, is a huge issue for families in parts of Uganda, despite clement weather and ample land upon which to grow food. If these families are able to eat today, it is unlikely they will be able to eat tomorrow, or even the day after - they do not know where their next meal will come from, let alone when. These families don't want to see their children go hungry, yet they also have dignity; they do not beg.

Here's the problem. Although most families own, or have access to large expanses of land on which to grow food, their ability to do so is impaired by their inability to plant enough seed in the short time available for them to plant. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that it is very often the women who take on the ‘burden’ of providing food for their families. Although willing and perfectly able to plant seed, time is not on their side. Narrow planting ‘windows’, between harvest and the heavy seasonal rains which follow - not to mention the other responsibilities they have looking after their children - impact both the time and opportunity they have to plant seed.

In order to plant seed, these women need to both open up hard, baked soil and clear weeds using heavy, cumbersome hand hoes. This takes much of the time available, rarely are they able to plant enough seed before the rains come, and their families will go hungry once what little they have been able to grow runs out. The good news is that things can be different. This situation can be turned around for families in rural Uganda.

In 2018, PHASE-I of this concept was both tested and proven to help five families to grow more food. Utilising ox-drawn ploughs to open up the hard soil, these families were each able to plant much more seed, a whole acre of land, in the limited time available.

These families were also able to grow much more than they needed, creating a surplus which was then sold to provide the funds needed to repeat the process for themselves. In this way, these families were able to create sustainable livelihoods, becoming self-sufficient in food, free from food poverty, once and for all.

In 2019, we are seeking to prove that what was achieved by five families in one area, supported by a single Co-ordinator, can be repeated elsewhere, supported by other Co-ordinators. Further, this campaign is to prove that what has been learned from the initial 'proof of concept' phase can be imparted into others.

PHASE-II has seen five new Coordinators selected and trained by the original Co-ordinator and each of these new Coordinators has selected five poor families to work with, 25 families in all. Funding raised in PHASE-II is currently being used to plough an acre of land for each family AND provide enough seed and fertiliser for each family to plant a 1/4 acre of beans. These will be harvested towards the end of September 2019.

This final phase, PHASE-III, is to simply provide enough seed and fertiliser for each family to plant their remaining 3/4 acre of their land which has been ploughed with maize. From PHASE-I, we know that it is the maize crop that will create the biggest surplus, at least 1.5 metric tonnes for EACH family, which can be sold in November/December 2019 to provide the funding needed to go again, ploughing and planting their land in January/February 2020. That's self-sufficiency. Sorted!

As a result of this campaign, not only will 25 more poor families will be lifted out of food poverty, we will KNOW and be able to prove that we have a model that can be repeated and scaled up to support poor families across all of rural Uganda, funds permitting.

A new UK charity, Pulling Together, has been established and will be ready to swing into action to free more families from food poverty early in 2020. ]

Thanks in advance for your attention and your support.