Suubi Update Blog

During the Christmas period last year a number of piglets were purchased, via the HUG shop, as gifts for family and friends. Recently, amongst much excitement at Suubi, these piglets were distributed to a group of very grateful Ugandan families. 

So although the usual Christmas hype is well and truly over in Australia the benefits can now be clearly seen in Uganda. 

Thank you to all of you who spread the joy of Christmas a little further.

HUGs from the team!

There has been much excitement at Suubi over the past couple of weeks as the new demonstration garden at the centre has been developed. Earlier in March our inspiring friend and gardening guru, Bagatya Robert, from Nakonyonyi spent six days at Suubi.

In July last year, during the 2009 volunteer trip, we had taken five local agriculture teachers to Jinja district in Eastern Uganda where Robert runs an amazing demonstration garden for Nakonyonyi Primary School. Our teachers from Masaka district learnt an enormous amount during that trip and were all inspired to try and replicate Robert's extraordinary work at their own schools. With this in mind, Robert took the time, during this recent visit to Suubi, to tour all of the schools that have been involved in our School Garden Project. He was extremely pleased with what had been achieved and this inspired him to want to pass on further skills to the enthusiastic students and teachers.

It was decided that one teacher and a small group of students from each school would be involved in intensive training with Robert at Suubi. We considered this would be the ideal follow up to earlier training.  They were taught many new skills in establishing and maintaining a productive organic garden including; how to properly set up double dug, kitchen, mandala and sink gardens. In addition to this Robert explained a variety of planting methods and the importance of composting and mulching the garden. These teachers and students are now busy passing on these skills to everyone else at their respective schools. 

Banana suckers and pineapples were also added to recently planted avocado and paw paw seedlings, this means a large variety of fruit and vegetables will be in abundance at Suubi in the not to distant future. It is hoped that this will encourage, not only the schools involved in our garden project, but also the wider community around the centre, to grow a more diverse variety of food which will add much needed nutritional value to their day to day meals. 

Late last week  David and a group of ladies from Suubi set off on a big journey to Kabale in Uganda's most south western corner. The idea of the trip was for them to attend two days of training at the Mushroom Training and Resource Centre which David  and I had first visited eariler this year .  We were both so  inspired by what we had seen during our initial visit that since that time we have been working to find a way to bring mushroom farming skills to the communities surrounding Suubi.

Thanks to the fabulous fund raising efforts at the HUG Gala and Dinner Dance  some of the money raised was directed to enabling six Suubi ladies to participate in training at the centre. The ladies were selected from the many women who are now attending the Suubi Centre on a regular basis to learn new skills, They were identified as those who were capable of learning quickly and were willing to pass on what they learnt to others in the community.

After their training at the centre the ladies also visited farmers in the Kabale area who have been able to create a better life for themselves through mushroom farming. They were inspired by the farmers stories and what they saw and the ladies are now looking forward to replicating the success at many homes around Suubi.

The Suubi ladies visit with a farmer in Kabale who has successfully created an income from mushroom farming.

Hopefully in the not to distant future we will be seeing photos of these Suubi ladies at their own mushroom farms. And as they pass on their new found skills to others, the Suubi community should be able to capitalize on the fact that MTRC in Kabale have guaranteed that they will purchase everything they can produce to fulfill the demand of their growing export market.  What a fabulous outcome everyone!

 It never ceases to amaze me that efforts here in Australia can have such a positive impact on so many people. So thank you to wonderful crew who worked tirelessly to stage the Gala Dinner and of course to everyone who came along and made it the huge success that it was. You have helped to make the future brighter for many Ugandans. Well done and webale nnyo!

HUGs from Helen