The One Passionfruit Project
The 100 seeds in one passionfruit bought at the local market can yield 100 passionfruit vines. These will provide Ugandan kids with fruit every day, full of vitamin A, beta carotene and Vitamin B3 (niacin) and all kinds of essential minerals. In a diet lacking all of these, that’s a major contributor to their better health. And it’s a tasty treat for them, too.
The One Passionfruit Project is about teaching villagers on the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda to use resources already at their fingertips to grow sustainable gardens, plant food and wood forests, raise chickens, harvest rainwater, compost, recycle and prevent erosion.
These skills mean they build sustainable, resilient communities that can replace their traditional food source – the fish that have been depleted in Lake Victoria through commercial overfishing.
The One Passionfruit Project is about teaching villagers on the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda to use resources already at their fingertips to grow sustainable gardens, plant food and wood forests, raise chickens, harvest rainwater, compost, recycle and prevent erosion.
These skills mean they build sustainable, resilient communities that can replace their traditional food source – the fish that have been depleted in Lake Victoria through commercial overfishing.
Proof positive - one house before & after applying the skills
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A quick emailed report from Uganda - 29 Jan
Sarah receives her Certificate of Attainment in Permaculture.
Paula & Ian are in Uganda for three weeks, assessing their work from 2011 and getting preparing for their next major visit around April/May this year.
Paula sent this report on what they've found in Kasenyi
I Eat and I Save...
These are the first words that Sarah announced with pride after our formal greetings were over. Sarah is one of the many permaculture students at Kasenyi that we have visited this week. Her garden is a lush and green - full of nutritious food and medicinal plants. Water is being captured off hard surfaces and swales are ensuring that as much water as possible is being captured during the rainy season. Everything is heavily mulched and piles of compost are being added to the soil. Where there were once bare, compacted surfaces there is now a food forest.
When asked if the training had had any impact at all - Sarah's answer was an emphatic yes.
'I now have food to eat and I am no longer hungry. I am eating and saving - saving the good seed and saving the water. There are groups who come through my garden and ask...'What are you doing to make it like this, it is so good? Now, I am selling my greens - UGS40,000 (Aus $12.00) shilling a week and UGX90 000 ($36.00) at Christmas! My Nakati and Dodo is best because it is not treated with the pesticides, it is healthy. I am saving the money and have bought the water tank and watering can. I can now pay the school fees and buy fish for my children. It is very good."
Our initial monitoring visits have exceeded our expectations. There are families whose children are visibly more nourished and people are grafting fruit trees to increase yields. We are seeing low cost, local solutions such as biogas being implemented so that animal's manure provides fuel for cooking and the local trees are being preserved. Animals that were previously being kept in appalling conditions are now thriving with adequate shelter, food and water. Household incomes have increased significantly.
There are a couple of students who have had their land taken off them and they aren't doing so well. Land ownership is tenuous here - with just about anybody being able to make a claim to your land and if you don't have the money to fight it in court, you are evicted. There are many people struggling in the fishing communities and the gap between rich and poor seems bigger than ever. We are being offered children (usually girls) because there is no food for them or money for school fees. Today we came across a little boy who we suspect has polio - we will take him to the clinic tomorrow. So life is tough and a world away from Aus but we are heartened by the obvious improvement to people's lives that the training has made. There is so much potential and so much need - bitter sweet feelings as we spend the night in Entebbe collating data, having a good meal and hot shower.
Paula sent this report on what they've found in Kasenyi
I Eat and I Save...
These are the first words that Sarah announced with pride after our formal greetings were over. Sarah is one of the many permaculture students at Kasenyi that we have visited this week. Her garden is a lush and green - full of nutritious food and medicinal plants. Water is being captured off hard surfaces and swales are ensuring that as much water as possible is being captured during the rainy season. Everything is heavily mulched and piles of compost are being added to the soil. Where there were once bare, compacted surfaces there is now a food forest.
When asked if the training had had any impact at all - Sarah's answer was an emphatic yes.
'I now have food to eat and I am no longer hungry. I am eating and saving - saving the good seed and saving the water. There are groups who come through my garden and ask...'What are you doing to make it like this, it is so good? Now, I am selling my greens - UGS40,000 (Aus $12.00) shilling a week and UGX90 000 ($36.00) at Christmas! My Nakati and Dodo is best because it is not treated with the pesticides, it is healthy. I am saving the money and have bought the water tank and watering can. I can now pay the school fees and buy fish for my children. It is very good."
Our initial monitoring visits have exceeded our expectations. There are families whose children are visibly more nourished and people are grafting fruit trees to increase yields. We are seeing low cost, local solutions such as biogas being implemented so that animal's manure provides fuel for cooking and the local trees are being preserved. Animals that were previously being kept in appalling conditions are now thriving with adequate shelter, food and water. Household incomes have increased significantly.
There are a couple of students who have had their land taken off them and they aren't doing so well. Land ownership is tenuous here - with just about anybody being able to make a claim to your land and if you don't have the money to fight it in court, you are evicted. There are many people struggling in the fishing communities and the gap between rich and poor seems bigger than ever. We are being offered children (usually girls) because there is no food for them or money for school fees. Today we came across a little boy who we suspect has polio - we will take him to the clinic tomorrow. So life is tough and a world away from Aus but we are heartened by the obvious improvement to people's lives that the training has made. There is so much potential and so much need - bitter sweet feelings as we spend the night in Entebbe collating data, having a good meal and hot shower.
