Aims

The aims are to achieve sustainable agriculture, food security, a higher family income, less manual labor and better hygiene through education.

History

• in 1997, at the initiative of stephen mubiru, the local cooperation ‘Namwendwa Dairy Farmers Cooperation’ is founded (long before jos and frieda are present). the cooperation aims to increase the quality of life in the subdistrict by setting clear goals, timing, and long term plans.
• jos and frieda start to provide support for two elements of the cooperation in 2011. (1) the development of vocational Training Center or VTC that aims to train young farmers (men and women) with a focus on ecology and sustainability, and (2) the expansion of the local tourist project, in which tourists visit Namwendwa as part of their round trip in Uganda. The tourists stay at the premises of the VTC and members of the cooperation act as their guides. The income this generates is used for instance to pay teachers’ salaries. Treating man and nature in respectful and responsible ways are keywords of this project.
• in the following years ‘community facilitators’ travel into hard to reach villages and communities to train farmers and teach them new skills. a startup of numerous workshops is realized, among others on gender equality.
• unfortunately a temporary absence of stephen caused delay in the full expansion of the VTC. but in 2018 stephen builds, in cooperation with the ugandan government, a dam and joining irrigation project on the compound of the vocational training centre.
• the infrastructure of the vtc will be thoroughly renewed, expanded and stephen will prepare a new action plan for the vtc (more details in: "what can you do").
• 2020. stephen obtains official accreditation for its vocational training center! the chicken house is completed, he buys six cows, plants corn and soy beans, reorganizes the irrigation system and starts a "fishing project" in the water of the dam.
• 2021-2022. the vocational training centre operates completely independently.