Updates from Nabitende
Status: 
NABITENDE VILLAGE
Nabitende Village is neither quiet nor silent. The people are jubilating after going through the drought with good results. The weather wasn’t at all good but the bicycles we gave to our beneficiaries did a great, they kept fetching water using the bicycles. Bravo to the women of Nabitende who overcame the culture of a woman cannot ride a bicycle, now there they are doing wonders and men too have admired the spirit of women and food insecurity has been contained. Nabuur has shown the community of Nabitende that change can be made in their lives. A lot of change can be created and at the moment people are smiling using the available resources to make difference.
The drums of happiness can be heard by the neighbours. Thanks go to Rick and facilitator of Nabitende Village Sinead. Indeed the vegetables were harvested and others are still harvesting. It has been a very difficult time for other people in the community who never benefited. Food as is the world problem has as well affected t he people of Nabitende. But the beneficiaries of EFORDE have successful songs of praise to EFORDE.
Basins of eggplants, cabbages, green pepper flow from the village to the town of Iganga. It has turned into a big name as most business people who deal in vegetables.
The little knowledge they had acquired from cooperative trainings did a great deal. They used to collect cabbage at one point for business people and this gave them a bargaining power. Challenges as they had highlighted before especially of lack of store became evident at that time. There is need for proper storage facilities and transportation of the produce to town. In this case the business people would buy at farm price yet had transport to town with proper the profits would be twice as much as much what they got. For all neighbours, we are requesting for your contributions towards that challenge. More news will keep coming as they unfold. Keep watching the corner, Paddy.
Fruit tree growing Project Update
It has been a while since you last heard from Nabitende but a lot of good work has been going on. The facilitation of bicycles came in during a dry season and it boosted the commitment of our beneficiaries. The ladies turned this opportunity into gold and were able to use the bicycles with care. The fruits indeed were distributed to 15 beneficiaries and it brought smiles on their faces. New beneficiaries were added on the project and this time targeting a few men who were seeing good work from ladies. The men have combined efforts with ladies to boost the project. The fruits were irrigated using bicycles to fetch water from nearby boreholes. The fruit tree growing project has received visitors from nearby villages who come to visit the farmers and provide voluntary services in form of training them how to grow those fruit trees. This has boosted their skills in caring for these trees.
The project also received a lot of support from the government officials who pledged their commitment. In addition to that, the program of rural electrification has finally been extended to Nabitende. As I write the construction of power plant has been launched and Nabitende will soon have power which indeed will meet the dreams of Nabitende to have a factory and at the same time the store for the fruits and vegetables.
The fruits have now received huge amounts of rains which has facilitated the growth. There are no major challenges that have so far been reported. The drought period was harsh but the farmers were able to go through it. EFORDE encourages her farmers to use organic manure and organic sprays and it’s in the final stages of getting of volunteer to train farmers in how to process the pesticides locally that can be used to kill the pests that might attack the fruit trees in this rainy season.
Nabitende is on count down of 24 months and now 4 months have elapsed since the farmers planted the fruit trees and we expect that at the end of the 24 months the farmers will be able to harvest for the first time. And also hope that by that time there will be power in Nabitende. The only challenge is that we have to make our cooperative society stronger and stronger to realize its dream. They have three dreams and these are having a well equipped store for the fruits and vegetables, vehicle for transportation and also the factory for the fruits to start processing. Market outside Iganga town is good but the farmers can maximize the profits when they are in the processing business.
The fruit tree project has survived despite the silence up to this time because of the power of volunteers; we do thank Nabuur that instilled the spirit of voluntarism to the workers of Nabitende project. A lot of work has been done in form of training, monitoring and motivating other beneficiaries who have volunteered their time to help others.
Nabuur has also opened other doors for Nabitende and through a weekly update from Nabitende all the information will be unfolded to the volunteers. We thank again all the neighbours and donors of Nabitende that indeed there is value for money according to what has been done.
From Paddy
Picture:
With reference to the following in your post above:
- "They have three dreams and these are having a well equipped store for the fruits and vegetables, vehicle for transportation and also the factory for the fruits to start processing."
You could post here the issues involved with:
- store
- vehicle
- fruit-processing factory
Vijai