Now, our children rarely fall sick. They eat adequate quantities and a variety of food. Their bodies are strong. The range of food in our home has increased. It includes:

• Cassava
• Beans
• Maize
• Millet
• Sweet potatoes
• Rice
• Sesame
• Groundnuts
• Pigeon peas
• Cow peas
• Vegetables like eggplants, onions, tomatoes, sukuma wiki
• Eggs
• Meat
• Fish

We now change diet and are able to make a side dish of beans, greens, peas to accompany the main food and sauce, which was not possible in 2009. Then food items available to us were limited to sorghum, cassava, millet, beans, and pigeon peas.

Cases of our children stealing people’s food have stopped. We no longer have to borrow food to cater for visitors who visit our homes. That shame is now a thing of the past when we would go begging to borrow food from the few in our community who had.

Now we have enough quantities of food to eat at home and surplus food which we sell, in order to generate income to pay for school fees and catering for medical treatment of household members.

Our income generated has enabled us to hire labor and buy improved seeds. This ensures increased production levels are sustained. Income from sale of crops has enabled us to buy assets like bicycles, goats and cows, which has increased our wealth. 

“In the past, we would eat the same type of food daily, such as cassava and beans. Men were not happy to eat it. Whenever women would serve the same kind of food to their husbands, who were coming back from drinking sprees, the men would tell them to take away their rubbish, food which had no side dish.”

There were many cases of fighting in our homes.

Shortage of food was causing our children to steal people’s food.

Household members had insufficient energy to work in their own gardens as they would eat little quantities.

There were frequent illness among children.

All this has changed.

This is the story of Tam Apira disabled Farmer Field School (FFS) group. Our group was formed in 2009; and has a total of 30 members (19 women and 11 men). We are happy beneficiaries of the CPAR Uganda Farmers First programme,

Photo credit: Ruth Apili, at her home fruit and vegetable gardens.