Kira Farm Projects

Alongside the ongoing agricultural developments, we have a number of innovative and creative projects that are both income generating for Kira Farm, but also provide much needed skills for our students. 

Chicken Project
Africa loves chickens! You see chickens running around villages in every rural community, and a special occasion is only complete when someone has provided a chicken for the pot. 
However, chickens in Africa frequently have a very low yield of eggs.  Our European chickens lay lots more eggs, but cost a lot to feed.  At Kira Farm, Amigos is pioneering the cross breeding of indigenous Ugandan chickens with higher-yielding Black Australorp chickens.  The sale of these chickens will generate funds to enable Amigos to train more disadvantaged young people through the Kira Farm Training Centre.  The hope is that we will be able to increase the egg yield of Ugandan chickens, whilst ensuring we keep a breed that can forage and scavenge for food and so provide chickens that produce more eggs for rural communities.
20% of Uganda’s population are malnourished; eggs contain all the nutrients required by the human body: proteins, fats, carbohydrates, mineral salts and vitamins. Egg protein is easily digested and absorbed and it has been proven that eggs in the diet of infants and expectant mothers greatly improve their nutritional status and immune systems. Eggs are available all year round, are easy to store and are also affordable. Chicken is a familiar source of protein eaten readily and easily in Uganda. Chickens are relatively cheap and easy to keep making them accessible and manageable by the young and elderly. It is also possible to keep chickens in both small numbers and large numbers to suit the size of land available. 
Chicks for Change – buy a chick and change a life
If you would like more information about our Chicks for Change project then please click here. If you would like to make a donation to our chicken breeding project then please visit the ‘How to donate’ page of this website.

Goat Project
At Kira Farm we have a breeding herd of Saanen/Toggenburg dairy goats. These goats are great for milk production, providing our students with a nitrous and a cheaper alternative to expensive cows.  Students can apply to receive goats as part of a micro-finance package as they put together a business plan on returning to their villages, at the end of their one-year course at Kira. Goats' milk is the most widely drunk milk in the world. At Kira we are teaching the benefits that goats' milk can bring. (Traditionally Ugandan’s tend not to drink goat’s milk but eat goat meat).  Goat’s milk has been known to help alleviate symptoms associated with digestive disorders, skin conditions like eczema, respiratory problems and asthma.

Graduation Gown Project
We are always trying to think of innovative fundraising ideas and this one ticks a number of boxes. As we teach tailoring on Kira, each student is taught a number of skills. One of these skills is taking part in making graduation gowns. We have secured a deal with Petroc College, who will be using Amigos graduation gowns made in Uganda for their UK ceremonies. Petroc will give Amigos a donation for each time they use them, enabling funds to be directed back to Kira Farm supporting more training. The label inside each gown reads ‘fulfilling our potential, tailoring our future’ along with the name of one of our students.

Solar Light Project
As with much of Uganda, Kira Farm Training Centre (KFTC) has access to an unreliable and erratic supply of electricity, along with 90% of rural Uganda. These rely on traditional fuels such as kerosene and even diesel, which effects health and is a major contributor to home fires.

The benefits of solar lights are endless. Uganda is situated on the equator so Kira and the wider community have to stop work at 7pm when the sun sets everyday of the year. As there is no manmade light from this time, there are limitations on commitments to learning and producing for businesses. With solar light, which is both affordable and safe, children can be more productive in the evenings and continue to do homework and ultimately progress quicker. Communities will be able to access the solar technology through our graduate’s businesses.

The primary objective of KFTC is to equip students with the skills and knowledge to be independent and self-reliant. Entrepreneurial skills contribute toward this, and are taught to enable our students to set up small business when they leave Kira. Our new programme incorporates solar technology into this idea and uses the technology as an educational ‘tool’ on site; they will be educated in solar at Kira and then given the opportunity to receive a ‘Business in a Box’ on graduation. This box will contain a selection of solar lights from the D.Light range, with potential for both renting and selling. This should provide a secure small business, which has potential for growth; the products and services they provide are certainly in demand by the local communities.

The long term benefits have already been recognised globally by organisations such as the World Bank, who have documented that “When solar lighting was introduced to a local primary school, both teachers and students benefited from their extended days: Teachers could prepare lessons for the following day, and students could study and do their homework at night.”  Pupils’ results made an astronomical improvement, with pass rates jumping from 57% to 97% in just one year. The following year saw a full 100% pass rate.

The initial funding to purchase the D.Light technology will be from various sources, but primarily though fundraising. If you would like to donate to the Solar Light Project, click here.

Sanitary Towel Project
Many women have a few moans and groans throughout menstruation, (quite rightly!) but unfortunately many girls in Uganda suffer far more. Whilst our purchase of sanitary pads leaves no impression on our lifestyle habits, our weekly shopping bill, or fails to light any concerns over health and hygiene, the situation in Uganda is far more dismal. Sanitary pads in Uganda are costly, with a pack costing 4,000 UGS (£1) equating to a day’s wage.

Ultimately, girls are forced to opt for a more traditional method, Bark-cloth, a rough plant fibre locally prepared, or toilet paper and old newspapers. All three are unhygienic and expose girls to regular infections, whilst rather unpleasantly, cause odour and discomfort. Above all they leak and deter many girls from attending school. Many girls will be absent for one week of every month, which often sees them falling behind and failing at school.
To mitigate the problem, the Kira’s Department of Tailoring has introduced ‘re-usable pads’; sanitary pads that are washable and have a lifespan of three years, but equally as important, they are hygienic, comfortable and made from recycled materials. They are currently being made on Kira Farm by the students, and can be constructed by hand or machine. These re-usable pads will enable the girls to go through their entire course without any interruptions, and absenteeism from schools will be minimised or completely eliminated. It even alleviates the concern may girls have of ‘being laughed at by the boys’.
Aside from the practical benefits, financially it relieves pressure and allows households to purchase other essential commodities. The fact that they can be made by hand means that their production is not limited to those families wealthy enough to own a sewing machine. On Kira, we expect to save £300 annually from student’s supplies. The students are inspired by the potential this concept has for an innovative business, with many planning a small enterprise scheme involving the production and selling of sanitary pads once they have graduated.

Natural Medicines
Often when we hear the words “herbal medicine” many people tend to think of old wives tales and the placebo effect, but life in rural Africa challenges these assumptions and gives the opportunity to learn a great deal about plant based medicinal treatments.  When you look a little deeper you find that many pharmaceutical companies are doing their own research into traditional medicines, and many of the treatments we have today are  based on active ingredients first found in plants.

In Uganda there is around one doctor for every 20,000 people (2003) . Consequently many people live so far from a clinic that it is not practical for them to go unless they are extremely ill. Western treatments are often orders of magnitude too expensive for the majority of the population, so a traditional alternative is often the best medicine. There seems to be a great depth of knowledge, especially in rural areas about how local plants can be used as medicine. For example, about three different plants growing wild on the farm that are used to treat the symptoms of Malaria. Blackjack, a common weed is used to speed the healing of cuts. Bombo, a vine with orange fruits, is mixed with ash and taken for coughs. It seems that almost every plant has some medicinal qualities.

Many of the students on Kira Farm come from isolated rural areas, where medicine is either unaffordable or unavailable. So promoting well known and tested forms of herbal medicine is a valuable way that students can be empowered in their communities to manage health and well-being. Anyone can grow these plants, and use them as prevention and treatment for a number of common ailments.

On Kira Farm we grow Artemisia (Artemisia annua), which has been used by the Chinese for thousands of years in the treatment of Malaria and various other illnesses. The many (over 30) active compounds in the plant make it incredibly bitter, but dried and drunk as a tea, it treats malaria very effectively. Many of the students who have come down with Malaria have opted to be treated with Artemisia rather than going to the clinic for treatment. They arrive dutifully for their four cups a day of bitter green tea, and some have even said they feel an improvement within hours of drinking it.  There are now more than 140 Artemisia plants on the farm, and the hope is to harvest and dry the leaves and sell them.

The students learned in WASH (water and sanitation health) classes about preventing the spread of diarrhoea, and how to treat intestinal worms using the seeds of the Paw-paw – a common fruit that the students love to eat.

Another plant grown on the farm is Roselle, (Hibiscus sabdariffa), which makes a popular deep red and tangy tea. This can be used by the household as a healthy drink, or the flowers can be dried and sold to generate income. The tea has been shown to reduce blood pressure and hypertension and is a good source of Vitamin C.  Dark green leafed Comfrey is grown here to feed chickens and goats. It is toxic to humans internally, but has been used in herbal medicine for centuries to externally treat strains and sprains. One of the students used it on a strained ankle, and then showed another student who had hurt their knee playing football how to crush the leaves and then hold them onto the strain with a bandage. There are some small aloe vera plants being grown, to treat small cuts and minor burns, and other skin problems.