This month, three members of the Amigos UK team, Tim, Jodie and Kayte, visited Uganda, spending time on Kira Farm Development Centre and visiting Masindi to see Amigos’ work partnering with local communities.
With new trainees settling into life on Kira Farm, it was great to see first-hand the beauty of the lush landscape, the joy of the trainees as they danced and sang together every evening and to witness the training, learning and discipleship happening every day. As all who have been to Kira Farm know, it is a special place!
Every year, Kira Farm hosts and trains 50 young Ugandans – 25 boys and 25 girls – all of whom have experienced hardship. For them, it is a transformative year. As Derrick, a visiting Kira graduate from 2018 told us, “I’m very happy, because Amigos has given me a chance, now I’m doing great… I ask you to support others who also need transformation.” He is now a successful farmer and has set up a business of buying and selling household goods in Jinja.
A huge part of what makes Kira Farm so special, are the team members who inspire, educate and support the young people who live there. It was a joy to spend time with them and to see how committed they are to the trainees and the values of Amigos.
Trainees come from the different districts of Uganda where Amigos works, partnering with local churches in running local conservation farming and business training groups. It is from these areas that our family sponsorship programmes run too.
It was a privilege to meet some of these communities as the team travelled to Masindi. We spent time with the Bokwe farming groups, who had two boreholes installed last year in their community. The accessibility of water is making a huge difference, not least to the lives of girls and women who no longer have to spend time walking long distances to collect water. It was clear how vital clean and accessible water is to the area thriving and wonderful to hear individuals testify to this and the farming training they had received.
We were thrilled to have the opportunity to visit the Kyakalisafarming group, led by Beatrice. This farming group, who came to the end of their three-year partnership with Amigos in 2022, are flourishing. We were inspired by their creative ideas for developing future incomes, including through chair rental for events, catering and a bank and loan scheme for their community.
Finally in Masindi, we spent time in the Kigaragara community, where elephants have been destroying crops and eating growing produce. 100 bee hives have been handmade by trainees on Kira Farm to address this problem. The beehives will be strung up, along a one km fence, where the threat of bee stings will deter the elephants from entering and trampling the land. Seven Kira graduates (six of whom are pictured above) who live in the local area will be training the community in beekeeping, and we were thrilled to catch up with them during our visit and to see them thriving. The beehives will be installed soon, and we look forward to updating you as this project develops!
Seeing close up the transformative work of the Amigos Uganda team, through community development, family sponsorship and Kira Farm is nothing short of inspiring. We are so thankful to all of our supporters as Amigos continues to invest in individuals, families and communities across Uganda.