Planting Seeds of Prosperity

Penilope checking on her coffee plantation

For Penilope and Eric, residents of a last-mile village in the Kanungu district, the past five years have been a transformational journey. “The place where our new house stands used to be a pig sty. This is where things changed for us,” Penilope beams proudly, pointing to their newly constructed home. 

She recollects how different their lives were until 2018. “Providing for our five children was a struggle, especially with a land that barely provided a decent harvest.” They would have, at the most, two meals a day, and a financial emergency meant borrowing from local lenders and being burdened by high-interest debt. While Penilope and Eric tried their best to build a better future for themselves and their children, they faced multiple obstacles. “People here did not have proper homes, access to water was a big issue, sending children to school was a distant dream, and our mindset was different as a community. We did not know how to leverage collective savings. But all this changed when we partnered with RTV.” 

In 2018, their village was one of the 52 villages in Kanungu that partnered with RTV. To increase incomes sustainably, they participated in training sessions on modern farming practices, good sanitation and hygiene, financial literacy, livestock management, and more. They received agricultural inputs, including good-quality seeds, to improve farm yields. Additionally, they learned how to plant a compound garden to enhance food security and started growing vegetables for their family. 

Penelope and Eric outside their new home in Kanungu

“We learned how to make compost pits and liquid manure. When we applied all of our learnings, it made a huge difference”, Penilope said. Their farm yield improved dramatically. To grow their income further and access affordable credit for expanding their farming, they participated in the Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) and started investing money in rearing goats and pigs.

After the village graduated in 2020, they continued to receive technical support from local community structures and kept the momentum going. Their children completed their education, with the youngest graduating from college in 2021. Penilope and Eric have since expanded their farming, own much more land, and are still part of multiple savings groups. “The last five years have completely changed our lives. The change they started with us when they came to Kanungu in our cluster of five villages kept growing and expanding to other villages. If we continue doing what we have done, Kanungu will soon be unrecognizable.” 

Be part of our journey. Support last-mile communities by supporting Raising The Village. 

Let’s Stay Connected

Raising The Village (RTV) partners with last-mile, rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa and develops holistic initiatives that pave the pathway out of ultra-poverty towards economic self-sufficiency within 24 months. Our programs focus on improving agricultural incomes through training and providing agricultural inputs, diversifying income streams, removing barriers to participation such as lack of access to health, water, financial inclusion, and food security, and promoting healthy behaviors including adopting healthy WASH and gender equity practices. Since 2016, we have impacted the lives of more than 665,000 people in last-mile villages in Uganda and increased household incomes and earnings by 138% in 24 months.