Aggrey’s daily mission was to secure his family’s needs. Raising four children with his wife, Aggrey and his family had to overcome all the hardships that affect most last-mile communities.

Evelyn is a 28-year-old mother who is determined to give her children a better life. Along with her husband, she raises her children at their small home in Karondo, a last-mile, ultra-poor community in Rubanda District in Uganda.

In this Q&A with RTV’s Senior Project Officer Beninah Byarugaba, learn how we partner with Ugandan youth as they unlock their potential, upgrade their skills, and improve their livelihoods, so they can break the cycle of ultra-poverty.

Moses starts his daily journey in the early morning at the fishing site. Upon buying the day’s fish, he smokes it at home and sets off to the road looking for customers. He proudly takes his prepared fish to doorsteps across his village, Rugarama, until he sells out.  Moses delivers his fish to his community [...]

“If anyone who was here years ago comes back now, they would easily spot the change in our lives,” says Salim, a father of seven, as he looks across the room at his wife, Aisha. As a subsistence farmer, Salim and his family have long depended on their home garden for both meals and income. […]

Jackson and his family live in a small home in Bujerenje Village, Kanungu District in Western Uganda. As a rural village, Bujerenje faces numerous barriers to breaking the cycle of ultra-poverty, including challenges with infrastructure and accessible services. Far from the electric grid, households like Jackson’s spend critical income on lighting sources like candles and […]

“I have lived here for over 50 years,” Generoza says. “When I first moved to Rubango, the rainfall was consistent, the land was fertile, and we really loved it here. Today, it is a different story.”  Generoza and her family live in Rubango Village, Kyenjojo District, where the community often struggles with insufficient access to […]

Joyce lives with her husband and four children along the shores of Lake Albert in the Great East African Rift Valley. Like many living in last-mile communities, she and her family experienced significant challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, as government lockdowns caused economic stressors, stressed livelihoods, limited access to markets, and disrupted access to services. [...]

In many last-mile communities, access to quality agricultural inputs makes it difficult to harvest high yields. To help ultra-poor communities address this challenge, Raising The Village introduced the seed pass-on methodology, a cost-efficient development approach that is both sustainable and community-building in its approach to ensuring all households have access to quality seed. Bonny Ocen [...]

In Kigezi highlands in Kamuhoozi Village, Rukungiri District, Honesta spreads her bean harvest across a tarpaulin to dry. She begins to shell the  12 kgs of beans she has harvested from the 3 kg of seed received through Raising The Village. The yield is significantly higher than her previous harvests, and Honesta is excited about [...]