A Mother’s Resilience

Jennifer is a 53-year-old widow and mother of seven. Since her husband passed away in 2014, she has worked hard to provide for her children. Living in a last-mile village in Kaliro, Jennifer raises her children, manages a small farm, and runs a pancake-making business to support her family. With barely enough harvest and earnings to meet the immediate needs of her household until a few years ago, Jennifer wanted to save money for her children's future. In 2023, Jennifer's village partnered with RTV to improve agricultural productivity, address barriers to participating in economic activities, and sustainably improve household incomes. She participated in training sessions on modern farming techniques, including using compost manure and organic pesticides. "RTV came at the perfect time. I was very hopeful about what lay ahead," Jennifer says with a smile.

After RTV's training sessions, Jennifer received high-quality seeds and farming tools. She used these new skills and resources on her farm to improve both her agricultural output for income and food security. She grew maize, sorghum, beans, cassava, oranges, and potatoes and saw significant improvements in her harvests. "My sorghum grows much better now," she says. Using liquid manure for her orange trees made a remarkable difference. "The oranges look bigger and better than before," she adds.

A major milestone was her maize harvest. "The maize harvest was a turning point; we finally had enough income and food," she reflects. "I sold a part of the harvest and was able to buy school supplies for my children. I also bought some land and more seeds for the next season", she says. For the first time, she mentioned she doesn't worry about running out of food. Jennifer utilizes her cassava produce to make flour for her pancake business and earns a consistent income.

She is working toward supporting her children's education and expanding her business. "My dream is to educate all my childrenso they can find good jobs in thefuture," she says. And with the savings from my pancakesales, I want to grow mybusiness further." Jennifer's progress is a sign of hope for small farmers like her in Uganda, showing a path to a stable food supply and income for her community.

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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.