Five sustainability projects and a wedding 👰♀️
This month we have exciting news from Dominic (Director at KAASO) about several other projects the staff have been working on. Though the piggery project faced some challenges there are fortunately many others that are helping reduce risk and are providing diversification when it comes to KAASO’s income streams. We’re thrilled to share more information about them with you today.
Sustainability projects
In addition to the piggery project mentioned last month, the staff at KAASO have been working hard in a number of other areas to help broaden how KAASO can raise funds and reduce overall risk and volatility if one project falters.
The first project to mention is the poultry project. Initially, 220 layer and 200 broiler birds were bought. At KAASO there is a ‘model’ poultry farm environment with each project member recreating the setup from their homes. This distributive model helps limit resource usage at any one location. Many of the eggs are being used at the school to feed the students and the surplus is being sold to local bakers for bread and chapatis.
The next project to mention is the brick making project. With only 6 members of staff involved a total of 65,000 bricks have been made. The bricks offer increased flexibility as they need not be sold immediately and can instead be kept in reserve until the optimum price can be guaranteed. The bricks are being sold in the community and in the nearby towns like Kyotera, Masaka and Mitukula. KAASO are looking forward to buying more clay land for future expansion.
The third project underway at KAASO is the tree nursery bed. 11 members of staff are involved in the ongoing maintenance of the project. At the moment the focus is on cultivating coffee and eucalyptus seedlings, which is being done in and around the school greenhouse. The first batch of eucalyptus seedlings has been sold for planting with preparations already being made for the next batch. The coffee seedlings are doing well and will be transferred this rainy season. There are 7,000 coffee seedlings in the nursery bed. It’s planned for some of these to be planted in the school Kaaso-Northbourne coffee garden.
Last but not least we have the vegetable and fruit growing project. There are 9 staff members actively contributing to this project. They have so far planted passion fruits, tomatoes, watermelons, eggplants and green peppers. This project is also doing very well as there is a ready market nearby for fruits and vegetables.
Dominic has this to say about the ongoing projects:
“These projects are a blessing to us as they have yielded a lot of benefits to the school and the staff members themselves [both] individually and [to] the community at large. Our major goal of sustaining the staff during and after the covid pandemic has been achieved as almost 80% of the staff are still working with us.”
Wedding bells and fundraisers
We are incredibly grateful to Sam and Hannes who had the wonderful idea to ask for donations for Unity is Strength at their wedding. A fantastic £2,000 was raised! Sam is a Northbourne Park alumnus and visited St Paul KAASO in 2014, so has a special connection to both schools.
We asked Sam what it meant to her to support KAASO and she said:
“I visited KAASO in 2014 as part of my Masters studies and was immediately in awe of this wonderful small community. The structure that has been built to support not only the children who attend this school but also the wider community is phenomenal and it was an absolute pleasure to meet Dominic and Rose and all of the KAASO staff and extended family.
The money that is being raised through Unity is Strength is invaluable and we were honoured to be able to support such a special cause on our wedding day.”
Installing mosquito nets with Nurse Shiba and on the school field with some budding netball players
Thank you again, Sam and Hannes! Many congratulations on your marriage. We wish you a lifetime of happiness together.
2021 Annual Report & Accounts published
We’re delighted to let you know that our Annual Report and Accounts for the year ending 2021 are now available to view on the Charity Commission website.
Please have a read through and let us know what you think. We show our income and expenditure for the year, and explain how your donations have made a difference.
We’d be interested to hear any comments or questions you have. You can reach us at info@unityisstrength.org.uk.
Special thanks goes to one of our supporters who provided valuable feedback and guidance on draft versions of the report and accounts before submission. We are very grateful!