2012
February
The chickens are becoming hens!
Our chickens have their vaccinations to keep them healthy:
The maize continues to mature and is nearly ready to harvest.
Workers have to take care not to infect the chicks so foot-washing with disinfectant before going in. Immaculate looks after the chicks all night too.
Self-sufficiency, here we come! Kasiisi School Farm’s first livestock are settling in. The chicks' new home is spacious and airy and they have a lovely carpet of coffee husks to scratch about in.
Will they be laying by Easter? Maybe not quite as soon as that: there’s no electric power on the farm so they are lit with paraffin lamps at the moment, until we can afford to put in solar lighting. And of course the children still need their daily porridge, so the pressure’s on.
Maize is growing well and will soon be harvested by the farmer, Joseph.
Plenty of clearing has been done, but plenty remains. And it all needs to be planned and agreed by members of our Ugandan partners the Kasiisi Forest Schools and Students Support Project, as in this meeting below:
THE KASIISI PORRIDGE PROJECT WISHES TO THANK ALL OUR FRIENDS FOR THEIR SUPPORT THROUGHOUT 2011. A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!
January - the Text A Chicken Appeal:
We reached our target in three months: £1000 was donated to our Text A Chicken Appeal which closed at Christmas. With the target reached, the chicks arrived at Kasiisi School Farm on Boxing Day.
Will they be laying by Easter? Come back and see...
2011 Farm progress...
December: the first chicken house is not only complete but equipped and ready for chickens! £800 has now been donated in our appeal for chickens. A secure, dry two-room store house has been built and maize and other crops are growing well. The farmer, Joseph, shows them off:
October: the first chicken house is complete. Now it needs to be equipped inside, then it'll be ready for 500 chickens - as soon as the Text A Chicken Appeal reaches its target of £1000.
So far, £700 has been donated (9th Nov).
September 2011:
Chicken house in
construction
Fast-growing sapling trees just planted and chicken house with new corrugated roof is on the way
At the schools...
Harvard researcher Brennan Vail investigating the effects of lunch on the children. She took arm measurements and put accelerometers round their waists to monitor the level of their activity. Early results indicate that a mug of porridge produces statistically significant higher energy levels, particularly in girl orphans.
UK architects Matt Parker and Rob Mawson are back home now, after doing a wonderful job with our Ugandan partners, developing a School Farm. Self-sufficiency is the aim.
Here they are with Farm Project Manager Mathew and newly-appointed farmer, Joseph, beginning to make the dream come true.
First, bricks are made...
Timber must be prepared and a plot for the farm latrine
The undergrowth is cleared with a machete, and the beginnings of a chicken house appears
More work on the double, 40 ft latrine
Joseph outside his temporary house and store, with temporary water barrels. The latrine has an experimental rammed earth wall. If successful, this technique will be used for other buildings. A few things are free - Joseph found wild honey on the farm.
and collected it for the workers. Then he cooked a meal for everyone, before starting on tree planting (an avocado tree in this case)
Finally, after 6 weeks, Matt and Rob are treated to a well-earned farewell drink. They hope to revisit before long.
15th July:
Already a temporary store is now nearly complete on the land, and a chicken house is on the way. Our volunteer architects Matt and Rob have attracted lots of help and local interest, as these pictures, taken in their second week in Uganda, show:
The first task for architects Matt and Rob was researching local farms and discussing pig and chicken farming methods with local farmers. This gallery shows them in their first week in Uganda, ending with Rob meeting a piglet and Matt with some new tools, funded by Biggleswade Rotary Club.
Architects Matt and Rob arrived at Kasiisi on Thursday 7th July and wasted no time in making their first visit to the land where the new farm will be built. Our Assistant Field Manager, Mathew Koojo, who will work closely with them, is the one in a KPP T-shirt.
VITAL NEW RESEARCH BEING CARRIED OUT FOR THE PROJECT:
Every schoolchild needs lunch. Obvious? Well yes, but do we know exactly why, and the consequences of not having a daily meal at school?
Harvard student Brennan Vail’s research this summer will produce the hard evidence needed to answer these questions.
Greeting her readers in the children’s own language, Rutooro, she explains below what she is doing.
Here Brennan is pictured with some of the Kyanyawara children in her study.
Brennan and Kyanyawara children JUNE 2011 
Oli ota! My name is Brennan Vail and I am in Uganda this summer doing research for my thesis on the porridge lunches provided by the Kasiisi Porridge Project and their effect on the nutritional status and energy expenditure of primary school children.
I will spend time at four schools in order to compare two that currently have a porridge programme, Kyanyawara and Kasiisi, to two that do not, Kigarama and Kiko. To measure nutritional status I am collecting height, weight, and mid upper arm circumferences from 35 kids at each school and performing a 24 hour diet recall with each of them. To calculate energy expenditure each child is wearing an accelerometer for one school day. The accelerometers are similar to pedometers and are worn around the waist in a belt. I have just finished at Kyanyawara and Kasiisi and will go to Kigarama next.
The children at the schools are adorable and I have had a wonderful time getting to know them! We have played soccer and volleyball, jumped rope, learned the limbo, and shared stories. The kids have also taught me many songs and even imitated an American accent which was pretty funny! I am very thankful for the opportunity to be here this summer and hope my research will be useful for the Kasiisi Porridge Project. Ogume kurungi!
Building for the future...
Two dynamic young architects from Sheffield University, Matthew Parker and Robert Mawson, have volunteered to go to Uganda for 6-8 weeks this summer. They will design a School Farm to be built on the land bought by the KPP, now owned by the Kibale Forest Schools and Students Support Project. In April they visited the National Trust's Wimpole Hall Farm to get some advice from Callum and Alex, on rearing pigs and chickens, in preparation for their discussions with our Ugandan partners on the design of the farm complex in Uganda.
Explanations
from Callum...
Matt (left) and Rob (right)come well equipped for this initiative, having already built a community kitchen in rural Nicaragua. The plans for Uganda are set to include a farm manager’s house, labourers’ quarters and animal structures. As in Nicaragua, they are keen to combine their skills as trained architects with the knowledge and wishes of the local people, working closely with them. The aim is to benefit not only the schoolchildren, but also the wider community. Who knows, we might see the creation of facilities for education, food preparation and even visitors. This generous offer by Matt and Rob has opened up the opportunity to encourage innovative and sustainable building designs. We greatly look forward to working with them.
Their whole trip will cost £2000. To sponsor Matt and Rob, who are going to run the Sheffield Half Marathon in May 2011, please visit their JustGiving page: http://www.justgiving.com/Matthew-Parker2
Thank you!
2010
In September 2010, our Director, Kate Wrangham-Briggs and her daughter, TV Researcher, Isobel Briggs, spent two weeks working in Kasiisi and Kyanyawara Primary Schools planning the next steps of the Porridge Project with the Kibale Forest Schools and Students Support Programme (formerly AFROKAPS), and making a publicity video (see Home Page).
Gallery of their trip:
Isobel films the children...
then shows them...
Kasiisi children dance for their visitors, watched by their friends
Head of Kasiisi tries out one of the jigsaws
presented to the school library by Kate
while the children wait for the mugs
Kyanyawara children celebrate having porridge!
Head of Kyanyawara School with Ugandan Coat of Arms before giving Kate a Coat of Arms Shield...
and a mug of porridge...
Now the new 20 acres of land need to be turned into a school farm. Quite a challenge. It will all have to be cleared by hand, but at least there are eucalyptus trees, papyrus and a river there already.
Our New Year's resolution is sustainability - let's hope 2011 will bring this goal closer.
Previous news...
On 19 March 2010, a ceremony was held in Fort Portal to inaugurate the PIBID tooke flour initiative officially. Marching to the Toro Brass Band was followed by entertainment from schools and speeches recording the history and benefits of Tooke Porridge – which was served to the visiting dignitaries, the principal Guest of Honour being the Prime Minister of the Toro Kingdom.. The PIBID Tooke cake is cut!
The children display a Tooke banner and Lydia Kasenene speaks about the PIBID initiative.In January we opened the new decade with an exciting purchase.
At the end of January we acquired 20 acres of farmland near Kasiisi Primary School.
Bordered by a stream on one side, which will greatly aid irrigation, and by a papyrus swamp on another, mixed cash crops are envisaged, to maintain the funding of the Kasiisi Porridge Project well into the future.
After the administrative hurdles of surveying and registration, now come many decisions on the nuts and bolts of the operation of the plot. The new owners, our partner body in Uganda - the Kibale Forest Schools Students Support Project (Feeding) - are already working hard on these questions, but the first step towards a self-sustaining school meal programme has been taken.