The women in the greater Kabale have welcomed GWEFODE’s Rain Water Harvesting and Kitchen Gardening project to address the problem of food shortage. Kitchen gardening is growing a variety of foods, vegetables and fruits on small portions of gardens behind houses.

The gardens are normally 10m by 15m. The kitchen gardens are now a common sight in most of the households in rural areas of Kabale and Rubanda districts where GWEFODE is operating. The households grow traditional vegetables like Cabbages, Cornflowers, Spinaches, carrots, beetroots, onions, bitter berries and Amaranthus commonly known as dodo.

Tumusime Florence, a widow who lost her husband in 2001 and a beneficiary of the project says that Kitchen gardening is a good venture as it requires utilization of little piece of land behind the house. She now grows cabbages, tomatoes, carrots, and onions and depends on the traditional vegetables as sauce to accompany potatoes, bananas and millet.

Kellen Banga, a resident of Kihira village in Hamurwa Sub County, Rubanda district says that in the past she was spending more than 5,000 shillings everyday to buy food and sauce for her family. Banga says that since she started kitchen gardening, she is spending less because she is sure of sauce. She says that she can now save money to buy scholastic materials and pay school fees for her children.

Ms Lydia Komuhangi, GWEFODE Executive Director says the organization is sensitizing and training women in the area about the importance of kitchen gardening and how to prepare them so that they can also train other women. She says that many women are ignoring the spaces behind their houses. In some households, the kitchen gardens are also boosting the nutrition of young children and the elderly. The traditional vegetables have a very high nutritive value and households are being encouraged not to waste their pieces of land and grow vegetables, because they can be of importance during periods of drought. Says Ms Lydia Komuhangi, GWEFODE Executive Director