Buikwe District Senior Education Officer Joyce Nalubega says that the schools abandoned the gardens when schools were closed following the outbreak of covid-19.
Education
authorities have advised headteachers in Buikwe district to revive the implementation
of Uganda’s Multi-Sectoral Food and Security and Nutrition Project.
The five-year project funded by World Bank was implemented by 100 Primary
Schools in each of the selected 20 districts across the country. It aimed at
increasing the production and consumption of micronutrient-rich foods and
utilization of community-based nutrition services in smallholder households.
Through the initiative, the government supported the establishment of the
school and community-based nutrition activities, some of which are implemented
by the Primary Schools in collaboration with Lead Farmers and Parents Groups,
while others are implemented by the teachers and school leadership.
Each primary school receives a package to establish or strengthen its school
garden to produce year-round micronutrient-rich crops, and to support nutrition
education activities. The Primary School Demonstration Gardens are primarily
managed by the Parent groups.
In the district, three demonstration gardens were established at Kisimbi CoU,
Scared Heart RC primary schools, and Sacred Heart RC Secondary schools in Najja
sub-county.
Buikwe
District Senior Education Officer Joyce Nalubega says that the schools abandoned
the gardens when schools were closed following the outbreak of covid-19.
Musoke Fred Luutu, the headteacher of Sacred Heart RC primary school says
before the school established the garden, they could only feed pupils with
posho, beans, and porridge but now they are able to offer a balanced diet to
the pupils.
Luutu says that the presence of the demonstration gardens is an opportunity for
children to be taught the benefits of engaging in farming.
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The Buikwe Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Betty Nankindu says schools
should adopt all means of creating food baskets to feed learners so as to
improve their performance and also transform malnourished children within their
communities.
Nankindu notes that a baseline survey conducted
recently in the district indicates that 50 percent of school-going pupils are malnourished.
