I’m inspired!

On Friday (09/08/19) I had the honour to attend ‘BLIND & VISUAL IMPAIRED: FOOD SECURITY & SOVEREIGNTY IN AFRICA’ a roundtable organised by ‘Visual Eyes Afrika-international (VEA-i)’ to welcome Timothy Njakasi of ‘Uganda’s Riverford Organic Centre (UROC). The event was held at the MAP Studio Café in Kentish Town (London).

At this successful event we heard from Timothy how he trains farmers from all over Uganda and the world to engage in sustainable food security and sovereignty in view of the age of anthropocene? 

He also, echoed UROC slogan ’’feed the soil to feed you’’, and that the future of African sustainable farming is in the hands of African youths, therefore should be encouraged by any means necessary to venture into agriculture. 

As a token of appreciation, Timothy gifted each one of us a handful of wooden spoons from Uganda. ’’They are made by the women I train’’, said Timothy. 

From Timothy, we heard from Alison Hall MBE from ‘Seeds for Development’ and the inspiring work together they are doing in Northern Uganda. Through Alison’s organisation, farmers borrow seeds and repay the financial value from selling the harvested crops. Over 3,000 farming families supported have moved towards self-sustainability.

Then we heard from Gideon Commey, an MSc Environment and Sustainable Development student at UCL and founder of Ghana Youth Environmental Movement. The project’s key focus is to mobilise young people in understanding climate change better and the need to protect the environment. Gideon advised to have already trained over 5000 people. 

We also heard from Dr Zeremariam Fre, a Senior Teaching Fellow at UCL and the Founding Director of the ‘Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa (PENHA). The charity (PENHA) has worked for three decades and continues to this day work directly with pastoralists in East Africa etc. 

‘While globalisation is of critical importance to the continent’, Dr Fre emphasised the need for Pan-African collaborations and to ’’exploit niches’’. He commended (VEA-i) for organising this necessary and important roundtable.

Lastly, it was the turn of the roundtable organiser and founder of ‘Visual Eyes Afrika-international’, Molemisi Kono. Who highlighted the negative impact of vision impairment on crop farmers; from not being able to plough, to tending their crops resulting in harvest loss.

To livestock farmers not being able to look after their stock even attending to the sick ones let alone finding those that gone astray? Alison and Timothy corroborated VEA-i’s statement, advising that as soon as they gave about 100 farmers glasses in Uganda, there was an increase in yields.

While I had read a bit and heard lecturers on the issues discussed, it was quite an eye opener to actually speak with the practitioners, people on the ground doing the work. Most importantly, the speakers appear to be working in liaison with people in the communities instead of authoritatively imposing development to the ’’beneficiaries’’.

I am inspired!