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Seeking Social Change: Profits From A Ugandan Farm Fund A Struggling School

Seeking Social Change: Profits From A Ugandan Farm Fund A Struggling School

A group of 15 young professionals in Sydney, Australia, are establishing a six-hectare farm (14.8 acres) near a Ugandan village school where students can learn about sustainable agricultural practices.

Profits from the farm will help fund the Erinah Manjeri School in the Buikwe region of Uganda — at least that’s the goal.

The idea for a farm to help education came to Sydney resident Nick Harrington when he traveled to Uganda on a gap year. He said he came across “a tiny school with plenty of opportunity” that was bankrupt, according to a report by Nick Heydon in TheLand.

Harrington observed a strong community spirit in the village, but saw the need for a strong local businesses such as a farm in which the community could be directly involved.

He returned to Australia and eventually co-founded The Manjeri School Project, an Australian charity that focuses on sustainable development and enhancing educational opportunities.

The farm, still in development, will include a goat enterprise, an aquaculture operation and crops.

“Not only will it generate income for workers, it will employ the local community and will feed the local kids,” Harrington told TheLand.

Aquaculture has begun to attract entrepreneurial farmers in Uganda seeking to exploit the business opportunity provided by the prevailing demand for fish, according to FAO.org. The country’s recent expansion in aquaculture has resulted in 20-30-percent of smallholder subsistence ponds being transferred into profitable small-scale production.

The Manjeri farm is also expected to serve as an educational tool so students can learn about sustainable agricultural practices. The hope is to “create something of a ripple effect where those students may grow up to become farmers themselves,” TheLand report said.

The Australian Manjeri team — all volunteers — has grown to about 15 people, according to TheLand. Its members include agricultural economics graduates who work in agricultural careers in Sydney.

The project helped build infrastructure for the school, and is involved in sustainable development projects including the establishment of a mixed farm. Reinvesting profits back into the school will allow for a sustainable community, the report said.

Here’s how the Manjeri School Project describes itself: “Dedicated to a new, sustainable way of doing charity…We collaborate with the community and seek out opportunities that place (the community) at the centre of our solutions…We make sustainable investments that deliver long-term social change.”