Community Art, Community Growth

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our table at the Global Activism Expo!

Below are some photos of the Community Art Mural from the event. We were painting Jane, a farmer from Kywanula village in Southwestern Uganda. She has been an active partner of Project FOCUS from the beginning.


Jane, as a leader in her community, was featured in the Portraits of Resilience art project in 2007. More recently, she participated in a permaculture workshop hosted by Project FOCUS and ICOD Action Network to learn sustainable farming techniques to improve her yields and the health of her crops.

Jane is also training to use the Internet and communication technologies at the Lyantonde Internet Center. The internet center allows rural villagers like Jane access to weather predictions and market information for their products.


Seeds!

If you took home seeds to plant, we would love to see how your Sugar Snap Peas are doing! Send a photo of your growing plant and any other information you would like to share to info@projectfocus.org. We will post the photos here on our blog and our facebook page to share with with Project FOCUS community in the U.S. and Uganda.

If you were not there but would still like to participate, let us know!

ICT and Permaculture Training in Lyantonde

With your help, the Lyantonde Internet Center opened its doors in June 2010, providing people with access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) previously unavailable in the area.

Individuals now have access to the Internet for personal and professional use, but the benefits of the Center extend beyond individual use. ICOD Action Network and Project FOCUS have partnered to provide capacity-building training on a community level through the Center. Thus far, over 60 people have been trained in ICT, nearly 70% of whom are women.

In addition to ICT training, Project FOCUS and ICOD Action Network have also partnered to implement a 1 week long Permaculture workshop for local farmers in the rural community. 137 farmers, over 80% women, participated in the Permaculture skills workshop.

Our partnership will continue to serve the general population of the Lyantonde region, with an emphasis on developing practical skills, especially for women.

One Permaculture training participant, Nalukwago Fatuma, shared her experience with us: "Before March this year, none of us here in Lyantonde knew about permaculture... Throughout this course, I was introduced to many new things that are very important for our daily lives like planting a food forest and embracing nature so as to sustain ourselves and the future generations. I now believe that our standards of living can only be achieved if we only embrace nature and preserve it."