DEVELOPING SELF-RELIANCE AMONG WOMEN THROUGH KITCHEN GARDENING.
Children will always ask for food from their mothers and not fathers. So any time there is no food at home, the woman feels the pain of her kids. CIFORD has involved women in food production to ensure food security.
Every farmer encounters her own pie of challenges when venturing into agriculture. For Priscilla Kamukulu her main motivation of giving kitchen gardening a try was drawn from their Twale self-help women group where women independently prepare their small portion of land and plant the locally available vegetables. Early last year 2020, when the globe was grappling with the pandemic, the 58 year old and mother of six saw the need to have vegetables within the homestead. After struggling to feed her children.
Many members of her group had started gardening and this was her turning point, she told us when we visited her at home.’’ I decided to take the challenge and plant some Sukuma wiki (kales), spinach and onions. We started by prepare the kitchen garden just like we were trained by our extension officers from CIFORD Kenya who regularly conduct the learning on weekly basis to our Twale women group.’’
She further told us that apart from having plenty to consume at home, she currently even sells the onions to her neighbors. ‘’ my children went back to the city this year 2021 immediately the country was opened up and thank God they got back to their work, after them motivating me to do the gardening which I’m still doing and I don’t intend to stop any soon. I rarely disturb them to send me money to meet my basic needs here in the village like I used to do before.’’
Priscilla Kamukulu in her small garden
“I cannot thank you enough for the kitchen gardening program which has not only touched my life but many others here in Twale village. I take pride in CIFORD Kenya as it serves the community at large.” Priscilla told us .
