Donations for Housing

Widow’s housing project was initiated in 2008. We have helped build new homes, repair and revamp homes that are in bad shape.

Working with partner organizations, individual supporters and friends of Dago, we have managed to build and revamp over 30 homes in Dago community.

Along with building homes, we ensure the families also have a sustainable means of survival, so we also build and provide chicken coops for this family, so they can have a small business and source of food. The group provides 2 chickens and a rooster as a startup for the families.

We are now working with families with the concepts of kitchen gardening. We are on the pilot stage now and we are working this with about 5 homes in the community.

Challenges with the chicken coop/gardening project:

Basic Management Skills:
Most of our families have not carried out any form of business before and have always depended on small farm work.

Water problems: Most of the homes don’t have reliable sources of water and they depend on river water that they have to walk miles to fetch. Lately the drought patterns in the area have altered the flow because of the global weather changes.

Opportunities with the chicken coop/gardening project:
We have been working with good friends; university students to help with the basic business skills and training for the community members to be successful in not only maintaining, but scaling up this projects so they become self-sustainable.

There are always opportunities to partner with other organizations, universities, volunteers and well-wishers to help us reach more community needs.

Hopefully we can secure a major water source for the community, so they have reliable sources to maintain their gardens.

Build water catchment gutters for the families so they can tap the rain water and can use them for future purposes.

Volunteers love to spend time in Dago, we have lots of volunteer opportunities with our housing initiative. Groups, family and individuals are welcomed.

Other Long term goal provisions:
– Water catchment projects for families
– Latrine projects for families
– Dairy project for families (Goats, Sheep and Cows)
– Horticulture initiatives for the community.
– Give every family a tool that they need to support themselves and also later produce surplus to help support the children center.

Agricultural Initiatives:
Agriculture forms the major backbone of the economy of Dago village. Being in the sugar belt of Sony Sugar, most of the people depend on Agriculture. We are working with the community to develop other agricultural initiatives, to help them provide for family and not only depend on the sugarcane that takes over 2 years to be harvested.

With support from our friends, we have developed some initiatives including:

Bee Keeping:
In partnership with our university teams, we have set up a bee keeping business for the community. Bee keepers association has 9 members that have established 24 beehives in the area. The university students have been amazing in continuing to do major research and solving all the problems the farmers are facing, while also teaching them better business skills and management.

Greenhouse Technology:the
Through our partnership with USAID, we benefitted by receiving a greenhouse at the children center. This was initially awarded to a community group for management, but now it’s under the care of the children center. We are working with other partners to figure out some of the environmental and agricultural challenges that we have faced.

Dairy project:
Over the years, Dago benefited from support of other organization and established a very great plan of sustainability via dairy project, but this was not successful because the scope was not shared and proper training was not given to the community. We are trying to revive the same project, but change the strategy. Currently the center has 2 dairy cows and a calf, but also benefit from 2 other community members who are providing a percentage of their produce to the center.

Poultry project:
With our partners and friends we are exploring many of the new poultry techniques that would benefit the center. We believe by empowering community to raise chickens, then providing proceeds to the center. This is something we are exploring and might be implementing by the end of the year.

Sustainable farming technology:
With all the new simple and complex farming techniques, we are partnering with various organizations, to help us advance and improve the kitchen garden techniques and improve the food supply in the area for families. The technique is being tested currently in 3 different families to determine the effectiveness of the project, before scaling up.

Oxen project:
For a long time, Dago has enjoyed the benefits of the ox project. Dago was provided with 32 oxen’s and all the equipment’s to go with it. We gave this out to community members who would use the animals to provide for their families, but also help take care of the children center properties. They were also obligated to provide a percentage of their produce to support the center. This is a project we hold dearly and will continue to pursue and support.

Achievements:
We have been able to rally the community to take a leading role to ensure the area become self-sustainable.

Majority of the homes are giving a try to either one or a couple of the agricultural initiatives named above.

We have had success partnering and receiving guidance from lots of Agricultural experts on how we can utilize our resources and scale up.

A lot of our initial projects have been successful with the help of experts and groups working together.

Challenges:
Climate change: We have had some bad luck with weather patterns in our area.

Stable water sources: Most of our beneficiaries don’t have a stable water source that would enable them achieve at their best.

Adequate training: Most of the training provided are classic, but because of lack of follow-up, sometimes we have failed to get the best performance.

Opportunities:
We are still exploring all the agricultural tactics that we can utilize to make our program successful.

There are always opportunities to partner with other organizations, universities, volunteers and well-wishers to help us reach more community needs.

We are looking to sink boles/water sources that will provide water for the 5 sections of the village.

Volunteers love to spend time in Dago, we have lots of volunteer opportunities with our educational initiative. Groups, family and individuals are welcomed.