Vegetables in Rhino Refugee Camp: Hellen’s Story
Story collected by Denis Dukan, EWS-KT Uganda Team Lead
Hellen Abako, a 26-yr-old mother of 3 from South Sudan’s Yei River County, fled to Uganda in 2018. She settled in Rhino Camp, an extension of Omugo Refugee Settlement in the northwestern part of the country.
Trying to grow vegetables on a small plot of land, she had problems preventing and treating pests and diseases, and she did not know the pros and cons of different vegetable varieties or how to access quality seeds.
In 2021, she encountered East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation, which at the time was training farmers on good agronomic practices under the Nutrition and Income Generation Intervention (NIGI) project. NIGI provided training in vegetable production through a kitchen garden approach, establishing demonstration sites for hands-on learning.
Starting with proper land preparation and the selection of appropriate vegetable varieties, EWS-KT staff guided farmers and home gardeners through each crop stage. Project participants learned pest and disease management, fertilization timing and dosage, and water management techniques.
“As I had interest in learning,” Hellen said, “I joined a farming group where I was trained on farming practices, and my challenges became history.” By applying the practices and technologies she learned, she began to achieve successful growing seasons.
“My kitchen garden has offered my family a nutritional victory,” said Hellen. She added that she has become a diet champion in the community, as her neighbors can buy all sorts of vegetables from her, contributing to a more balanced and nutritious diet for their families.
She attributes her strength in farming to the continuous technical support she gets from EWS-KT, access to quality agricultural inputs, which has been made easy through EWS-KT linkages, and available markets for fresh vegetables.
“I look forward to further expanding my vegetable production and training more farmers with these farming practices and technologies acquired from EWS-KT, as my kitchen garden has become a center of attraction for farmers who have interest in learning good farming practices,” she said.
Implemented from 2018 to 2021, Nutrition and Income Generation Intervention for Refugees and Host Communities in the West Nile Region (NIGI) focused on improving access to and consumption of nutritious crops and increasing income for refugees and hosts in refugee settlement areas in the West Nile region of Uganda. The project was co-funded by Netherlands Embassy Uganda and was managed by EWS-KT in collaboration with Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation.