Farming at Koch Goma School
As an extension to our education activities at Koch Goma Secondary School, we are working with the school to enable them to make the most of its fertile 100 acre site.
We aim to contribute to the ongoing development of the school by assisting them to:
· E stablish of a vegetable garden to improve the pupils’diet and
· D evelop suitable commercial farming activities to generate income.
The staple school diet is posho (maize meal) and beans. The lack of variety is a regular source of discontent and disruption at the school, and indeed in most similar schools across the country. By establishing a vegetable garden we will enable the students - and their teachers - to have a more varied and nutritionally beneficial diet. The garden will also provide opportunities for students studying agriculture to get hands-on experience to supplement their classroom work.
By supporting the school to use some of its land to undertake suitable commercially viable farming activities we aim to enable them to generate additional income to contribute to the ongoing maintenance and development of the school. Under our education programme we are assisting with the construction and renovation of a number of school buildings and the provision of educational resources. These all need to be maintained and it is envisaged that the farming activities will provide funds to do this as well as, in time, potentially enabling the school to finance further development projects.
Additionally, the farm will:
- Support the local community by providing employment.
- Strengthen the role of the school as a focal point within the community.
- Provide opportunities for training the community in improved farming techniques.
- Potentially provide a means for some students to earn money to pay their own school fees.
The project will commence in the first few months of 2009 and will develop gradually, on a season by season basis, with trials and demonstration plots being developed to help determine the most effective use of the land.