Simon and Doreen were afraid they couldn’t provide their three children with what they needed. The house they lived in was a small, one bedroom house with a leaky roof. Falling asleep at night, they often worried about their children lying unprotected, getting wet from the rain and catching colds and flus from the damp and cold.
But without a good system for farming, or multiple sources of income, saving up for the kind of house they needed to keep their family safe didn’t seem like a possibility.
Not having any land of their own, they rented small plots to plant their crops. But this was still insufficient to produce enough harvest to feed their children two meals a day, let along to sell any for income. Often, their children ate fewer than two meals a day…and sometimes not at all.
Unless a miracle happened and they somehow tripled their harvests without increasing the amount of land they used, there would be no additional income and no savings for the family to build a new home. There would be no way to leave the cycle of poverty.
But miracles can happen!
Especially when ordinary people dare to reach out and offer a neighbourly hand to someone they’ve never even met.
FH Canada supporters gave generously towards Food for the Hungry’s livelihoods and agriculture programs. They bought Gift Guide items like Fruit & Veggie Seeds, Gardening Tools, and Community Savings Kickstarts. They donated to the Feeding Families campaign and sponsored children in Simon and Doreen’s community.
And everything began to change.
Simon had the opportunity to attend FH Uganda’s Climate Smart Agriculture training and Doreen joined an FH-initiated Savings and Loans Group. In Simon’s workshops, he learned how to make organic pesticides and utilize push-pull technology to draw destructive pests out of their fields.
The result? His yields tripled!
Now, there was more than enough food on the table for their children, and Simon could sell their excess produce. Doreen knew exactly what to do with the extra cash that started coming in. With the accountability from her savings group, she set it aside, keeping their dream of a waterproof, stable, tin roof in mind.
Within just one year Simon and Doreen were standing in front of their new, bigger house with a tin roof!
“I work hard with my wife to ensure that the children have eaten rather than lamenting. I am now a proud father and so many people are learning from us due to our hard work. I am a role model to people in the community!” Simon beams.
Sturdy, tin roofs like this one on Simon and Doreen's new house keep families dry as tropical rainstorms pour down.