Madeleine Cuckson

IRT volunteer Madeleine Cuckson writes about how Gotiliva transformed her life with StepUp as part of our #StepUpSuccessStories series.

Gotiliva is one of many beneficiaries whose life has been turned around with the help of IRT’s Step Up programme in Uganda. After losing her husband, Gotiliva was left devastated with little hope for the future. She had no financial support and lived within very basic means, describing how she had ‘no dish drying rack, no latrine, no refuse pit for dumping rubbish’. Gotiliva used traditional farming methods to cultivate her land but this incurred large amounts of time, excursion and didn’t achieve a good harvest, leaving Gotiliva with close to nothing to survive off.

The StepUp programme provided Gotiliva with the building and agricultural training necessary to live a full life again, earn a good wage and harvest crops using more effective farming practices. Gotiliva has now constructed a high-quality latrine with a washing facility attached, a dish drying rack and a better kitchen with a larger variety of vegetables on raised beds. Not only does Gotiliva feel happier with her home and livelihood, she is a self-sufficient member of her community – “I dress better and eat well…I am so much respected in the community”.

The real impact of StepUp’s life-changing work is always shown through our programme beneficiaries’ stories. For Gotiliva, the programme has provided her with a new lease of life and a powerful future:

“I have followed my dreams to achieve a permanent house, serious savings to acquire those household items that I do not have now, such as better bedding, utensils, plant more fruit, agroforestry and timber trees. My dream is to live a better life and die a happy woman, a woman of value and substance who will always leave a legacy in the community for other women to follow.”

As Step Up continues to expand, we aim to bring our training and support programme to even more communities, with the help of our dedicated partners at OCA who implement this programme in communities across northern Uganda.

IRT needs donors to be able to continue our valuable work.

If you would like to make a difference to the lives of vulnerable farmers in northern Uganda, please consider donating today. You can do this through our website at https://www.irt.org.uk/donate/ or by calling our office on 020 8994 9120. Thank you!

Olivia Garner

IRT’s new volunteer, Olivia Garner, explores how StepUp communities have been coping with the Ugandan lockdown

As England enters another national lockdown, the challenges of Covid-19 are fresh in the national consciousness. As the pandemic draws on, the long-term and economic effects are becoming main concerns, not just nationally but globally.

IRT’s StepUp programme, in partnership with the Organisation for Community Action (OCA) in Uganda, helps support farmers to improve their livelihoods and achieve sustainable development. Farming communities are provided with training in technical agricultural skills as well as training in sanitation and hygiene and gender equality. But how have StepUp participants been coping in the face of Covid-19 and lockdown?

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Those with small businesses selling agricultural products in town have suffered the most, as local markets closed down. This greatly affected small businesses and households relying on agriculture as their main source of income. Furthermore, with the markets closed, food prices rocketed.

Speaking to OCA’s trained experts on the ground, Christine from the Aboloneno Village, said, “At the beginning when we heard about the COVID-19 pandemic, we were very scared by the global death rate as aired out through a local radio. I used to do a business of selling fresh cassava in Lira town but because of the lockdown, I stopped for a while. This affected our daily source of income and survival since the little savings we had was spent on feeding and meeting other basic needs for the family members.”

Christine continues, “We therefore concentrated more on farming. We have planted rice, tomatoes and soya beans for co-operative business and other food crops. After harvest we intend to sell the produce and use the money to roof our house”.

Faustina, of Adaganii Village, has also found a way forward through agricultural work, especially with her grandchildren around to help out. Faustina testified that Covid-19 created a lot of fear among her and her family members. She said that the lockdown limited her movement which prevented her from seeing her children and other relatives whom she misses a lot. She told IRT, “As an old woman I want to see my children and relatives as it gives me strength to move on with life. This virus has affected my grand children’s education because they are back home and I don’t know when they will go back to school.” However, amidst all the challenges brought by Covid-19, Faustina has turned her fear into hope. She diverted all her attention to farming which she believes will produce high yields due to the agricultural practices and skills training received through the StepUp programme. She has planted maize, groundnuts, beans, millet, cassava and onions for food and commercial purposes.

Overall, the Covid-19 lockdown has brought unprecedented challenges to farming communities in rural northern Uganda. Through the StepUp programme, farmers have been helped to improve their crop yields in order to sell their crops, as well as gain self-sufficiency, helping them to overcome rocketing food prices. Savings gained through increased incomes also help to protect them from the adverse economic effects of the pandemic. However, as the pandemic shows few signs of abating, these farmers need our support more than ever to face the continued challenges of Covid-19 and sustain their livelihoods.

IRT needs donors to be able to continue our valuable work.

If you would like to make a difference to the lives of vulnerable farmers in northern Uganda, please consider donating today. You can do this through our website at https://www.irt.org.uk/donate/ or by calling our office on 020 8994 9120. Thank you!

Our new volunteer, Jonny Moynihan, looks at the way his dissertation on refugee treatment in Kenya and South Africa has led him to work at IRT.

Deciding the Topic

When I was deciding what subject to write about for my dissertation in MSc -Security Studies at University College London, I wanted to choose an area of politics which had been relatively untouched by academics compared to other areas such as the European Union and terrorism.

China and the Uighurs

It led to me wonder about other topics I could choose for my dissertation. I first thought I was going to do it on the link between oil and civil wars. However, it proved to be already vastly researched by academics. The next topic was the discrimination of the Uighur Muslim population by the Han Chinese central government in Xinjiang Province in the northwest of China. Nevertheless, in the end I didn’t end up doing my dissertation on the Uighur population because of the fear of being hacked by the Chinese government and the difficulty of not being able to speak Mandarin, which was a fairly major point come to think of it.

The Refugee Crisis in Europe

On the other hand, searching for another topic, which was both under researched and interesting enough for four months straight, I came across the topic of refugees. I knew virtually nothing about refugees apart from the UN 1951 Refugee Convention and refugee law around the world. At the same time, I thought about the refugee crisis, which was happening in the Mediterranean on islands of Italy and Greece. I had seen the refugee crisis in Europe across the mainstream media and realised that there must be the same issue in Africa. The reason for choosing Africa, and specifically Kenya and South Africa, was because they are English speaking countries with large economies and large refugee populations. Thus, I felt I could research something a bit outside of the box of doing something popular like the refugee crisis in the EU.

Dispelling the myths about refugees

I set about understanding as much I could about refugees and their lives along with their experiences in Kenya and South Africa. From the first moment, even in the first few academic articles and google searches, it completely changed my view on refugees and their daily lives of living in limbo, which became my dissertation title. The first few academic articles about refugee treatment in Kenya and South Africa really did dismiss all the myths I was seeing in the media about refugees being economic migrants, coming to the UK just to obtain benefits and ‘steal our jobs’.

Refugee Treatment in Camps

I began to understand that refugees weren’t as David Cameron put it; ‘a swarm’ as he had previously mentioned in a speech, rather that they were just people like you and me, fleeing war and violence to camps or cities in safer countries close to the warzone. I also started to realise that getting to camps wasn’t the end of their trauma of escaping conflict. I learnt about the fact that there is still communal conflict in the camps along with a host of other problems such as gender violence, corruption and inefficiency.

Moving onto IRT

After the process of writing my dissertation and dispelling all of the myths I had previously felt were right, I began to look at charities. At a humanitarian charity, I could put my dissertation research into practice, which led me to volunteer at International Refugee Trust. At IRT, I’m gaining experience about what charities are doing to help refugees in Africa, in states such as Uganda and South Sudan, where even less research academic research is focused.

My Work at IRT

My work at IRT involves writing content for their social media, and using my PR experience to help raise awareness of the current refugee crisis. I also write compelling content for IRT’s website, explaining how their work is so important to bringing thousands of refugees out of poverty. I’m currently working with their project partners on the ground, editing videos showing real stories of the current situation, stuff that the mainstream media simply aren’t broadcasting. I have been working closely with IRT’s Fundraising Manager Jessica Eames and their CEO Steven Smith MBE, learning how IRT works and why my work is so important. Being a volunteer has not only given me insight of the third sector but has been a hugely rewarding experience.