We’re excited to be joining thousands of bloggers over the world in World Blog Day! This year’s blog topic is ‘food’ and it couldn’t be more appropriate a topic for the S.A.L.V.E blog this week.
Sharing with Children in the UK
Asuman with some of his crops!
This week, the S.A.L.V.E children have been filming answers to questions posed by children at Royles Brook Primary School in Thornton, UK, and have been telling them all about the crops that are grown in Uganda. This was done to coincide with harvest week in the UK and the videos were shown at the Royles Brook harvest assembly, followed by a performance of the S.A.L.V.E Anthem which all the children at Royles Brook have learnt!
Royles Brook have very kindly chosen to donate their annual harvest fundraising to S.A.L.V.E, and we’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone for their extremely kind donations.
Farming in Uganda
A matooke tree
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the agriculture in Uganda, crops that are grown include; coffee, bananas, maize, millet, sorghum, cotton, rice, cassava, ground nuts and potatoes. Most farmers choose to plant their seeds at the beginning of the wet seasons, (a rough guide is September to November and March to May) as soon as the first rains come. However, as a result of climate change, the seasons are becoming increasingly inconsistent and unpredictable, causing a huge headache for farmers and a real threat to their yield, and consequently their livelihoods.
Farming is not only important to feeding Ugandans. In 2006, 32.3% ofUganda’s GDP came from agriculture, with coffee representing over half of country’s total exports.
Posho
Posho & Beans
Ask the S.A.L.V.E children what is your favourite food, and many will reply, ‘posho and beans’. Posho is made from millet flour, by simply adding boiling water to the flour and ‘mingling’, which doesn’t mean moving around the room at a party chatting to lots of people, but means ‘giving it a good old stir’. The simplicity in preparation, in addition to the cheapness of the millet flour, causes posho to be the most widely eaten food inUganda. It tastes a little like a cross between mashed potato and rice, and is often eaten with beans, which are served with the water they’ve been cooked in and plenty of salt.
Despite children enjoying it, the reality is that posho and beans is not so much chosen as what Ugandan’s want to eat, but is the only nutritious meal many people can afford to fill their family’s stomachs.
Next week at S.A.L.V.E…
The S.A.L.V.E Drop in Centre and the Carpentry program will both be fully up and running next week! Read the blog next week to find out more…
