Susan Jua fled conflict in South Sudan in 2006 and escaped with her family to Uganda.
As a refugee, she arrived homeless and penniless. She had no land and limited ability to earn a living.
Self Help Africa’s Sustain Project has helped to change that.
One of 1,000 displaced and marginalised people supported by the scheme in Adjumani County in Uganda’s far north-west, Susan received 25 kilograms of iron rich beans to plant. She harvested more than 200kg for household food and traded the rest.
A small bag of beans and some training and support has helped to change Susan’s life. For others, the route out of poverty was through commercial production of tomato, and for others, of okra.
Today, almost 1.5 million refugees live in Uganda, which is one of the world’s top five hosting countries for refugees in the world.
Backed by Irish Aid, Sustain provided food, nutrition and income security – and a pathway to self-sufficiency.
The project achieved several goals:
- 28 tons of iron rich beans were distributed
- 1,950 bags of orange sweet potato vines were distributed
- 4 ecological land use management centres were established
- 5 groups were supported with hybrid seeds of tomato onion and cabbage,
- 5 acres were established.
- 40 village savings and loans association groups were formed and trained with an average savings of 3,000,000 shillings per group.
Watch this video to learn more:
