Adraa Alumni - Isaiah's Story

I arrived at Adraa Agricultural College in the middle of an open day for the students from the primary and secondary schools in the local area.  Part of the day was given over too the pupils having an opportunity to see the College's work and the courses and training opportunities to them in the future.  Another key part of the Open Day was a chance for those attending to hear from past students about how they have used the knowledge and skills they learnt whilst at Adraa to establish for themselves, their families and communities. 

One of the Adraa Alumni was Isaiah.  He had left school after Primary 7, i.e. without any formally recognised qualifications.  He started work helping on his family’s land.  He learnt from his parents and followed their approaches to which crops they grew and how the land was managed.  Like his parents, he would cut down trees for fire wood and to make charcoal. 

Isaiah is typical of many children growing up in rural West Nile.  Around 75% of pupils do not progress their education beyond primary school.  Indeed, despite Uganda having a policy to provide primary education for all children, between 10 and 20% of children in the West Nile do not attend school.  In many of the rural areas, it is not usual for children to have to walk 10km or more to their nearest primary school and the distances to the secondary schools are even greater.  Typically, in the rural areas, a secondary school will draw pupils from between 7 and 12 primary schools.

 In 2012, Isaiah was given a hive of bees but did not know who best to care for the hive or how to ensure that there were sufficient pollen giving plants for the bees.  After a couple of years, having had little honey to harvest from the hive, the queen bee left the hive and he lost his bees.

In 2015 he had an opportunity to attend a 6 week course at Adraa Agricultural College where he would be taught farming and horticultural skills to enable him to establish a sustainable homestead from the crops he grew and so give him and his family a sustainable income.

Whilst at Adraa, Isaiah was also given an opportunity to learn about bee keeping and started to understand how bees are a farmer’s best friend.  He learnt all aspects of bee keeping from building simple hives, to how to manage his land to ensure the bees have a good habitat to how to harvest and market his honey and bee’s wax.

After leaving Adraa, Isaiah returned home and started to establish his own bee keeping enterprise.  He built several hives and, applying the other knowledge he had gained at Adraa planted bee-friendly crops that would also give him a good income.  Isaiah also explained to his family and neighbours why it was not good to cut down trees or produce charcoal in an unmanaged way as this was harmful to the climate and land, as well as the bees.

Over time Isaiah shared his knowledge with other bee keepers in his area and also learnt more about bees from them.  They also started bulking the honey each of them produced to get better prices at market.

 Isaiah was also asked to teach other farmers about bee keeping by his local Sub-County and this gave him an additional source of income.  In 2015, Isaiah earned UGS 300,000 (about £75) from teaching.  His income from his bee keeping and farming gave him a total income of around UGS 1,800,000 (about £400) which is sustainably more than the average household income from farming of around £200 to £250 per year.

Isaiah is typical of many of the students attending Adraa.  The skills and knowledge the students gain whilst at the college enable them to learn how to make the best use of the land they farm, how to prepare the soil, which crops to plant and when, how to look after the crops, when to harvest them and how to store the crops to ensure the reach the market in good condition and so get a good price. 

Isaiah’s motto is

 

H + D ­– L = S

Hardwork + Dedication – Laziness = Success.