Help Us Build Resilience — By 2030.
WANTED: collaborators i.e., everyone out there who believes in SDG #17 (Partnerships for the SDGs), be it individuals; people from academia; the philanthropic community, and those from the business world (especially those who are part of the UN Global Compact) to help the extreme poor in our region build some functional level of resilience, by 2030.
Let’s put the true definition of SDG 17 to use, in one rural poor community today. Help us leverage the power of collaboration to bring a lasting, self sustainable end to the yoke of poverty in our region by 2030. Afford us the chance to see a poverty-free world, for once.
My name is Anthony, a small farmer in a remote part of Kamuli, eastern Uganda. Like most people where I live, my life has been defined by chronic poverty, but I really want to see some lasting change. I am also founder of the UCF, a nonprofit social enterprise that you can read about on this website, and whose goal is to end extreme poverty.
HELP US BUILD RESILIENCE — BY 2030!
The coronavirus has impoverished the ultra poor in our region, like everywhere else.
But, long before this pandemic had shattered our livelihoods, many rural smallholder farming households in our region had historically lived in extreme poverty, in particular due to the absence of reliable markets for our produce. And right now, people like us simply have nothing to count on in the recovery process. This is because our only means of survival, i.e. agriculture, has itself long been synonymous with extreme poverty.
HELP US CHANGE THIS — BY 2030:
The UCF is seeking collaborators who may be able to work with us in any of the ways described below, to help us create a lasting solution to the key underlying reason that keeps every farmer in our region in extreme poverty — the absence of reliable markets for our produce — and thus enable the poorest rural farmers escape poverty by 2030.
THE INTENDED SOLUTION:
The solution that we need you to help us create is: an integrated agro-processing plant that shall both reverse poverty and create jobs in our region, by minimizing post-harvest food losses; creating new market linkages for rural poor smallholder farmers, and linking our produce with agri-value chains — like bakeries and confectioneries, biscuit makers & yogurt producers; bottling companies & breweries; paperboard industries & textiles, etc.
Note: we are seeking a threshold of $15m to get this plant off the ground. But, as described under “Funding Targets” in our current fundraiser for this plant (see link below), we will install a specific portion of this plant once the money we have raised is at intervals of $240k; $620k; $1m and $15m. That is, we will begin developing this plant once we only raise $240k, and complete it once we have raised $15m in total. That means, every little support that you can help us raise will make a strategic beginning.
HOW YOU CAN HELP — IN MORE GENERAL TERMS:
1). The UCF is looking for collaborators (be it individuals, businesses, nonprofits, Universities, etc.) who may be able to work with us in any possible way, whether that means embedding one or two people from your team, and placing them directly at the UCF in Uganda for 1 – 2 years (even if only intermittently), and then working together with us as ONE team from start to finish, to help us develop the intended plant.
2). The UCF has an online crowdfundraiser that is primarily intended to raise support for this plant. Please see that fundraiser here: https://gogetfunding.com/dear-humanity
We are seeking the help of some creatives, to help amplify this fundraiser via digital media, to enable us leverage the power of the masses to raise the needed support.
3). The prospect of raising $15m via an online fundraiser is purely contingent. We are very earnestly seeking a helping hand, e.g. from people in the business world, or those from the philanthropic community, to help us raise part of this money through their networks.
HOW YOU CAN HELP — MORE SPECIFICALLY:
1). Share our current fundraiser via social media, and be sure to contribute.
2). Place one or two people from your team directly at the UCF (once COVID-19 abates), and then work with us as ONE team from start to finish, to help us develop this plant — by sharing knowledge, and recruiting your network to lend a hand in any possible way.
3). For people from the philanthropic community, and those from the business world (esp. those who are members of the UN Global Compact) who believe in the possibility of meeting the SDGs through cross-sector collaborations, one way you could help is by chipping in, or rallying your network to help us raise a fraction of the needed funding.
4). In March 2021, the UCF became part of the Benevity Causes Portal. If you work for a company that is part of Benevity’s employee workplace giving and corporate matching gift programs, you can help us raise support for this plant by having your contribution matched by your employer. Search ‘Uganda Community Farm (Nabwigulu)’ on Benevity.
5). If you possess any hands-on skills that you could offer on a volunteering basis (e.g. as an industrial designer; food technologist, mechanical engineer etc), come and work with us on the ground in Uganda, to develop this plant, once the coronavirus has relented.
6). If you are someone who has no hands-on skills to offer (i.e. if you are an unskilled volunteer who would like to be part of us in developing this plant), there is a lot of work you can do, from carrying materials from suppliers, to keeping records. Come join in.
THE TECHNICAL PART OF IT:
Technical help on installing the whole plant; building market linkages, and advice on specific crop systems will come from TechoServe, SolarLabSU.com, Partners in Food Solutions, AfrII, Natural Resources Institute UK & specialized entities like Alvan Blanch.
To learn about where this plant shall be physically installed, or what its ownership will be, please hover over “Action Plan” on this website, and then go to “Plant Ownership”.
Help us put a sizable bet on 2030, today. Help us make 2030 the year poverty must end.
Anthony < anthony AT ugandafarm.org >
