I attribute the 8 education degrees in my family to JESE – Kaija Paul

My name is Kaija Paul from Matiri in Kihuura Sub County, Kyenjojo district. I started working with JESE as a farmer from the year 2000, when Kyenjojo was actually still part of Kabarole district. JESE came with its agenda that included transforming agriculture, environmental protection that included planting trees, Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), marketing of our farm produce, and how to improve sanitation and hygiene among others.

Those days, we used to get water for drinking from rivers and would be so dirty. As a result, typhoid cases got so high but when JESE came, they built for us boreholes and taught us how to boil the water to prevent typhoid cases. I remember very well how the cases of these diseases were reduced. Even when the schools were very few, they encouraged us to educate our children.

In the year 2002, they brought us cows and introduced zero grazing to us. They also brought us goats, which were imported from South Africa. Here in Kihuura, we were very lucky because we were the very first to have those goats in the region. These goats multiplied and they could be in the whole country now. On farming particularly, they taught us many good practices. In Kihuura here, we used to collect grass and burn it when clearing the fields for the planting season. But JESE staff stopped us from doing that. They told us that when we burn the grass, we reduce the fertility

levels of the soil. They told us to start burying the grass, and we did that. We were taught how to dig vertical and horizontal trenches to tackle soil erosion and other challenges. From that time, our harvests increased, and our incomes also increased.

They also brought us improved varieties of Irish potatoes and bananas and we started growing them on a large scale. On my side, I am so grateful and proud of JESE because of the transformation they made in my life. First of all, they gave me a cow which I looked after for a long time and I really earned so much from it. They gave us varieties of coffee, bananas and coffee which I still have up to date. By the time I met JESE, I had very young children who were just starting to go to school, but they encouraged me and showed me ways how I could educate them.

Right now, I have eight (8) degrees in my home. These include doctors, nurses, teachers, accountants among others. My last two children have just completed S.6 and they passed very well. All these were educated with money I earned from JESE interventions and advice. I have built a permanent and beautiful house and I have some means of transport now. I have never gone to the market to buy food for my family because we grow enough food here.

The five hectare of coffee that I have can enable me to harvest over 100 bags per season. That is really some good money in my advanced age now. During those earlier training, we were also taught how to integrate trees in our coffee gardens. I now have mango trees where I can earn over Shs 150,000 per harvesting season per tree. That is also some income for my family.