Community Empowerment Programme (CEP) was a 3- year programme which was implemented from July 2011- April 2014.TheProgramme Had 4 major Components, namely; school gardens, school WASH, Community WASH and civil Society Organization (CSOs) Strengthening.

Hear International (HI) however mainly focused on school gardens in 13 primary schools and 520 households in Ajia and Okollo sub-counties in Arua district, Uganda.

A school garden is an innovative teaching tool and strategy that lets educator’s in-corporate hands-on activities in a diversity of interdisciplinary, standards based lessons. The garden engages students by providing a dynamic environment in which to observe, discover, experiment, nurture and learn, It is a living laboratory where lessons are drawn from real- life experiences rather than text book examples, allowing students to become active participants in the learning process. Through the garden, students gain an understanding of ecosystems an appreciation for food origins and nutrition, and knowledge of plant and animal life cycles, at the same time, they learn practical agricultural skills that last a lifetime

The purpose of the garden at school was to enable increase in food security through adoption of improved agronomical practices leading to increased productivity and incomes at household level; secondly, to improve quality of education at primary school level through effective participation of parents in school activities.
At the center of the school garden initiative was parental involment in school activities. With the introduction of Universal Primary Education (UPE) in Uganda, There is a feeling that schools were taken over by government. Thus, parents hardly go to school to follow up on the learning of their children. The involvement of parents in decision making and supporting the school managers has also gone down. In part the low participation of parents in school activities contributes to the poor performance of pupils in schools. The School garden initiative aimed at bringing parents back to their schools.By coming to work on the school garden , parents take the opportunity to observe, discuss and ask critical questions regarding the well being and learning environment of their children. With guidance from Hear International (HI), the parents were able to discuss, make decisions and take action on critical issues to improve the learning and performance of their children.

Thus the school garden among others served to;

• Increase community Participation and sensitivity to activities in specific schools.
• Provide an opportunity to parents to discuss issues that affect performance of their children and take appropriate action.
• Improve primary school retention rates.
• As a result of the impartation and hands on learning of good agronomic practices there was increased adoption of good agronomic practices and innovations in communities.
• As a further result of good agronomic practices, and replication of learning from school to the community gardens and improved yields there was increased access to and availability of food to rural households
• There was access and exposure of the pupils, teachers, parents and community to best agronomic practices and advice and this led to improved community‘s access to quality extension services.
• The community got involved in collective marketing by the different functional farmer economic groups

However, garden- based learning drew upon locally adopted crops and local resources, promoted indigenous techniques and adapted approaches to local conditions. Principles of environmental sustainability, especially soil and water conservation was promoted.


In some cases, controlled use of synthetic agro chemicals was employed, provided that the older pupils, teachers and parents were trained properly in their safe use.


Project was supported and funded by;


• Netherlands Development Service (SNV)
• The Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherland (EKN)
• UNICEF
• Government of Uganda