Support Anthony's Sorghum Project to Fight Extreme Poverty

Note: This is a continuation of last year’s fundraiser, aimed at helping Anthony’s community in rural Uganda break the cycle of extreme poverty and build a path toward long-term self-sufficiency.

Thanks to many generous donors who contributed to Anthony’s organization, the Uganda Community Farm (UCF) received $3,710 from 33 donors. These funds helped equip Anthony’s team to provide sorghum seed, farming supplies, and agricultural knowledge to 72 local farmers for the summer planting season. The farmers then grew and harvested a total of 8,960kg of sorghum, which they sold to a brewery in Uganda’s capital (see photos below). This provided a cash flow to the participating small-scale farmers.

Thanks to the donations, the farmers were able to earn money to:

Last year’s second (fall) sorghum planting attracted over 100 farmers, as word of its success spread and many others were eager to join.

However, Anthony’s organization was only able to work with 32 farmers due to financial constraints.

Now, as this year’s spring planting season quickly approaches, UCF needs funds to continue their sorghum program and help the many interested farmers. The goal for this year’s fundraiser is $5,000, to hit and exceed last year’s mark and enable UCF to help more farmers and their families. This fundraiser is an opportunity to contribute to a grass-roots organization battling extreme poverty where funds are a limiting factor. No amount is too small.

How you can make a difference:

$15: buy sorghum seed, fertilizer, and pesticide for a farmer with a half acre plot

$60: buy sorghum seed, fertilizer, and pesticide for a farmer with a two acre plot

$40: a large 30 ft square tarp for post harvest handling

$100: one employee’s monthly salary

If you are not familiar with last year’s fundraiser, I’ve included a description of Anthony, UCF, and their sorghum program after the photos. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or comments.

Sincerely,

Steve

Photos taken by Anthony from last year’s first planting season: orientation, distributing seed, monitoring growth, harvesting, drying, winnowing, weighing, and collecting produce.

Anthony Kalulu is a remarkable farmer who lives in rural Eastern Uganda and very motivated to improve life for the local farmers, and he is doing his best in an area with extremely limited resources. I first found out about him through a viral Guardian article he published a while ago where he detailed the extreme poverty in his region and how top-down approaches to alleviate poverty hadn’t worked.

Until several years ago, Anthony often went days without food and people in his village still experience this today. Anthony is college-educated and worked as a math and science teacher from 2003-2011, but he lacked a reliable source of food with his meager wages. This led him to found the Uganda Community Farm (UCF) about a decade ago in his community to improve the economic situation there.

Almost everyone in his region are farmers who currently struggle to have cash-flow due to the lack of infrastructure to sell their farm produce. Because they make almost no money, they cannot buy equipment like fertilizer, bicycles, or farming tools to improve their earning potential - perpetuating a cycle of poverty.

UCF works with a distant brewery in the capital of Uganda which sells high-quality sorghum seeds and buys back the harvested crop. Sorghum is a grain that grows well in hot, dry climates and requires less water, making it ideal for the Ugandan environment. UCF provides these seeds at no cost to local farmers, buys back the harvest, and transports it to the brewery. With even a small cash-flow, the farmers can buy items such as soap or salt, and look forward to the next harvest 5 months later.

Anthony’s long-term plan for the organization’s self-sufficiency is to use a percentage of the sales to fund the organization’s operations, but this requires the program to grow. Currently, UCF primarily relies on donations and it struggles to cover costs for the farmers it supports: growing from 30 farmers in 2022 for the first planting after the pandemic to 72 farmers for the first planting of 2024. The program is currently not limited by farmers’ interest, but rather funds to cover supplies and operational costs. The organization operates on a tight budget that is used for planting seed, fertilizer, pesticide, farm tools like tarps and hand sprayers, several employee’s salaries, and fuel to use a motorbike to visit farms and for the occasional use of their dump truck.

After communicating with Anthony and donating to the UCF for two and and half years, I have seen that he is an incredibly hardworking and resilient person. Anthony has persevered for over 10 years and through numerous obstacles including the pandemic. Your contribution can make a huge impact on Anthony & UCF’s goal of reducing extreme poverty in their region in a long lasting way.

We are often bombarded with donation requests, but I think that the Ugandan Community Farm is rather unique in its grass-roots structure with a deep knowledge of local needs, a clear short-term plan in need of donation support, an opportunity for long-term self-sufficiency, and an important mission to address the pressing problem of extreme poverty.

This is an incredible opportunity to improve many family’s lives. If you want more details on how the money is helping, Anthony posts updates on the UCF website . In addition, please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.

Note: Due to GoFundMe restrictions on international payments, the funds will be transferred to my Bank of America checking account and I will use Remitly or an international wire (whichever is cheaper at the time) to send an international payment to Anthony in Ugandan Shillings (UGX). If you wish to send money to Anthony directly yourself via an international payment service, please see the bank details at https://www.ugandafarm.org/support-us/.

Note: UCF is registered with Benevity, which enables employer-matched charitable donations if your company uses Benevity (including Google, Visa, John Deere, UPS).

Note: GoFundMe charges a 2.9% + $0.30 fee for each donation but allows donation with credit cards, so you can get much of that back (e.g., CITI Double Cash gives 2% cash back, for example).