Meeting Held (3rd ,june,2008)

Last Week’s Meeting(3^rd ,June,2008)

During last week’s meeting everybody was given an opportunity to share there experience about the trip to Nakasongola,Kiralamba village. Each of us had a different experience to share though some were cutting across.

Some students confessed that, what they saw that day is what they had expected to find.

However, I was amazed by the willingness of the farmers to change there way of life. They were open enough to say out what there problems were. Ranging from limited market for there produce to the problems that affect there crops during the growing season. I noticed how farmers were upset by this year’s mango season. All the mangoes that they were harvesting were rotten and suggested that they need help on how they should prevent there mangoes from rotting while on the trees. One farmer on by the names of Ssenkungu George Williams had harvested good mangoes. All the rest were buying from him.

After a recap on the trip, we had to remind our selves of each others name, and on this very day we were joined by a new member Anita.

SWOT Analysis:

Later on we were introduced to the SWOT Analysis. With this we identified out strengths, weaknesses, opportunities that we had and threats that were bound to come aboard.

SWOT Analysis Diagram .

From that the day’s discussion, I learnt that we ought to use our strengths to change our weaknesses into opportunities in order to over come the threats.

We listed down the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats as listed below.

Strengths include:

Ready to learn

Determination

Availability of resources

Exposure

Diverse

Team work

Weaknesses include:

Preconceptions and attitudes

Adaptation to the communities

Knowledge that is already possessed by we the students

Poor communication skills

Flexibility

Language

Opportunities include:

Initial contact

Transforming our theoretical knowledge into application

Hands on exposure

Dealing with knowledgeable people(farmers)

Learning experience

Changing peoples lives for the better

Interacting with people (getting new ideas and improvement on our communication skills.

Working with NGOs

Develop simple technologies

Appreciate ther peoples abilities

Availability of raw materials, resources, etc.

Working together (as faculties and students)

Threats include:

Scarcity of portable water

Season ability of crops

Energy increasing expenses

Perishables

Group dynamics

Harsh climate

>Accessibility of the villages

Products

We went ahead to identify the products that we were to produce from the crops grown in Nakasongola.

These are some of the products that we identified.

Dried vegetables

Dried fruits

Kassedde( Potato chips)

Weaning foods

Orange sweet potato Composite flour

Jam

Cassava flour

Baked products (bread, cakes, buns, etc.)

Juice

Energy bar

Groups Formation

Michael and Yusuf formed the groups and each was assigned to a marketing group that they will be working with.

The three groups that were formed are to operate with the following marketing groups:

Kawerinmide Marketing Group

Lwampanga Sub-County

Wajjala Parish

Save extension worker: Henry – 0772613605.

Irima “Out of School Youth Group”

Kalungi Sub-County

Parish: ?

Save Extension Worker: Magoba Sarah - 0782925955

Katugo Marketing Group

Kakooge Sub-County

Parish:?

Save Extension Worker: Atwongyere Adeline – 0782530191

However, the student groups don’t have names so far. I challenge them to choose names for there groups for easy identification.

The student groups were given a task of identifying 3-4 possible products they would like to produce using the crops possessed by the marketing groups they are to work with.

I will be sharing with yopu what my group will be working on next time. Please all group leaders just let us know what your group will be working on.

Good luck to every one.