Title: Growing food sovereignty: 50 gardens for Kampala refugees and natives

Summary: Over eight months (Aug 2026–March 2027), this project will co-create 50 Regenerative Life Gardens (RLGs) across 10 urban communities in Kampala, training 25 local volunteers as a neighborhood support team to grow food, mitigate climate change impacts, and sequester carbon in the courtyards, schoolyards, and backyards of migrants, refugees, and locals.

Problem and community need:

The climate crisis is one of the greatest threats to humanity. While we are all victims, we are also contributors, and thus, all responsible for solutions. However, the reality in Sub-Saharan Africa is complex: communities, especially urban and refugee populations, face intersecting daily crises: food insecurity, poverty, malnutrition, waste mismanagement, and loss of livelihood. In such a context, climate action is often a distant concept.

Kampala’s informal and low‑income neighborhoods host many internal migrants and refugees who struggle with unstable income, high food prices, and limited access to safe growing space. These same communities are also on the frontlines of flooding, heat, soil degradation, and other climate change impacts, yet they have little access to practical, locally appropriate climate solutions and more so, food sovereignty. They cannot grow their own food, they cannot afford organic produce, and the chemically grown vegetables arriving from distant supply chains are neither fresh, safe, nor affordable. Meanwhile, kitchen waste piles up in streets, idle compounds sit unproductive, and soils — where soil exists — degrade season by season.

What we heard from the community:

As part of RLG pilot project run between July 2025 and January 2026, on 20 December 2025, the RLG team convened 29 representatives from 11 Ugandan and refugee communities in Kampala for a Community Needs Assessment using the FLOWER tool of the Multisolving Institute and visioning under the mentorship of Elizabeth Sawin (see website: https://rlgearth.com/when-29-people-imagined-a-better-future-together/ ). 

62% were refugees. 52% were women. We asked them to imagine their communities five years from now. They did not imagine handouts. They imagined gardens. Income. Fresh food. Dignity. Participants identified three top interconnected needs (out of 8) they believed Regenerative Life Gardens could help meet for them: “Jobs and livelihoods”, “Health and well‑being”, “Food and water sovereignty.” This project is the answer made real, in the lived experience of the people of Kampala.

After the event, 19 of these 29 participants formally registered as volunteers, signaling strong readiness to co‑create and steward RLG activities going forward. What they asked for was not charity food drops or occasional donations, but support to build resilient systems where they can take ownership and first-hand decision making: reliable access to fresh food and vegetables, modest income streams, and healthier micro‑climates around their homes and public spaces.

Solution: Regenerative Life Gardens (RLGs)

Regenerative Life Gardens are compact, climate‑resilient, multi‑layered gardens that convert unused or degraded space into highly productive growing systems using regenerative practices. They integrate composting, vertical planting, biochar, household waste, and grey water design to produce vegetables, fruits, and herbs while maximizing space, rebuilding soil, and storing carbon.

RLGs are specifically designed for dense, low‑income urban contexts, where households may only have a small yard, a narrow corridor, or a school courtyard. It requires no synthetic inputs. It integrates biochar for long-term carbon sequestration. It supports soil microbiomes, pollinators, and indigenous crop varieties like Dodo and Nakati. A single well-maintained RLG produces fresh organic vegetables for up to three years. Because they are modular and use locally available materials, they can be replicated quickly once the design, skills, and local supply chains are in place.

In line with the Needs Assessment report and our aim to meet the top needs of the people and beyond in Kampala communities, our project proposes to:

1. Establish 5 RLGs in each of 10 communities (50 RLGs total), hosted by vulnerable households and school yards identified through the needs assessment process.

2. Train and pay a cohort of 25 community members (including the volunteers who stepped forward) to become local agents of change, further integrating as RLG’s “support team” who can build, maintain, and document garden impacts across their assigned, respective communities while supporting their direct needs for jobs and a sustainable source of income.

3. Strengthen the resilience of the community members, especially the refugees, low-income earners, and those who experience food apartheid and barely meet their daily nutritional needs.

Objectives and outcomes:

Our overall objective (between August 2026 – March 2027) is to build a community‑owned micro‑network of 50 Regenerative Life Gardens that simultaneously improves food sovereignty, creates livelihood opportunities, and captures carbon in 10 Kampala communities. Every RLG includes a central composting station where kitchen and community waste becomes food again. We produce and apply biochar on-site. Vegetable surpluses are sold at affordable rates through our “Regen-Basket programme,” already operational. 

Objective 1: Jobs and Livelihood:

We aim to train the 25 community members in RLG construction, biochar production, basic gardening skills, nutrition, income generation, climate literacy and action, and cooperative network building. To record timely progress and results, we will assign two (2) to each of 10 communities (1 community; 5 RLGs), under the guidance of the founder. Volunteers who set up the gardens receive stipends for their labour. This will encourage division of labor, close-community garden monitoring, and community-by-community reporting. This will support host households and refugees to generate income from the sales of surplus produce and related micro‑enterprises (seedling sales, compost, biochar, or value‑added products), using simple cooperative principles. Similarly, the 25 trained community members can apply the knowledge and skills in replicating similar gardens and even enlarge their reach across other unreached Ugandan communities.

Expected outcomes by March 2027:

1. 25 trained and compensated community members with new technical and facilitation skills.

2. At least 50 host households able to save some money from buying expensive, stale foods and vegetables, access to nutrition straight from the source, and generate small but meaningful income from their gardens (for example, sale of surplus greens, or small side businesses).

Objective 2: Health and well‑being

We aim to support each RLG to grow a diverse mix of nutrient‑dense crops (green leafy vegetables, tomatoes and peppers, herbs, and other staples) suited to household preferences and local diets. Similarly, we will use the demonstration hubs to host practical sessions on safe composting, household waste, and water hygiene around and at the center of the gardens.

Expected outcomes:

1. Increased regular access to fresh vegetables for at least 50 households within 10 communities, contributing to improved diet diversity.

2. Community‑led health and hygiene messages delivered through garden gatherings rather than one‑off workshops.

Objective 3: Food and water sovereignty

We look forward to co‑designing each RLG with each host community, so they choose their preferred crops, location, and watering approaches that fit their realities. We also hope to test small water‑saving techniques (mulching, greywater management where appropriate, water harvesting where feasible) and wastewater purification and application in watering RLGs.

Expected outcomes:

1. Stronger local control over a portion of the community food source, with gardens tailored to local taste, culture, and water constraints/availability.

2. Documented examples of how small‑scale regenerative design can increase resilience in crowded urban settings.

3. Reduced waste in the communities

Community ownership and equity

This campaign is built on a process that communities have already shaped through the  Needs Assessment and the FLOWER multisolving exercise. The 19 volunteers who registered are not external staff; they are residents - Ugandans and refugees - who live in the very neighborhoods where the RLGs will be established.

Key practices to ensure equity and ownership:

Co‑design of each garden: No RLG is “dropped in.” Each host community co‑decides what they want to grow, how to integrate with existing responsibilities, and who in the household will lead.

Local monitors as leaders: The 20 community monitors (the 19 and the RLG founder) will be the primary face of the project in their neighborhoods, with the founder serving as the coach, data coordinator, and technical backstop.

Focus on marginalized groups: Priority for host sites goes to urban migrants, refugees, and low‑income households and schools that have limited access to land, formal employment, and stable food sources.

Documenting benefits using FLOWER: The project will use the FLOWER framework at the beginning and end of the 8‑month period to visually document co‑benefits and who is receiving them.

For Ma Earth, this means the funding amplifies an existing, community‑derived roadmap instead of importing an external blueprint.

Activities and timeline

Pre-launch (August): Community outreaches and site selection

1. Raise Awareness and sensitize host communities 

2. Site identification, assessment, and selection

3. Community members’ engagement

4. Local authorities’ engagement

5. Reporting and storytelling

September - November 2026 – Phase 1

The first phase of the project will involve training the volunteers and simultaneously preparing the growing medium for each community. We will:

1. Refresh and deepen training for 25 community members, equipping them with (hard and soft) skills on RLG design, soil fertility building, biochar use and application, composting, teamwork and collaboration, etc.

2. Secure and pre‑position local materials (timber, soil amendments, seed stock, tools).

3. Prepare charged biochar: produce and apply biochar at all RLG sites. Document quantity applied per garden (kg) for carbon sequestration tracking.

4. Collect organic waste in the community and prepare compost manure through composting.

5. Prepare and amend the soil. 

6. Prepare compost teas.

7. Record so we can report the story.

December 2026 - February 2027 – Setting up 50 RLGs - Phase 2

In the second phase of the project, we will build and plant 5 RLGs in the 10 communities, led by the local monitors, other neighboring volunteers, and the founder. Altogether, we will:

1. Hold short, practical community build‑days where neighbors help and learn, using the existing demonstration hubs as teaching anchors.

2. Start basic tracking of inputs (labour, materials) and early observations (soil condition, plant vigour, participant feedback, etc.).

3. Procurement of materials.

4. Establishment of Five RLGs in each community.

5. Record so we can report the story.

March 2027 – Garden Maintenance and Reporting - Phase 3

1. Community monitors conduct regular visits, problem‑solving with households and schools, and documenting stories, photos, and simple indicators (harvest quantities, sharing or sales, observed climate benefits like cooler courtyards) following the FLOWER petals.

2. Repeat the FLOWER exercise with community representatives to map observed co‑benefits and guide next steps.

3. Prepare a short, community‑voiced report and visual story bundle that can be shared back with Ma Earth, partners, and local stakeholders.

4. Preparation of pest control products, Watering, capturing and reporting garden improvement.

5. Maintenance

6. Harvesting

7. Waste management

8. Watering

9. Income generation (sales of surplus through Regen-Basket)

10. Reporting and storytelling

Budget narrative (target: $12,780 USD)

The budget below assumes 10 communities, each with 5 RLGs (50 total). One RLG costs approximately $170 in local materials and facilitation, leading to a base project cost of $8,506. Training and capacity building cost approximately $1,643. Community‑led storytelling (budget for local media capture, printing of FLOWER diagrams, and sharing sessions) costs around $2,630. Please look at the budget sheet and timeline document attached for detailed breakdown and explanations.

It is important to mention that any additional funds raised locally or through other partners will extend monitoring in 2027 and support replication of RLGs beyond the initial 50.