Inspire me. What does this mean? When I understood it, I wondered how perfectly I can say it.
These are my thoughts as I moved from school to school and looked at the face of these beautiful learners. During the teacher visits I really got an insight on what really happens after teacher training. The busy schedule of running around schools that are miles apart. Why all this, at last I understood the mission, improving the quality of education is vital for community resilience towards every day challenges like food security, It’s about the impact on every district, every school, the hundreds-thousands of learners who get to receive quality Agricultural education that supports the back bone of this beautiful country Uganda.
These students, our future generation and I felt deep within me I was obligated to share with them something well composed that was fun enough to keep them interested and most importantly inspire them to become the future of agriculture for this country Uganda. So as a team we spoke and shared with the learners concerning various aspects like on the endless opportunities in studying the subject I told them the subject is able to accommodate most of their passions from engineering to economics and animal science, we all have a space to fill. We continued to talk about goals, encouraged each one, of them to choose a career goal and work towards it. We talked about employment and I said with this knowledge (agriculture) the first employer is self-employment and a long list of agencies ministries farms, schools and universities who will always want to hire agriculture experts/professionals in the different fields. I told them I would be happy to meet them in future when they can testify on the benefits, I also continued to tell them it was good to work and contribute directly to food and nutritional security together with economic development. Not forgetting that they could still carry on with their different career objectives and do agriculture on the side.
As an agriculture teacher I used different approaches for every class every school of how we started and covered the career talks with learners, some were very enthusiastic there by participated actively, some learners already had career objectives and a few had made some research about the possible opportunities in agriculture. With the team we also had question and answer session to allow learners inquire more concerning their issues and topics we had covered earlier, and everyone was glad to answer to these questions. And by the time we left I believe the learners were happy and inspired since was a young person who shared about myself and how I got around.
Our mission as Field of Hope obligates us to inspire youth to develop interest in agriculture, who get to receive knowledge and skills that give them food security and jobs. People like us employed by Field of Hope inspire and guide them about the wonderful futures that await them so that we can foster food and nutritional security together with economic independence in the long run there by we passionately promote youth agricultural education in rural the communities of Uganda. Lastly I believe that Field of Hope as an organization may not provide food but rather seed that will secure the future of food security for millions of Ugandans–for generations to come.
-Akwero Hilda, FOH Volunteer ’23
