Food Sustainability: For Uganda’s People and the Planet

“I never imagined my life would cycle back to farming. And although I did not become a medical doctor, I see myself instead as a hunger doctor!”

– Paul Zaake

From a very tender age, I learned how to farm. The techniques had been passed down to me from previous generations, including my grandmother who knew well how to farm using available resources.

Therefore, it was never an expectation for me to go to school to learn farming. “I want to become a doctor,” is what I can recall telling everyone who asked when I was young. However, when I spent my first school term sitting at home because we couldn’t pay school fees, I knew my dream of becoming a doctor was shrinking.

Fortunately, Children of Uganda welcomed me to their sponsorship program and I was able to join the prestigious village school called Sabina Primary Boarding School. I remember, after getting my first school report card, I was discouraged to find myself among the last pupil in my class by position. With support from sponsors, we all studied for free – so I felt there was no reason for my poor performance in school anymore.

We lived like a family at school with teachers and pupils. I saw many talents developing in my friends, including sports, singing and dancing. I never thought I was talented because I was not strong in any of these areas. So, I knew I had to read hard to earn my place. I started reading anything – school books, novels, newspapers, textbooks and the Bible. In fact, I was soon chosen to represent my school in Bible reading during competitions.

Maybe reading was my talent! It was a super blessing for me to emerge among the top two in my final primary leaving exams. This meant I would be offered an opportunity to study for free at the secondary level and again at another prestigious school in Kampala.

In my village, we all knew that good and valuable things came from Kampala. So, we all grew up believing that Kampala was the land of opportunities. Studying in Kampala during that time brought me so much satisfaction and pride. My secondary education was incredibly joyful mostly because of the people – my teachers, fellow students and friends.

During this time, my bond with my sponsors (now my American family) also grew much stronger thanks to the frequent and touching letters, photos and emails we exchanged. Sadly, one of my co-sponsors named Levin Herb died before I even got his photo – but he is still on my mind because of the love he shared with me. I’m grateful that I still correspond with my longtime sponsors, Georgia Ward and Rita Roitman, in addition to their wonderful families and friends. It is amazing and lovely how the journey of sponsorship grows into family. I hope one day we will write a book based on our letters over the years.

With the love, care and support of my American family, I finished my Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture at Gulu University in Gulu, Uganda. I began working with different grassroots efforts to empower rural farmers in Uganda to gain more skills and knowledge to improve their livelihood. I even co-founded a community-based organization called Rakai Environmental Conservation Programme (RECO) to improve agriculture and promote environmental conservation in my local communities. Many know that starting a new initiative is not easy; so, I struggled to manage and mobilize resources for RECO. Fortunately, however, I received training in civic leadership from the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI-EA) which was founded by the former USA President, Barack Obama.

My confidence grew, but the more I learned the more I understood the greatest challenge facing us all: climate change. A few months after I had the opportunity to present about climate change in France, I got a scholarship from TRECCAfrica to further my studies on climate change. I’m proud to say that very soon I will be graduating with my Master’s degree in climate change from the University of Nairobi, Kenya.

Now, I am no longer just a son of my village – I am a son of the world. At the regional level, in my capacity as the YPARD Country Representative, I have helped empower youth in agriculture together with our partners. As new problems arise and technologies are developed to combat them, we must equip farmers with the knowledge and resources to solve these issues. In order to do this, we need better policies, charters and frameworks. At the global level, I have contributed to the development of the Berlin Charter on rural development and presented at the G20 conference amidst other global change makers in Berlin, Germany.

I never imagined my life would cycle back to farming. And although I did not become a medical doctor, I see myself instead as a hunger doctor!

And looking back on my life to find a common denominator to my success – I see it is education. The support I received from Children of Uganda and my devoted sponsors afforded me so many opportunities that I otherwise would not have had. Without the visible and invisible hands that supported me, I would probably be nobody. This is the reason why I always continue to pay it forward in any way possible and as much as I can.

You can follow Paul’s food sustainability and environmental conservation efforts here:
https://twitter.com/zaakepaul