Katakwi Integrated Development Organization helps HIV/AIDS Widows

By Jim Zylstra ~ January 2012

 
Warm greetings from Mukono,

Uganda is now in the midst of dry season, with hot and hazy conditions, leaves dropping from the trees, and grass withering. The landscape is looking desolate, but we are thankful that the good harvest in the second season of 2011 means better food and income for the majority of Ugandans who depend on farming for their survival and for those who rely on these farmers for their food.

We and our Ugandan partners work primarily with subsistence farmers. Subsistence farming is defined as, “a form of farming in which nearly all of the crops or livestock raised are used to maintain the farmer and the farmer’s family, leaving little, if any, surplus for sale or trade.” This is the reason why so many of our programs focus on raising income through agriculture and working toward food security in the communities we serve. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations defines food security like this: “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”

Most of the people we serve with our HIV and AIDS response programs are subsistence farmers, and the health effects of the virus make earning a living this way even more difficult. But persons living with HIV who are reasonably healthy or have healthy family members can benefit from agricultural assistance, even though they may have been left out previously because of the assumption that their poor health excluded them. This is just one reason that adding an agricultural component to HIV and AIDS programs can make a lot of sense.

As part of one such program, the widows in the Amilimil HIV and AIDS support group received young cows through CRWRC partner, the Katakwi Integrated Development Organization (KIDO). The group has 20 members, ten of whom received a heifer in 2010. Each recipient is paired up with another group member who then receives the first offspring of the cow. One member had to sell her cow to pay the cost of life-saving medical treatment, and the group is working out how to replace it. Seven of the remaining nine cows have calved, and group members are now drinking fresh milk. As the herd grows, the cows have the potential to provide not only milk but also income for the group through sales of milk and offspring. And as the herd expands, the group will reach the point where they will be able to pass along ten heifers to another group of widows and in this way expand the gift.

About Jim Zylstra

Jim serves as CRWRC consultant to the Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG) church in Uganda.

He is team leader of the CRWRC Uganda country team.

Jim is the son of a pastor in the Christian Reformed Church. He began his work with CRWRC as a long term volunteer, first in eastern Kentucky (1977 – 1978) and then in downtown Los Angeles (1978 – 1979). He then went to the CRWRC Haiti program and served as field director (1980 – 1984). 

After some years in the US, Jim returned to CRWRC in 1995 when he participated in the Rwanda disaster response program following the 1994 genocide. He then went to work in Burundi for the Dutch organization Dorcas Aid, heading Dorcas Aid’s relief and rehabilitation program for persons displaced by Burundi’s ongoing civil war. He returned to CRWRC in 1999 to manage the Rwanda community development program. In 2000 Jim joined the CRWRC Uganda team.

Jim is married to Josephine Iyongat. He has two adult sons - Josh and Jordan.

EMAIL:  jzylstra@crwrc.org