As well as supporting a cluster of eight schools and communities in rural Uganda in partnership with Build Africa, Euroclear has just started to support a Farmers’ network, also run by Build Africa in rural Kenya. We’re currently out in Kenya, visiting the projects and hearing some of the inspiring stories from these people.

The farms are located high up in the mountains of the Rift Valley, and, until now, these farmers have lived a hand to mouth existence, at the mercy of flood and drought. This means that they are often unable to send their children to school or they take the children out of school to work in the fields. The Farmers’network was set up to encourage farmers to adopt modern farming techniques which can increase their yields and thereby provide a much better income.

The practices are put in place through officially recognised Community Based Organisations, where trainers demonstrate how modern farming practices can turn the farms from subsidence farms to small businesses.

Today we visited a farm where the farmer has a small dairy herd. Previously the cows were grazed along the roads, as the farmer didn’t own fields, where they became exhausted and produced poor milk. Now they are in stalls and fed specially made silage, produced from the maize stalks. The milk yield has doubled and the animals are in much better health. Not only that, but the cow dung is then used to create bio gas for cooking - so there is no waste.

It’s clear that by supporting the whole community, Build Africa ensures that parents are able to provide a decent education for their children, helping to break the cycle of poverty and increase the wealth of this isolated area. We are proud to be able to support such an excellent initiative.