Ochan Self-Help Alliance

Rojina’s neighbors, local citizens, and officials gathered  to witness  the official opening of  Rojina’s house.

November 2,2010. L-R Rojina, Mr. DK Ogwal, President of OCHAN, Prof.William Boto

The guest of honor, Mr. David K. Ogwal, was visionary in his remarks:  “today a new light in housing has shown the way for remarkable development in Opac and the entire Alebtong District.  We are ready to follow right away in the footpath of Ocan Agenne and its partner, Ochan Self-Help Alliance.”   This statement made OCHAN’s president smile broadly: it is his passionate dream  to  preserve the  environment and to provide more security by changing the type of houses people build not just in Opac but throughout Northern Uganda and beyond.  We hope Mr. Ogwal’s vision can be realized.

Rojina (in yellow scarf) stands with her 5 grandchildren and her daughter-in-law (in aqua dress next to William).

On the veranda of her new home, Rojina gave a brief heartfelt speech: “Many have asked me what I have done to deserve the gift of a house of this uncommon beauty with water supply on the door step.  My answer of joy is that I have dreamed many dreams of wonder in my entire life.  But the reality of a house that will outlast me and then take care of my lovely grandchildren was never one of them.  Despite my age and poverty that have affected my family life for the last three years, I learned a lot from this single God-given gift as the walls and roof grew steadily by day and night:  I wish I could just be like one of these people who feel so much for the suffering of my type no matter what our color, sex, age or their importance in society.  It is a message I want my grandchildren to remember as they enjoy the comfort of this house.”

What next in OCHAN’s eco-friendly housing project?  Raise funds  to build more of these homes for households made perilously vulnerable in direct consequence of war and displacement.  We invite you to join us in this effort with your compassionate gifts to OCHAN and then enjoy seeing the results posted on this blog.   (Costs: building house =$5,000: 2-door pit latrine with bathing stall = $818; rock slab rain-water tank = $ 545.)

In several recent blog posts (August 17, September 9), we have written about Rojina, about building her a house, and about the ISSB technology used in the construction of bricks.  Now, with the roofing, water collection system, and pit latrine in place, the home is ready for many years of  service to Rojina and her family.  Completion has come just when Rojina’s old home is collapsing due to rain, wind, and termite attacks. This good news would not be possible without the generosity of donors in USA, a one-year grant for the purchase of equipment, an eco-friendly brick maker manufactured by a Ugandan firm,  the vision and skill of OCHAN’s building contractor–Alfred Angel, and the labor of local youths training to become house-builders.

In this picture OCHAN’s President, William Boto, inspects Rojina’s new house which he calls a “signature core house”:  “core” because rooms can be added on one side as needed for more space when funds allow; “signature” because it is a model that is ecologically sustainable in this area of dwindling forests and increased climate change; it conserves water and addresses sanitation as well.  Through use of ISSB technology, described in detail in previous blog posts, no stripped tree limbs anchor the structure or are tethered as a truss for the roof, no trees are fed into ovens to fire-harden mud bricks, no bundles of dried spear grass (now scarce due to demand) are used to thatch the roof.  Instead, a foundation is dug and interlocking bricks are laid up to the gable level.  Cement and road lime are mixed into the bricks which allow them to harden in a matter  of hours.  Use of mortar is minimized due to the strength of the bricks’ configuration to interlock both horizontally and vertically.  Snakes will no longer find  ready access by slithering over the wall of this home, for there is no air space between the wall and the roof, unlike in traditional huts.

The water tank system optimizes rainwater collection in this semi-arid climate through the style of roof that supports gutters on four sides.  Rainwater flows into a tank made of two layers of rock slabs to seal water and keep it cool. Total cost of building and installation is $550.  This local money-saving innovation by OCHAN’s building contractor, Alfred Angel, beats plastic , corrugated aluminum, and regular brick tanks of comparable size (3,000 liters) at several levels: a) low  cost of  materials–about 50% price of plastic tanks; b) infinite durability and no risk of puncture, unlike water tanks made of plastic ; c) no rusting or evaporation of water through pores that characterize brick tanks; d) less costly to install , because rock slabs are already made locally thus eliminating transportation from commercial centers 25-225 miles away.  Of great practical significance is the fact that a family’s daily water collection chore, which generally falls to young girls in a household, will no longer necessitate her long walk with a jerrycan to a stream or bore hole.

Here, we see Rojina’s granddaughter in her school uniform at the new tank filling her jerrycan to carry just around the corner to the family kitchen before leaving for school.  Now she can be regularly on time for class.  Further, the family’s health will be protected by the use of clean water as will that of neighbors who may use it.  A full tank can last a family of four for up to six months.

The third attribute of OCHAN’s signature core house is a two-door pit latrine with a small room for bathing at one end.  It is so placed that Rojina’s family and neighbors will benefit from improved sanitation, the lack of which can cause debilitating diarrheal diseases.  An attempt to cut costs by refurbishing an old single pit latrine nearby was unsuccessful as its floor was unstable and crumbling, so the workers sealed it.  The cost of digging a new pit, building the walls, and roofing is $811, including labor.

Opac Village is no longer in Lira District due to redistricting.  Now in Alebtong, a newly created district the headquarters of which are not far from this home site, the village leaders and OCHAN hope to market this new type of housing to the district.  If the youths,  trained by OCHAN  to build Rojina’s house, are invited to build in the new district, they will be on their way to house-building careers.  For our housing project, youth development is one of OCHAN’s strategies to support peaceful resettlement.  Another is to continue, as resources become available, to build homes for the most vulnerable households.  In this village of extreme poverty, there are few local resources as yet for community development. The clan leaders of Opac have identified 25 households desperate for durable shelter.   Such help for the most needy fits OCHAN’s values and mission.  With continued support from our donors and readers, we can address two issues:  the human right to adequate shelter, and the use of eco-friendly housing to slow desertification due to the massive loss of trees  for rebuilding thousands of wood-based traditional huts in post-war resettlement efforts.

Planted in early March, harvested in late July, bagged and sold at a good price in August to Mukwano Group of Companies–a prominent cooking oil company in Lira, hundreds of acres of soybeans are now history.  Their monetary effects, however, continue to reverberate through Opac Village in school fees paid, medical needs attended to, supplies bought for the home, maybe a new cow on the courtyard, seeds for future planting in home gardens, and more varied food on the table.  Further, their husks renew the soil as fertilizer in preparation for the upcoming sunflower farming by Ocan Women’s Resettlement Group.  The story in pictures follows:

Leaves, maturing on the soybean plants, turn yellow in June

Soybean pods drying on their stalks in late June

The dried stalks are gathered and spread on tarpaulins in the courtyards to finish drying in early July.

Tarpaulins cover the drying soybeans when rain threatens.

Seeds are beaten out of their pods and...

...separated from their husks which are then piled at one side of the field for placement as soil fertilizer for the next cash crop, hybrid sunflower.

Sixty-nine bags of soybeans are sealed, weighed, and stored in a makeshift storage near the group field until Mukwano comes in trucks to pay and take their crop away to the processing plant in Lira, 25 miles away. For the first lot of approximately 9 tons of seeds, the amount paid to the farmers is Uganda shillings 5,883,200.  Farmers of individual extension plots are paid according to the kilogram weight of their harvest.  Although rainfall was clearly optimal in Opac Village this season, the crop yield is affected by other factors:  the physical ability of the farmer to till the land and weed it by hand hoe as well as plot size.  Income from the group farm is held until the members decide on its use in new development projects. 

 

 For the sake of transparency,  leaders of Ocan Resettlement Women’s Group at their final meeting on soybeans counted the group farm’s money together. Harriet Ocol, secretary, is seen holding up the full amount.  The leaders counted out a bonus for the hardest workers on the group farm, allocated a contribution towards retilling the land, and left shillings 1,500,000 to be deposited in a savings bank.  They also drafted By-laws to protect and govern their growing organization.  Further they decided that soybeans should be their first cash crop to plant next March based on its current cash reward in the open market and on standard methods of crop rotation. As farmers, they know what Michael J. Ssali reported (see below) on September 1, 2010, in “The Farmer’s Diary” section of the Daily Monitor, one of Uganda’s leading newspapers:

• Soybean is said to be the most nutritious food crop in the world.
• If government encourages its inclusion in people’s daily diets, the country could get rid of malnutrition.
• It is very much on demand since we (in Uganda) have so many factories and industries that use it as raw material.
• It has been a priority crop in all those countries that are today economic giants like the U.S., Japan, and China.
• Uganda has a high potential because it has the best soil for the crop’s production in Africa.
• Makerere University has produced disease-resistant and very good quality seed.
• The crop’s farm gate price is quite competitive and the crop matures in an average three months.

l-r: Bottom row: Sophia Omongo, Estella Elem, Jenti Ogwara, Keren Apio (Chairperson), Jimmy Ogwang (OCHAN Project Coordinator or farming and Reforestation.)  Middle row: William Boto (OCHAN President); Top row: Bonny Boto (OCHAN Vice-President), Yayieri Odur, Joci Okot (Treasurer), Harriet Ocol (secretary).

The leaders of Ocan Resettlement Women’s Group relax at the conclusion of their soybean meeting in early September.  Just beyond camera range, hybrid sunflowers are germinating along with, hopefully, another great story of a village working toward poverty eradication  and for their motto,kel kuc pacu (‘bring peace home’).

First, apologies to Rojina whose name was misspelled in our blogpost of July 30, 2010. Pictured here is the courtyard at Rojina’s compound which has turned into a worksite for the building of her new, durable home. 4,000 ISSB bricks made by Opac youth trainees under supervision, stand ready for service next to their brick-making machines. In the background a traditional home slumps while to its right a tree stands tall, perhaps sensing that this is its lucky day: it has been spared the ax as these ISSB bricks dry on their own in 4-24 hours due to their composition of cement, murrum, sand, and water. Gone is the the traditional method of hardening mud bricks through firing in an oven for days.

Rojina’s walls are now rising and one of the housing leaders in our project, Esther, is inspecting how these bricks interlock both vertically and horizontally for a tight fit that reduces the amount of mortar needed to bind them.

Closeup of one outer wall

Murrum for the bricks has not been dug in the courtyard, so no gaping depression will be left to adversely affect the environment; instead, it is extracted with permission from one of many government-owned murrum quarries used to mend the roads in the area. Pictured are the trainees along with OCHAN’s president, William, digging and loading quality murrum into our lorry.

Our lorry gets sand from a privately owned quarry a few miles away. OCHAN pays the owner by the lorry-load.

We hope our next blog on this project will be soon and present to you Rojina in front of her completed new house.

On July 11, OCHAN visited the tree nursery of Mr. Julius Odwe, who first introduced us to melia volkensii last summer in a visit to our project site in Opac.  He touted it as a great hardwood tree that could grow well in semi-arid zones, provide timber as a source of income after 10 years, and help to fight soil erosion and effects of climate change. Until this day we had no idea what a grown melia v. tree looked like.  We were treated to so many grown and aging versions that we went crazy taking photos and came away even more convinced of the tree’s value as well as its beauty.  We also learned that a local variety of this tree does not grow as straight as ones imported from Brazil which we saw on this day.  Learning that the soil melia  v. likes for germination contains, in ratios of 8:1:1, black soil, manure, sand will help us be more successful in germinating our seeds.

over ten years old trunk of a melia v.

tops have been removed to encourage growth of trunk's girth

We visited the home of one of Mr. Odwe’s relatives where the melia v. were stately and at least 10-15 years old. A youngster in the home nimbly climbed up one tree to get a sprig of seeds for us to carry back to Opac.  We once again thank Mr. Odwe for the hospitality and tour he arranged for us even though he could not be present due to pressing police business in Kampala.

Viewing new ISSB machines are l-r: Alfred Angel, OCHAN building contractor; Prof. Moses Musaazi, inventor of ISSB technology; Prof. William Boto, Pres. OCHAN

On July 14, 2010, thanks to the generous support of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Annapolis, MD and to a partnership with Technology for Tomorrow http://www.t4tafrica.com, OCHAN began training 12 youths of Opac village in the  casting and laying of Interlocking Soil Stabilized Bricks (ISSB) for low-cost housing.  The ISSB machine compresses a mixture of 95% murrum and 5% cement into bricks that hardens enough for use in construction within 24 hr.  OCHAN purchased two ISSB brick makers from T4T which also provided skilled personnel for the initial on-site training. 

First day at wrk-site: four housing committee members at front left with their chosen trainees near a mound of murrum ready for use.

The twelve youth  receiving  training are among countless young men and women of Opac who dropped out of school or were rendered illiterate and unskilled during years of war in northern Uganda.  House construction is one of several key avenues being developed by OCHAN to address the botomless needs of the idled Opac youth resettling with their parents in their ancestral village following restoration of peace in northern Uganda.  For an entire month the youth in training receive their breakfast (porridge) and lunch (beans and cornmeal) at the work site but return to sleep in their own homes.  With two ISSB machines, the youth are training to be able to produce up to 1,200 bricks a day.  The new core house is projected to consume close to 5,000 ISSB bricks in wall construction.  By definition, OCHAN’s core house comes with a two-door pit latrine and a built-in rain water collection system.

Regina (in white scarf) with grandchildren under the eaves of their current home.

Though OCHAN built a core house earlier this year for the clinic’s medical officer, the designated recipient for this first core house made with ISSB technology is Regina Ogwal, a 75-year-old widowed grandmother who is the caregiver for her 5 grandchildren.  Regina’s son, the father of the children, passed away 3 years ago; his surviving wife is debilitated by the same fatal infection.  OCHAN’s local Housing Committee of four community leaders, chaired by  Mr. Mia Omongo, made their final selection not only of the youth but also of the house-recipient who qualified due to the uncertain fate awaiting her young grandchildren should anything detrimental happen to her in future. Seven other finalists, all with profiles of extreme vulnerability of the young under their care and the pressing need for durable housing, will be considered as funding becomes available.

Esther, on the Housing Committee with Alfred and the two trainers from T4T examining the new ISSB machines on the first day

Opac’s need for ISSB training and use is high and only limited by the number of ISSB casting machines and construction materials available to OCHAN at this time.  OCHAN is also attracted to the ISSB technology because it addresses our mission of introducing affordable eco-friendly housing in this subSaharan region.  Helping to minimize depletion of trees, reeds, and grass normally used in firing conventional clay bricks and in construction of grass-thatched housing will lessen the pressure of a rapidly increasing population on this semi-arid enviroment.  Furthermore, ISSB bricks are economical, consuming substantially less cement in construction due to their interlocking nature. OCHAN can’t wait to see Regina’s completed home and to share photos of it with you.  Soon.

Women farmers of Ocan Resettlement Women’s Group asked OCHAN for soybeans to plant in the first three-month crop cycle of the three-cycle rainy season this year.  Soybeans add nitrogen to the soil which will help the second cycle planting of sunflower crop to grow well.  Additionally, once soybeans germinate, they prove resistant to drought.  Further, products from soybeans are many:  milk, oil, source of vegetable protein when added to food, sale for cash to help fund home needs.  Last summer, the women enthusiastically and unanimously agreed in their meeting with OCHAN  that they would greatly benefit  from being able to farm this crop both in their individual plots and in the group farm.  Donations to OCHAN made their wish come true.   Pictures below tell the story of March-May of this year.

#1

(#1) 200 women sign for and receive their 10 kilos each of seeds and…

#2

#2. carry them home.

After learning from agricultural expert provided by OCHAN about the benefits of planting soybeans in rows instead of broadcasting them, the farmers are sowing the group farm this  way in #3.

#3

#4

The young plants are taking hold in the soil (#4).

#5 the women weed the group garden.

#6

(#6) These lush plants will be ready to harvest when the leaves turn yellow in June.

Hope runs high for a robust result.  Stay tuned.

George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology, a public magnet high school in Towson MD, attracts students that not only have talent in the arts but spirits so large as to reach the other side of the globe to people in a small village recovering from effects of a protracted war that they were not a party to.

On March 5, OCHAN’s Bonny Boto (below left) made a presentation to Carver’s senior class about resettlement projects in Opac Village:  green commerce, housing, health care, reforestation.  Ms. Lisa Reid, math teacher and emcee for this event, led the discussion with the students on ways to support  Opac villagers.

Four prominent societies at Carver have dedicated time, effort, and treasure to OCHAN’s relief/resettlement efforts.  Last fall, the Student Government Association (SGA), with Ellen Owens as adviser, donated proceeds from their homecoming dance to fund construction of the first public pit latrine (pictured) for the village center.

The clan elders of the village made availability of public latrines a top priority for their citizens who had lived in the unsanitary squalor of IDP camps for years. This facility was completed in March 2010. The elders and the villagers are surprised and so thankful for Carver's support of such infrastructure. The school's name is not new to this village: it is carved into a plaque on the wall of a home built by the school's Literary Arts students two years ago for a needy family. Neither is Opac new to Carver: students first heard about OCHAN's work there through reports written in Carver's newspaper, Catalyst, over the past two years.L-R, Jim Owens, Ellen Owens, Bonny Boto, Carroll Cook

The school’s Envirothon/Environmental Club, with Jim Owens as adviser, has saved acorns from a favorite tree marked for destruction to make way for a new school building.  Members of this club have succeeded in germinating the acorns and hope to sell the “treelings” this spring, with proceeds going to OCHAN’s reforestation program to aid Opac’s economic recovery and to fortify this semi-arid environment in its fight against climate change.  Joe Javier, a senior at Carver and an avid environmentalist, has worked tirelessly not only to germinate the seeds but to outwit the wily squirrels.  Amnesty International Club at Carver, with Carroll Cook as adviser, supports this “green”project as well.

This April, The National Honor Society (NHS) held a benefit concert for OCHAN. Along with a presentation of OCHAN's projects in Uganda, students enjoyed pizza, live bands and solo performances. In addition, the SGA raised funds for OCHAN through a concession table at this event. The President of NHS accepted a bouquet of sunflowers from OCHAN in gratitude for the society's initiative, adviser Terry Holzman's support, and tireless organizing efforts by Jon Henricks as president, Gilbert Spencer as vice-president, and other officers.

Carver Center’s student organizations and their advisers who made the decision to partner with OCHAN in the restoration of human rights to victims of war have revealed much about the spirit and character of this student body and its leaders and faculty.  It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities (J.K. Rowling).

Have you followed the story of the former high school girl, Catherine Ajok, who, at age 13 in October 1996, was abducted from her school in Apac District of Northern Uganda by rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)?  While in captivity Ajok became one of several dozens of forced wives of Joseph Kony, the spiritual leader of LRA. He passed her on to  his  junior officer after impregnating her and replaced her with a more recent,  younger abductee.  In October 2009, Ajok was rescued in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo where the LRA is hiding  from international authorities under the thick canopy of Garamba Forest and continues its predations on local populations.  Ajok was brought back to her parents’ care in Uganda.  A remarkable part of Ajok’s story is simply that she  lived to tell it after so many years in captivity.  Hundreds of other young ‘silent victims’ of LRA were not as fortunate.  The bell of grief continues to toll for families of boys and girls still unaccounted for.

a young farmer in her field planted with sunflower crop given by OCHAN

OCHAN is in Northern Uganda to help war victims and their families reclaim their lives through improved health care, more secure housing, and green commerce to stimulate their home economy once again.  Introducing reforestation as a long-term means to safeguard the local environment from effects of a wood-based economy and climate change is OCHAN’s long-term commitment to their future.