By Ritah Mukasa
Angel Mutoni is a trainer. She works with over 300 farmers in Nakivale refugee settlement in Isingiro district.
She helps them set up gardens in their homes using regenerative farming techniques.
Mutoni says she is passionate about her work and does not regret switching aspirations; from wanting to be a doctor to being an agriculturalist.
The 20-year-old is a refugee from Congo DRC. She moved to Uganda in 2019 after completing her A levels in Rwanda.
“I was born and raised in Ninembwe town in Congo,” she says.
Mutoni left her home in 2013 to study in Burundi but insecurity forced her back home after her senior two. In 2015, she joined her maternal auntie in Rwanda and stayed there for four years until she completed her A levels in 2019.
However, while in Rwanda, war broke out in her hometown in Congo, forcing her parents and seven siblings to flee to Uganda.
They settled in Kashojwa B village in Nakivale refugee settlement.
Mutoni joined them in 2019.
However, for two years, she sat at home doing nothing. Her parents were financially incapacitated to send her to university.
“My parents lost their wealth in Congo. They are now jobless and sick,” she says.
Meanwhile, in 2020, Mutoni started growing local vegetables, maize and beans at home. She spent most of her free time in her garden and as such, it looked different. She says, since childhood, she loved farming.
Because of her well-kept garden, Noah Ssempijja, the founder of Youth Initiative for Community Empowerment (YICE) a community based social enterprise enrolled her as a volunteer trainer.
“I trained for two months in regenerative agriculture which is a farming system where you farm while conserving the environment,” she explains.
After, she started training farmers and helping them to start and sustain their gardens.
Mutoni works with a team of four trainers and agronomists.
“We promote food security, regenerate biodiversity and achieve climate change adaptation all while improving farmers’ incomes,” she adds.
Mutoni also trains farmers in permaculture, water harvesting, irrigation and making organic manure and fertilizers.
“We equip them with practices that enable them to produce food in a sustainable and eco-friendly way, throughout the year,” she says.
Her farmers are spread out in villages including Kashojwa A, B, C and D, New Hope, Kigali, Kabazana A, B, C, Kasasa, Misera, Nyarugugu A, B, C and D, Sudan, New Congo and Sangano among others.
How they work
Mutoni says, from Monday to Saturday, her team visit farmers and helps them.
“Farmers mostly women love vegetable farming. Families are assured of food availability, good health and income,” she says.
According to Mutoni, over 300 families are benefitting and they enrol more every day.
“I earn sh200, 000 monthly plus other allowances. I can ably look after my parents and siblings,” Mutoni says.
She also maintains a healthy garden at home. She grows and sells ntula, eggplants, green pepper, hot pepper, carrots, sukumawiki and spinach among others.
She is saving for university education.
“I want to pursue a degree in agriculture and thereafter, dedicate my life to helping refugee farmers to live happy lives through farming,” she says.
