Her EcoFishFarm(HEFF)

According to the  State of Uganda population report 2018,1.2 million youth(15-24) in Uganda are idle,they are neither in employment nor training or education.The report states that idle  female youth are almost 3 times higher than their male counterparts and this proportion was higher for youth in urban(17%) areas compared to those in rural area(12%).

Zion Ecofarms through HEFF empowers approximately 500-1000 female youth in urban and periurban areas of Uganda that are organised into savings cooperatives with information and skills on innovative,low cost,sustainable  farming methods through mobile agricultural clinics.

HEFF is an initiative designed to promote youth empowerment by supporting female youth engagement in sectors offering greater work hour flexibility such as innovative  fish farming.This initiative is aimed at increasing the incomes of these young women to lift them out of poverty,promote food security and protect our natural resources that are rapidly depreciating under effects of climate change,pollution and rapid urbanization.

According to the  State of Uganda population report 2018,1.2 million youth in Uganda between the ages of 15 and 24 are idle,they are neither in employment nor training or education.The same report states that the idle  female youth are almost 3 times higher than their male counterparts and this proportion was higher for youth in urban(17%) areas compared to those in rural area(12%). Despite many development partners having set up campaigns advocating for youth empowerment for example Youth Livelihood Program,they have not adequately been gender responsive and have therefore failed to overcome gender barriers associated with social norms especially lack of flexible training schedules to enable young women to fit participation around domestic and child care responsibilities.

Approximately 500-1000 female youth(15-29) in urban and periurban areas of Uganda organised into savings cooperatives are our direct beneficiaries.They will be actively involved as participants in our mobile agricultural clinics organised to empower them with information and skills on innovative, low cost, sustainable agricultural techniques, not labor intensive,are energy efficient and are coupled with in flexible training schedules that fit in these young women's domestic and child care responsibilities.Their active participation in these mobile clinics is geared at encouraging them to take up innovative farming technologies like aquaponics farming promoted under the HEFF initiative to boost household incomes as long term employment opportunities,promote food security and therefore address the gender barrier evidenced in various programmes promoting youth empowerment. 

Zion Ecofarms through the initiative Her EcoFishFarm(HEFF) empowers approximately 500-1000 female youth in urban and peri-urban ares of Uganda that are organised into savings cooperatives with information and skills on innovative,low cost,sustainable  farming methods through mobile agricultural clinics.Their participation in these mobile agricultural clinics is engineered at encouraging these youth to take up innovative farming technologies like aquaponics farming;innovative fish farming promoted under HEFF to boost their household incomes as along term employment opportunity,promote food security and address gender barrier evidenced in various campaigns promoting youth empowerment.

HEFF is an initiative designed to promote youth empowerment by supporting female youth engagemant in sectors offering greater work flexibility such as innovative fish farming and also designed to protec ting our natural resources that are rapidly depreciating under effects of climate change,pollution and rapid urbanization.

Through mobile agricultural clinics,female youth are empowered with information about innovative fish farming and other agricultural technologies that are energy effcient.HEFF encourages these youth to take up innovative fish farming known as aquaponics farming;an innovative land based fishing system where fish and plants grow together in a symbiotic relationship.In these clinics,youth are empowered with benefits of this fish farming which include space efficient locally sustainable food production of low resource requirements ,being environmentally and humanly healthy since it encourages purely organic farmimg and provision of long term employment.To crown it all, this farming is so energy efficient and requires minimal supervision and addresses the challenge of alck of flexible training schedules.

Aquaponics farming an innovative type of fish farmimg is a land based fish farming system where there si use of self sustaining renewable systems that do not require fertiliser for plants or fresh water for the fish.The water from the fish is filtered and recirculated by biological methods within the palnt.The freshly cleansed water is recirculated back into the fish tanks with the toxic watse acting as fertiliser for  the plants grown within the system.These systems when well balanced eradicate the costs of feed supplements,continuous employment and waste manaagemant providing high quality natural food products in high yielding quantities by purely organic farming.

In these mobile agricultural clinics organised by HEFF,we expect to generate interest among the female youth about aquaponocs farming as a short term outcome.The interest will be manifested as these youth approach us to guide them to set up these aquaponics farms and we encourage them to save up 1.5$ weekly in their savings cooperatives.HEFF is expected to support the female youth in their savings cooperatives to set up the aquaponics farms and support them with as much training and technical advice as possible till the farms reach the season of first harvest.At fisrt harvest female youth, gain produce which they sell in form of fish and vegetables which are on high demand because of the purely organic farming hence for being humanly healthy in this era of use of pesticides at all stages of farming in various farms in the country.A long term outcome we hope to achieve in this initiative is food security since these farms are self sustaining systems of low resource requirement,economic growth since they are along term employment opportunity for not only female but also male youth,women and refugees recruited under the initiative and environmental conservation since these systems to do not use any pestcides,herbicides and artificial fertiliser.HEFF we believe shall duly establish flexible training shedules for these young women and address the gender barrier associated with social norms that we identified as one of our reasons for bringing up this initiative.

Since 2018,HEFF has enabled 500 female youth in urban and periurban areas of Uganda organised into 10 savings cooperatives around Kamplala to attend our mobile agricultural clinics.In these clinics,they are empowered with information about innovative farming and its benefits.80% of these have approached us and invited us to set up these farms or them and we have gladly done so.

In the next 12 months, we expect to have reached out to about 20000 youth with these clinics and these will be empowered by fellow youth previously impacted under this programme who will be brand ambassadors.These brand ambassadors will be key reference success stories to empower fellow youth to join the initiative.

In 5 years time,we expect to reach atleast 2 million youth allover Uganda,we also expect to reachout to women in rural Uganda and refugee communities with not only innovative fish farming but other low cost susatainable farming methods and even incorporate other sectors under this initiative via mobie application as a substitute for mobile agricultural clinics.

In 12 months,to impact and empower 20000 female youth organised in savings cooperatives in urban and periurban areas of Uganda with skills and information about innovative low cost farming technology through our mobile agricultural clinics.

To support the female youth to successfully set up and manage fish farms under their savings cooperatives.

To successfully build this initiative from a prototype being tested in community to pilot level undertaken by several savings cooperatives for male and female youth and women in Uganda.

Our 5 year vision is to promote access to decent work for all women and men especially young people and reduce number of young people not in education employment or training under SDG 8.Under HEFF ,we intend potential of 2 million youth ,women and refugee communities in Uganda to thrive economically through use of mobile application as susbstitute for mobile agricultural clinics and establishing partnership with Goverment of Uganda and other CSOs involved in youth empowerment programs.

we seek to overcome financial barriers associated with organising these agricultural clinics achieve our goals within the next 12 months and 5 years and advance from a prototype to pilot stage ready for entry into the market.

we seek to establish partnerships with other CSOs that are involved in yotuth empowerment programs since we dont have these partnerships as yet.

We are seeking financial support for the initiative to achieve its goals for the next 12 months and 5 years and be able to support transition from prortotype to pilot stage.HEFF has potential to impact millions of ilves nationally and globally and we would be excited and grateful to explore this opportunity with Solve.

we are excited to work with partners already established and empowering women about aquaponics farming and other innovative farming tecnhologyespecially for those in rural areas of Uganda to share with us their success stories and technical expertise.

we also intend to gather feedback on this initiative from among youth already impacted this initiative in Uganda.

6 people

The brain child behind this initiative is a female youth,a YTT researcher under Restless Development Uganda,a TEF enterprenuer 2019,a university medical student and an orphan who has struggled to educate herself and her siblings through carrying out subsistence farming with little success despite Ugandas abundant soils and favorable climate.80% of the team promoting this initiative are female youth who have attempted similar ventres with little success and therefore have similar stories to tell..They have participated in youth empowement programs but couldnt meet their desires due to lack of flexible training scedules.They testify to having had less freeedom to engage in  economic activities as they also had housework to do.This team brings a wealth of experience having particicpated in other youth livelihood campaigns and are youth.therefore there is none other than fellow youth to support others through HEFF.

we are sourcing for support from the Government of Uganda through Ministry of youth and childrens affairs and other organisations supporting aquaponics farming in Uganda including Securing Water for Food.

Approximately 500-1000 female youth(15-29) organised in savings cooperatives in urban and periurban areas of Uganda are our direct beneficiaries.They will be actively involved as participants in our miobile agricultural clinics organised to empower them with  information and skills about innovative low cost sustainable energy efficient farming technology.The benefits of this type of fish farming include food security since food is produced al lyear round,being humanly and environmentally healthy since it is purely organic farming and a driver of economic growth since it is long term employment.To crown it all,its not labour intensive and allows for flexible training schedules. 

The impact of the initiative is measured by how many female  youth approach us to support them to set up thse units for their savings cooperatives and these later become brand ambassadors to motivate fellow youth not yet impacted under this initiative to generate their interest.

HEFF is the brain child of the youth,managed by the youth,and for the youth.We reach out to female youth by word of mouth through others that have been posititvely impacted under the program and have therefore had zero marketing budget.The fema le youth whomafter attending our mobile clinics are interested in the program are encouraged to save up 1.5$ weekly with in their savings cooperatives while we support them logistically and monetarily and use locally available resources to guide them, to set u ,monitor,their aquaponics farms til lthe fish and vegetables are ready for first harvest.The youth later pay back the cost of setting upthe farms for them only after successful set up,monitoring ,harvest and sales of first produce from the farm.The money we encourage the youth to save with their savings cooperatives is for continued running of the farms after we have officialy handed over running of these farms to the savings cooperatives.The money that we generate from the inititiave with one savings group is then used to support other savings cooperatives through the mobile agricultural clinics  and set up of their own projects.Our revenue has so far grown without a sales team and we believe it will  signficantly grow thorugh the next 5 yeras through delivering excellent services to the youth with more resources dedicated to this.

We are excited to become part of a network of organisations that are doing similar work to promote youth empowerment and overcome gender barriers associated with several youth livelihood programmes and expect to exchange support,advise and information.We believe that a global network such as Solve will help us meet and learn from potential partners with in Uganda,Africa and the world supporting innovations in agriculture and other sectors,to gather exposure since we are only based in Uganda.

Solve connections will be invaluable in ensuring access to resource requirements we ned to move to pilot stage including technical,financial ,resource and market exposure.

organisations involved in aquaponics farming both nationally and globally to share technical advise on how best we can advance innovative fish farming.

CSOs promoting youth empowerment both globally and nationally to share information on how best we can address the gender barriers associated with various youth empowerment programs.

HEFF as an initiative designed to promote youth empowerment will use
this prize by supporting female youth engagement in sectors offering greater work hour flexibility such as innovative  fish farming and they will be empowered
with this information via mobile agricultural clinics that will be
later transitioned into a mobile application as part of our 5 year
vision.This prize will also be used to cover costs of setting up the
aquaponics fish farms for these youth as HEFF aims to become an
independent non profit from our parent organisaton that happens to be a
for profit organisation..This initiative is aimed
at increasing the incomes of these young women to lift them out of
poverty,promote food security and protect our natural resources that are
rapidly depreciating under effects of climate change,pollution and
rapid urbanization.This initiatve also aims at creating flexible schedules with in which
these women can carry  sustainable economic activities and also carry out their domestic and child care responsibilities.

HEFF as an initiative designed to promote youth empowerment will use this prize by supporting female youth engagement in sectors offering greater work hour flexibility such as innovative  fish farming and they will be empowered with this information via mobile agricultural clinics that will be later transitioned into a mobile application as part of our 5 year vision.This prize will also be used to cover costs of setting up the aquaponics fish farms for these youth as HEFF aims to become an independent non profit from our parent organisaton that happens to be a for profit organisation..This initiative is aimed at increasing the incomes of these young women to lift them out of poverty,promote food security and protect our natural resources that are rapidly depreciating under effects of climate change,pollution and rapid urbanization.

This initiatve also aims at creating flexible schedules with in which
these women can carry sustainable economic activities and also carry out their
domestic and child care responsibilities.

HEFF as an initiative designed to promote youth empowerment will use
this prize by
supporting female youth engagement in sectors offering greater work hour
flexibility such as innovative  fish farming and they will be empowered
with this information via mobile agricultural clinics that will be
later transitioned into a mobile application as part of our 5 year
vision.This prize will also be used to cover costs of setting up the
aquaponics fish farms for these youth as HEFF aims to become an
independent non profit from our parent organisaton that happens to be a
for profit organisation..This initiative is aimed
at increasing the incomes of these young women to lift them out of
poverty,promote food security and protect our natural resources that are
rapidly depreciating under effects of climate change,pollution and
rapid urbanization.

This initiatve also aims at creating flexible schedules with in which these women can carry economic activities and also carry out their domestic and child care responsibilities.