Catherine Namwezi - AFPF Summer Intern Reports from the Field

Patrick is leading a collaboration between URDT and international development group SNV to bring improved sanitation to Uganda’s rural areas. So far, 8,179 households who did not have latrines now have them through this project. By the end of this month, they expect to reach 100% of their goal and bring latrines to 13,975 households in this region, leading to greatly improved health for all of these families. Not only will this project greatly improve the health for all these families, but it will also promote local ownership of sustainable projects.

Now in her third year at Hope College in Michigan, Catherine and Professor of Statistics are collaborating with African Rural University on analysis of data in the field of Indigenous Knowledge Practices Among Small Shareholder Farmers. One conclusion they drew from their statistical model found the following among the groups they studied: a married female farmer aged 60 and above with secondary education who immediately sells her produce  has a 75% chance of being in the highest income group. We look forward to continuing to update you about this collaboration as it gathers more reportable results. Their work will not only inform the greater body of research on subsistence agriculture, but their work is also helping ARU to advance its data collection and analysis capacity.As a young women aspiring to be a rural transformer in my own community, I was immensely inspired by the impact URDT Girls’ School Alum Rose has had as a Changemaker in her own community.