Roots of Tomorrow
Five schools, 3,500 students, gardens that produce real food. In Karamoja, growing the land is also growing the future.
The context
In the Moroto district of Karamoja, over 70% of the population lives in conditions of food poverty. One in a hundred children suffers from acute malnutrition. In this context, food is not just a basic need — it is also the condition that determines whether a child goes to school at all.
Climate change has made everything worse: prolonged droughts, irregular rainfall, unstable harvests. A situation that requires concrete, lasting responses.
The project
Casa Costa Foundation ETS supports Roots of Tomorrow, implemented by ISP in Africa, across five primary schools in the Moroto district.
The project is built around three simple things: train, grow, share.
One hundred students and ten teachers — two per school — learn sustainable farming techniques: soil preparation, natural pest control, harvest management and seed conservation. Each school creates two gardens: one using the techniques learned, one without — to measure the difference with their own eyes.
The goal is for each school to produce at least 250 kg of vegetables, integrating them into the school's food supply. Part of the production can be sold, generating income for the school itself.
At the end of the project, an illustrated booklet distributed to over 40 institutions across the district will make the model replicable by others.
Why we do it
Teaching farming in a context like Karamoja is not simply an agricultural intervention — it is an educational, nutritional and community intervention all at once. Students who learn to grow food become more resilient communities.
It is the kind of investment we believe in: one that transfers skills, not dependency, and that continues to produce results long after we are no longer there.
