By Melanie Joyce Nabukwasi - August 2025
August 2025 was a landmark month for Elgon Sita Honey Coffee Dealers Ltd as we successfully rolled out the first phase of our sustainable coffee farming training in Masaba and Buhugu Subcounties, Sironko District.
With the generous support of the Youth Empowerment Fund, this youth-led initiative empowered over 100 women and girls with practical farming knowledge, essential tools, and vital resources to strengthen their livelihoods through coffee.
For many rural women, coffee farming represents more than a crop—it is a chance at financial independence, community resilience, and a better future for their families. Yet, challenges such as limited access to modern farming practices, pests, and poor soil management often hold them back.
This training aimed to close that gap by equipping participants with hands-on skills in:
Unlike lecture-based trainings, participants went straight to the field for practical demonstrations—working directly in the gardens to sharpen their techniques.
Beyond the hands-on sessions, we divided participants into groups for interactive discussions where they reflected on their challenges and brainstormed innovative solutions. These group reflections created a space for peer-to-peer learning and built a strong sense of collaboration among farmers.
To make the training impactful beyond the classroom, each participant received coffee seedlings, hoes, and other essentials to put their new skills into practice immediately. These resources are not just tools—they are seeds of opportunity that will help women establish stronger, more resilient coffee farms.
What makes this milestone even more remarkable is that it was 100% youth-led—from planning and mobilization to facilitation in the field. It highlights the role of young people in driving agricultural transformation and shaping sustainable futures for their communities.
We extend heartfelt appreciation to the Youth Empowerment Fund for fully funding this initiative, and to Global Youth Mobilization (GYM) and the European Union (EU) for their unwavering support of youth-led solutions.
This was just the beginning. The next training phases will go deeper into:
Ensuring that women and girls are not only able to grow coffee, but also to compete in and benefit from the wider coffee value chain.
At Elgon Sita Honey Coffee Dealers Ltd, we believe that when women thrive, entire communities thrive. Together, we are planting seeds of change—one coffee tree at a time.
Stay tuned for updates on the next phases of our program.
#YouthMobilize #YouthLeadsTheWay #YouthEmpowermentFund #SironkoCoffee