Tororo, Uganda | The Pallisa District Woman Member of Parliament, Hon. Catherine Achola, on Sunday joined Hon. Fredrick Angura, the Tororo South County MP, to rally residents to take up coffee and cocoa growing as a pathway out of poverty.
The two legislators were speaking during the burial of 95-year-old Anyokorit Kolofridah at Akalait village in Tororo District, where Hon. Achola was the chief mourner.
Hon. Achola, who eulogized the deceased as a celebrated matriarch who laboured to educate her 13 children until they all secured formal employment, said education and coffee farming share the same principle of endurance and reward.
“Some people feel uncomfortable when I talk about coffee growing, but the few who accept will be cleansed from poverty as others remain lamenting lack of gardens. Coffee is like education. Those who accept to endure for 20 years will harvest the fruits of education, while the unserious drop out and later beg from those who endured,” Achola said.
She urged parents to invest whatever it takes to educate their children, noting that over 1,000 people travelled from Pallisa to mourn with the family of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Edeet, Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey Ekisa and Ms. Teddy Ibuyat because of the love and service their educated children render to Pallisa.
“Most people drop out of education not necessarily because of fees but because of the negative attitude that education takes long, and this is the same attitude they give coffee. Those who endure with education harvest heavily, just as coffee and cocoa farmers will have their income greatly improved in just three to five years,” she added.
Achola dismissed claims that coffee requires large chunks of land, citing Bugisu sub-region where people grow coffee on small plots.
She pledged to link Tororo farmers to more seedlings through Hon. Angura.
On his part, Hon. Angura lauded Hon. Achola for having a heart for people beyond her district of jurisdiction.
He urged his constituents to abandon traditional subsistence farming that has kept Bukedi one of the poorest regions and embrace beneficial agricultural transformation.
On education, Angura advocated for zero tolerance to monetary contributions in schools, saying the Shs21,360 government capitation per primary pupil and Shs160,000 for Universal Secondary Education (USE) per year is enough to run school activities.
He revealed that in their meeting with the State Minister for Sports, Hon. Peter Ogwang, they agreed on the President’s guidance to transfer teachers from well-staffed schools to understaffed ones instead of charging parents for PTA teachers.
“In my constituency I will see it implemented. At Asinge Secondary School, enrollment is over 1,600 students against few teachers, so the ministry is going to handpick from other schools to fill the gaps as more teachers are recruited,” Angura said.
He added that the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Jacob Oboth-Oboth, who is also the regional coordinator and whom they met to share development concerns, emphasized coffee growing and is at the frontline in availing seedlings to farmers.