Esther Namaganda grew up in Mbale, a region in eastern Uganda known for its rich soil, abundant gardens, and fields full of fruits and vegetables. Families grew matooke, rice, sweet potatoes, cabbage, and carrots. Many farmers also grew Arabica coffee that reached international markets. This land fed communities across Uganda, including cities like Kampala.
Over time, Esther watched the landscape change. Families cleared forests for farmland, and rising coffee prices encouraged growers to plant more coffee at the expense of food crops. Forest loss brought flooding and landslides. Roads washed away. Homes disappeared. The region that once fed so many people began to struggle with food shortages during dry seasons.
Understanding Client Needs
Esther joined FINCA Uganda right out of university 16 years ago and has worked her way through several frontline roles before stepping into her current position as a Banking Operations Supervisor. In her job, Esther meets customers every day who show the same resilience she remembers from her childhood. Many of them work small plots of land and do everything they can to provide for their families. She understands their challenges because she lived them. In her own childhood home, more than 20 people shared what they had. Fruits and vegetables grown by the community helped make meals stretch. She remembers seeing this as a hardship at the time, but now she appreciates the strength in it and the lessons it taught her.
Those lessons shaped Esther’s submission to FINCA’s annual Rupert Scofield Vision Fund staff competition to reward the spirit of innovation embodied by our late co-founder, Rupert Scofield. Each year, team members and partners from across the network propose solutions that improve lives in practical, meaningful ways, and four winners are selected to receive grant funding.
A Rupert Scofield Vision Fund Winning Idea
Esther’s idea, Fruit Trees and Home Gardens for Food Security, comes directly from her own lived experience and her vision for her community. She wants to bring fruit trees and small container gardens into households across her village, so families can produce vegetables to eat right away and fruit that will feed their children for years.
Her idea solves more than one problem. It supports food security by helping families grow what they eat. It brings back trees in a region where deforestation has exacerbated climate risks. And it promotes resilience and stability, as communities rarely cut down fruit trees because people see them as a source of food and income. Esther’s project will help families restore soil, reduce erosion, and protect their land while also improving their diets.
Esther has seen the power of small gardens firsthand. During the COVID-19 lockdown in Uganda, she turned the space around her rented apartment into a container garden. She grew vegetables in bags and small pots. These plants helped her family stay nourished at a time when markets were hard to reach. For her, this showed how much a small space can offer when someone gives it care.
The Impact of a Single Idea
Esther’s Rupert Scofield Vision Fund project will reach 120 people in her village through six clusters. Each group will receive seedlings, vegetable seeds, and support from local leaders. Together, they will visit each other’s homes to learn, share progress, and keep each other motivated. Esther believes that when one family succeeds, neighbors take notice. When people hear stories from someone they trust, they feel inspired to try a new idea.
For Esther, it’s about more than trees and gardens — it’s about planting possibility and strengthening a community by growing something lasting. Like Rupert, she believes that big change often begins with a simple, hopeful act.
