The school garden was one of the components of Community Empowerment Programme (CEP) that was funded by UNICEF, the Embassy of Kingdom of Netherlands and Government of Uganda. The project aimed to bring back parents to support in the administration and management of the schools. This was achieved through establishing school gardens as centers for learning good agronomic practices and using it as platform to discuss & address issues affecting performance of pupils. PALM implemented the project in 26 primary schools in Terego County in partnership with SNV and Arua District Local Government.

PALM mobilized parents to establish school gardens which promoted learning of good agronomic practices and increased adoption by both parents and pupils. Through participation of parents in school garden, their involvement in education of their children was enhanced; they were able to contribute to mid-day meals at school that reduced absenteeism and improved learning. We also mentored pupils who had dropped out of school which improved retention, by 10%. Consequently, the number of pupils in first grade increased by 45% from 2011 to 2013