Sauerkraut & Kimchi in Uganda

Students4Kids: About 80 teams have submitted a project idea to this year’s competition of Students4Kids. The jury decided that your project is among the best. What do you think makes your project so special?

Sophie Marie Arnim: It is our goal to promote and spread traditional processing and conserving methods of green leafy vegetables in Uganda. What makes our project special is that urban as well as rural communities will benefit from it.

Hidden hunger is a problem with far-reaching consequences and a variety of causes. How did you come up with your specific idea against hidden hunger in Uganda?

It is important for this project that it can be implemented in Uganda and must be adapted to the start-up budget. Green leafy vegetables, such as cabbage or spinach, are cultivated and eaten in Uganda. Green leafy vegetables often spoil if they are left at market stalls for too long or if harvests cannot be sold in full. Long-term preservation by fermentation and pasteurization brings not only extended shelf-life but also nutritional advantages, which can counteract a micronutrient deficiency in Uganda, where foods often contain large amounts of phytate.

You have until August 26th to work out your idea to a finished concept. What’s the work on that like for you? Are you all working together on the concept or have you for example split up the different tasks?

We always have discussions. Each team member has to work on one part in detail and present it to the group. The parts are discussed and finalized in the group after it has been worked on alone.

The winning team of the Students4Kids competition will receive 10,000 euros as start-up funding for their project. What exactly would you do with the money?

The start-up financing is intended to get the project rolling and to support it until it finances itself. The first money will be spent on equipment (e.g. fermenters), advertising and training materials and personnel costs.

You have done a lot of research on the topic of hidden hunger. What did you learn that you may not have known before? What do you think everyone should know about the phenomenon?

Before we dealt intensively with the topic, we were not aware of the extent of the hidden hunger problem. In general, it is important that a broader awareness of this issue is created in society and that information, educational materials and solutions are available to the people affected in an easily accessible form.