1. Celebrating Harvest with Send a Cow
We’ll learn
What Send a Cow is
How to plant vegetables
Why harvests are important to families in Africa
How to make a short film
Today we will learn four things –
What Send a Cow does and why
How to plant vegetables
Why vegetables are important to families in rural Africa
How to make a video to share what you’ve learnt with others

2. What is Send a Cow? Send a Cow is a charity
We help people grow their own food in Africa
This helps them to be healthy and to make money for their family
Send a Cow is a charity that helps people in Africa to grow their own food, so that they can feed themselves and their families. When Send a Cow first started we sent cows from England to Uganda. Now we find cows in Africa, rather than flying them there on planes!
A lot of people who live in the countryside in Africa have to grow all of their own food, as they don’t have money to buy food (and there aren’t supermarkets in a lot of rural areas!). The climate can be very different in each African country, from the dry hillsides of Lesotho, the green and lush forests of Rwanda, the drought-stricken plains of Ethiopia or the grasslands of Uganda. Without education, tools, seeds and materials people can’t grow enough food to eat. So Send a Cow helps them with these things so that they can get enough food, sell their vegetables at market and make money to buy medicines and send their children to school.

3. Nabila’s story
We’ll watch this video about a family in Uganda and then we can talk about what the video has taught us.
What happened when Nabila’s parents were taught how to grow more vegetables? [answer: they were able to eat more healthily and sell the extra vegetables at market, which gave them enough money to send Nabila to school].
This Harvest we will be looking at why it’s important for people in Africa to grow their own vegetables. You will be able to help other people understand this too through the video you are going to make
(Click on the picture to play the video. If it doesn’t play open an internet window and use this link

4. Growing Vegetables
Make a list of the materials you need to grow vegetables.
Then work out the tasks you need to do and the order in which to do them
Make a list of all the things you need to grow your own vegetables [seeds, soil, water, sun etc.] then write down what you need to do and the order you should do the tasks in:
example:
Buy seeds, seed tray and compost
Prepare the soil
Plant the seeds in the seed trays
Water
Place in the sun

5. Did you know?
Families are trained by to plant vegetables in raised beds, using compost
Rain water is captured to water plants
Covering plants protects them
Send a Cow trains families how to make the most of their land so that their vegetables will grow well and they will have enough to eat, as well as enough left over to sell. Here are a few examples of what the families will learn to do:
1. They don’t plant their seeds in seed trays, but into raised beds, with lots of rich soil for their vegetables to grow in.
2. Using compost will help the vegetables grow better and help the soil to retain moisture. This is especially important where the land is infertile and dry. Do you know what compost is?
3. [answer] Compost can be made from saving vegetable peelings and animal manure.
4. Attaching a drainpipe from their rooves, leading to a water butt, will help provide lots of water for the plants.
5. Covering the seedlings with straw or banana leaves will help stop the seedlings from drying out and getting eaten by bugs
Is there anything else you’d like to add to your list of things you need for growing vegetables?

6. Your Task Make a short instruction video about growing vegetables
No longer than 10 minutes
Be creative!
Have a competition to raise funds for Send a Cow
Your task today is to make a short instruction video about growing your own vegetables which you can share with your school mates, teachers and parents.
Here are some tips on getting started:
1. Use camera equipment available to you, whether it be a film camera, IPad or smart phone. Anything that takes video will work!
2. Next, create a story board and the script for your video. Aim for your video to be no longer than 10 minutes.
3. Find out where to shoot your video and make sure you have all of your props ready.
4. Find your actors and crew. Decide who will film, who will be in front of the camera.
5. Make sure that your video gives all the information someone would need to plant their own vegetables. And don’t forget to BE CREATIVE!

7. Good luck!
You can help more people to understand why growing vegetables is important to families in Africa
Good luck with your videos!
Good luck with making your videos.
You can help more people understand why growing vegetables and reaping a harvest is so important to families in Africa. Why not organise a short film competition using your new videos, invite other classes in the school and your families. You could raise money to help families like Nabila’s to feed themselves and become healthier and happier!