Dorcas Widows Fund

Mushroom Business

One of the goals of Dorcas Widows Fund is to facilitate the creation of small businesses and opportunities for our women to generate income. In the spring of 2011, the Dorcas Widows were given a small business grant to start a mushroom growing business to grow in-demand butiiko mushrooms to sell in the local market and for supply to restaurants and catering services.

Growing butiiko mushrooms is not an easy task! It requires specific seed preparation, a controlled environment and careful monitoring to get a substantial harvest.

Butiiko Mushrooms

Joyce Teaching the Ladies

With the growing and cultivating experience of a Dorcas Widow named Joyce, we were able to hold a number of training sessions to provide other women in our group with the knowledge and skills they needed to plant and grow this crop. Through this training, many of our women now possess valuable intellectual knowledge and the skills needed to be successful mushroom growers.

The small business grant allowed DWF to rent a small wooden structure in which to grow the mushrooms and the materials that were necessary to prepare the mushroom seeds for planting. The structure was conveniently located near many of the ladies who lived in Nakawa Quarters which enabled the women to be able to care for and monitor the seeds on a daily basis.

Mushroom House in Nakawa

Planting the Seeds

The first planting of seeds occurred in early April and three weeks later during Lisa's visit to Uganda, I was able to witness the first harvest! It was an incredible and suspenseful moment when the door to the house was opened and you could see mushrooms growing out of every bag that was planted. The ladies were very surprised and excited that they were able to successfully complete this difficult process and produce market worthy product.

The Mushrooms Growing

First Harvest!!

The Delicious Results

Following the teachings in the bible, the First Fruits of our harvest were given to St. Peter’s and Lugogo Baptist Churches as an appreciation of their support of the Dorcas Widows. Approximately 12 harvests were collected from the mushroom house before the destruction of the Nakawa Quarters on July 5th, 2011. The mushroom house and 40 of the Dorcas Widows homes were destroyed to make way for a new development.

All that was left after the destruction of Nakawa...

New Miller Mushroom House on our land in Matuga

When Dennis and Kristi Miller heard about the destruction of the mushroom house, they wanted to do something to enable our new business to continue so they generously donated the resources needed to construct a permanent house on the Dorcas Widows land in Matuga. The structure was completed and dedicated to the widows on July 20th, 2011 during the Miller’s visit to Uganda.

We are grateful to the Miller’s for the opportunity to continue this business. We currently have 500 Mushroom gardens planted in our new house and are awaiting a plentiful harvest!

EMAIL: info@dorcaswidows.org PHONE: 612.710.1278