b'subsistence farmers, relying on what they raise andWhen she was suddenly confronted with grow to provide for their families.preparing for a baby to arrive, this foundation she While she was still in school, Robina had joinedbuilt through Heifer provided a path forward. one of the self-help groups organized by HeiferWhile three months pregnant and living at Uganda to help young people in Dokolo addresshome, Robina acquired a seed loan from the these challenges and earn a decent incomecooperative in the form of 50 kilograms of hybrid through agriculture, especially women andsoybean seed worth approximately $100. Soybean specific vulnerable groups, like young mothers.is a crop with high profit potential for young Here she had already begun to be oriented infarmers in Dokolo due to a growing demand by Heifers values training and was developinglocal processing companies and the plants various leadership capacity and development plans withuses in cooking oil, animal feed and other food her fellow group members. Heifer also supportedproducts.the group to form a cooperative, Dokolo YoungWith the help of her family, and using the Oilseed Farmers Cooperative, through which sheagricultural training she had acquired, she planted received training in agricultural best practices,the soybean seed while heavily pregnant. Once the post-harvest handling, marketing, managingplants matured, she sold the harvest to the finances and other entrepreneurial skills. cooperative, paid off the loan and remained with a Robina harvests soybeans from dry pods using a method known as threshingbeating the crop to separate the beans from their straw casings.22| SPRING 2023'