Farming on Crutches

Sierra Leone

In one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, where civil war and social inequality have been rampant, one man has set up a farming academy specifically for amputees.

Farming on Crutches helps amputees in Sierra Leone to farm in-tune with nature, free from toxic chemicals and based on the principles of agro-ecology. Watch a short video here.

Sierra Leone’s civil war in the 1990s and early 2000s was brutal and bloody. Tragically, it left tens of thousands of people with physical disabilities.

In 2020, pastor-turned-farmer Mambud Samai made it his life’s work to support amputee victims at the margins of society re-find their confidence, dignity and purpose through the power of small-scale regenerative farming.

Mambud operates a small, three-acre farm which works as a living classroom. He transports students from across the country so that they can stay on-site in accessible accommodation and develop hands-on skills in soil care and food production. Over 100 participants have now graduated from Farming on Crutches.

Graduates have now all returned to their local communities, armed with the knowledge they have acquired during their time with Farming on Crutches, as well as a small grant so that they can establish their own smallholdings. They are encouraged to become local changemakers, sharing the agricultural lessons they have learned with their wider communities, and promoting the agro-ecological values that now underpin their own local farming efforts.