The ADAMÂ Foundation built its first bakery in the Oruchinga Settlement Camp in Southern Uganda. The camp is home to over 9000 refugees from Burundi, Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, and other parts of East Africa.
Our founder, Ayelet Berman-Cohen, grew up in Israel, where war and conflict were a common part of life. In her dreams, women, who she had long considered her “enemy”, baked their native bread, and shared it with her. She decided to make an offering in return, and created the ADAMÂ Foundation. The foundation built its first bakery in the Oruchinga settlement camp in Southern Uganda to help refugees who lost their land and their traditions to violence and war.
The word אדמה or adama means “land” or “soil” in Hebrew.
The ADAMÂ Foundation envisions a global community dedicated to restoring everyone’s right to make their own bread, to connect to the land, to rebuild their communities, and most of all, to feed their children.
Three exceptional women joined forces to make the dream of the ADAMÂ Bakery a reality in Oruchinga. Angella Kushemererwa and Sophie Nakayiza worked together with Ayelet, our founder, to locate the bakery site and oversee the construction of the brick oven. Sixteen women and four men were personally selected by Angella and Sophie to be in our first class of trainees. Once the space was outfitted with all the necessary tools, machines, and utensils, the training was ready to proceed.
In October of 2021, master bakers Jeffrey Hamelman and Sara Molinaro arrived from the US to conduct the two-week training course. After settling on a regional bread recipe, Jeffrey and Sara taught the trainees the fundamentals of professional baking. Within a few short days, the bakery staff began producing delicious bread and rolls, and sharing them with the community.
The Adama Peace Bakery in Oruchinga is a beacon of hope in the refugee community, a place to be sheltered, nourished, and sustained. Every day, working in shifts, the women and men of Adama produce bread and rolls that help to feed families who would otherwise go hungry. For many of our employees, especially the women, it is their first job, the first time they have been able to earn money on their own, to be the breadwinners and bread-makers. The bakery’s very existence is making a map for people in the camps to work and succeed.
Our goal is to make Adama Peace Bakery fully sustainable. To do that, we need your support. 100% of the money you donate will go into the bakery. We need more supplies, more equipment, and more funding to pay our employees a living wage.
Currently, we are building a store out in front of the bakery, so we can sell our bread to the neighboring communities. We want to expand our capacity and develop a distribution system, which means a vehicle to deliver what we bake to the people who need it the most – the children of Oruchinga.
Click here to learn more about how you can help!
