Both projects involve tree planting - growing seedlings for farmers / communities and creating education packages / training about why locals need to stop cutting trees down.
Deforestation is a huge problem here, particularly on the slopes around Mount Elgon and the Bududa area which is where the school twinned with Newman is.
Here's my exceedingly basic and non scientific explanation of why this is bad :
People chop down trees to use for firewood and building materials. Obviously, this means there are less trees, which means less roots binding together and strengthening the soil.
Trees and vegetation also slow down the speed of water flowing down the hills because they dissipate and soak up some of the rainfall.
So in a nutshell, cutting down trees here can result in vast mountainous areas of unstable soil which can lead to landslides that have devastating consequences.
(How'd I do Noreen?!)
( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8549909.stm )
Anyway, I visited these two CBOs as I need to write up some case studies showing the positive steps communities can take to educate people about the consequences of deforestation and help them by creating some education materials.
So we basically have to persuade people (almost exclusively women as they do ALL the hard work here whilst men kick back, relax and suck on sugar cane but that's a story for another blog) to stop chopping trees down which is so difficult.
It's a really, really challenging to explain the benefits of keeping trees as many can see no immediate reason why they should.
From their perspective, they can either :
* address a very real and immediate concern by chopping down trees for firewood and feeding their families or
* take the risk of something that may or may not happen at some point in the future but could kill their family and destroy their livelihoods.
We have our work cut out!
We went to the Mount Elgon Farmers Association (MEFA) first where they showed us (this project was in Alex's district, he joined us for this visit. I see too much of that boy!) the seedlings they were growing and explained their approach to education. Then we went on a short tour of the village where the Big Cheese, Patrick, (they always roll out the dignitaries for us) pointed out where the village had already been affected by landslides, explained how, where and why they would plant different seedlings.
One of the things they are trying to do at the association is protect coffee trees by planting taller, bushy trees that will shade the coffee and hopefully produce better crops.
Being a big coffee drinker, I was intrigued and asked a million questions about the coffee making process, so Patrick started explaining it with real enthusiasm and passion.
Towards the end of his story though, his enthusiasm waned and by the end, he had pretty much lost interest.
He ended his story by shrugging his shoulders and saying "but by then, it has lost all of its flavour and goodness so we send it over to you". Love it!
Then we went to African Rural Development Initiative (ARDI) in Manafwa.
My favourite bit of this visit was being granted an honorary African name by one of the instructors!
I can't remember how or why, but I said and did a few things that made them laugh (I suspect they're used to visitors being quite hoity toity and snooty with them - don't think they'd met a Ponty girl before) and one of them said that from now on I was to be known as "something I didn't understand".
They all laughed and nodded in agreement so I asked him what it meant.
"Drought"
Drought?
Bloody DROUGHT?!
Great. I was being named after something that, at best, ruins people's lives and livelihoods and, at worst, kills them.
I was gutted.
Well, was gutted until someone explained it it been translated wrong. It actually means sunshine - that I must have been born in the summertime because I "was bright, happy and brought fun."
I preferred that.
Regards and good night,
Nasimiyu
X
Photos :
* Some kids at MEFA
* Some kids at MEFA with a big kid
* Nasimiyu at ARDI!
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