By Mary McCarthy | Project Development Officer
Traditionally, Samburu people have relied on predictable weather patterns to decide the course of their livelihoods; mainly herding and to a lesser extent farming. This is ever more challenging as we have experienced significant shifts in weather patterns; extended drought during the anticipated rainy season and sporadic rainfall during expected dry times. This has prompted discussions in the community about climate change and what can be done to mitigate the adverse effects and preserve the Samburu lifestyle in an environmentally friendly way.
At Sadhana Forest Kenya’s Community Agro-Forestry Learning Centre, we are being approached everyday for trees and education. This is absolutely wonderful! We are seeing the community taking initiative to gather knowledge to independently plant trees at their homes and schoolyards. They are empowering themselves and encouraging each other and they know that we are here at Sadhana Forest to support them with advice, seedlings, and a helpful hand. In turn, we feel even stronger about the work we do. Being a very small field team, we are thrilled to have so many advocates and ambassadors in the community.
Rain has come on and off for the past few months and recipients’ trees are doing really well. Recently, there have been enormous harvests of Moringa stenopetala leaves. Most families who have these trees are harvesting so much that they are cooking with the leaves several times a week. This will surely improve their well-being given the nutritional value of Moringa and that currently 42% of children in Samburu are considered stunted (their growth and development are impaired) due to malnutrition. We’re looking forward to planting even more trees around schools as to also improve the nutrition and variety of school lunches.
Sincere thanks and gratitude to our volunteers and the Global Giving community. If you are interested in providing us further feedback concerning our project, finding out more about our activities or area of operation, or would like to volunteer with us, please contact us here or email us directly at kenya@sadhanaforest.org. We also strongly encourage you to provide feedback at the end of this report.
Ashe Oleng! (Thank you very much in Kisamburu)
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
