By Bob Aston
The group which is made up of twenty
(20) women initially started by helping members acquire house hold utensils
like cups, plates, blankets and bowls but they soon realized that to empower
the members they had to do more than that.
The members have also been keeping indigenous
chicken. They have received various capacity building trainings about poultry
keeping from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries. Kimondo said
that the poultry training equipped them with enough knowledge concerning
poultry farming.
The impact of climate change is
already being felt in arid and semi arid regions in the country. Solving the
problems of climate change and reducing its inevitable negative effects has now
become a priority for many. Mlima Meza Green Development Self Help Group from
Wangwaci location in Laikipia West has for the past six (6) years been trying
to mitigate the impact of climate change.
Members during a meeting |
“We decided to change and look for a
better way of improving the livelihood of members. This could only be achieved
through financial empowerment,” said Monica Wangui Kimondo, Chairlady Mlima
Meza Green Development S.H.G.
The group explored different ways of
empowering members and finally settled on starting a tree nursery. This they
believed would help members conserve the environment as well as practice climate
smart agriculture.
Kimondo said that they started a
merry go round whereby all the members were contributing Ksh 200 after every
two weeks. They then opened a bank account and started saving the money while
at the same time ploughing some into their tree nursery business.
“We are trying to financially empower
all members through the various projects that we are undertaking. Currently it
is possible for a member to receive emergency loan when in financial
difficulty,” said Kimondo.
Kimondo said that members have been
at the forefront of planting trees. Last year the members planted more than
1,000 trees. They expected to plant more this year but lack of rainfall led to
most of the trees drying up. They have three different varieties of trees namely;
Olive tree, grevellea and eucalyptus.
“We have spent a lot of money to buy
water for irrigating the trees. Despite this most of the trees could not
withstand the dry season hence they dried up,” said Kimondo.
Noah Lusaka from ALIN addressing group members |
“Some members have as much as 70 indigenous
chicken. Members normally sell some of the chicken during planting season in
order to get money for farming,” said Kimondo.
Kimondo said that the members
realized that they spent a lot of money on buying kerosene for lighting. The
kerosene lamps she said produced a lot of smoke and normally cause health
problems. They eventually decided to buy solar lamps worth Ksh 1,000 for all
the members.
“Solar lamps has helped to reduce
dependence on kerosene and this has enabled the members to save money that they
would initially have used to buy kerosene,” said Kimondo.
Kimondo said that one of their
objectives was to reduce cutting down of trees by members as deforestation has
led to drastic climate change. This led the group to ensure that all the
members have improved jikos.
“Members are no longer looking for
firewood. This has significantly reduced cutting down of trees,” said Kimondo.
The group is now exploring various
ways in which the members can adapt to the changing climatic condition as well
as practicing climate smart agriculture.
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