Working together and learning from one another.
Cooperation is one of the C’s that A Rocha derives its meaning from. Cooperation simply means the action or process of working together towards the same end of focusing to the same outcome. A Rocha Kenya has colluded with the Kenya Community Development Fund(KCDF) and I&Mfoundation to grease the wheels for the different projects fixated on environmental conservation, community development and sustainable livelihoods. We can surely say that this partnership predominantly uplifted the rate at which roles were executed and this consequently increased the level of productivity.
For three consecutive days I&MFoundation and KCDF organized the learning event for the I&M Environmental Conservation project early this month. The three day learning event aimed at the following; to share learning experiences and innovations for the three years of the project implementation, the implementing parties that is KCDF and I&M Foundation to be jointly exposed to the projects done by MEDA-F and A Rocha Kenya and lastly the event was to fundamentally help the different organizations harness ideas for future programming and implementation.
Their Project on environmental education at Kagombani primary school was so apparent, the moment we set our feet to the school the energy from the students could not be outmatched. Their jolly faces could plainly show that they were so excited to receive the guests. They did a number of presentations on songs and dances which I later on asked the headteacher how long it took them to prepare all that and she said, “just a day”. The number of fruit trees in their garden was impressive and the drip irrigation is handy especially during the drought times.
Day one with MEDA-Foundation at Cerebral palsy center.
On the first day, the meeting was held at Malindi hosted by the MEDA-Foundation at Sinbad Park which was officially their new residence having set up their offices and their vocation training center in the 6 Acre piece of land they claim to have recently purchased. MEDA- foundation CEO took us through the different projects they run in their foundation. MEDA-foundation runs a Cerebral Palsy Centre in Malindi. The cerebral Palsy Centre is a gift to the community in Malindi, the children living with Autism and Cerebral palsy are well taken care of and the caregivers are happy to give their lives to this children. On a one-on-one conversation with one of the caregivers, the duty of serving the children is not because of the pay but it all stems out from the desire to serve and the hope she have that one day a child who walked in with weak bones, will walk again or will hold a spoon again.
At A Rocha Kenya
The second day the team was at A Rocha Kenya, Mwamba Conservation center .Judith Ochieng The projects coordinator joined the meeting and clearly explained the duties and activities conducted under the various departments and where the vision of the organization is derived for it came out clearly that the organization is more focused on conserving environment more so the threatened habitats for threatened species appearing on the red list as indicated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature( IUCN).
Later on, the team went to Mida Primary where they exuberantly congratulated the young ‘wangari Maathai’, Viola Karisa who managed to plant 350 trees with 285 of these surviving the drought. Shomani girls also did an exemplary work with their school looking all green and their principal commenting that their environmental club had over 100 committed members and this translated to enormous number of trees around the school. The energy saving jiko is another gift to the school from this project. The school chef is truly grateful, he said that were it not for the jiko he would have left the occupation, yet this jiko not only save him time food preparation but also saves him from the deadly smoke in the kitchen.
Last but not least..
Last but not least seems to be an understatement to express the occurrences from the last day.The meeting was held at Sea view hotel Malindi. A Rocha Kenya, MEDA-foundation, Nguzo-Africa and Nkoilale community Development Foundation-NCDF made presentations on their highs and lows in their projects. The different stakeholders such as the county government of Malindi, The Kenya Forest Service(KFS) ,principal and teachers from the different schools that were invited graced the occasion.
James Gatere head of the I&M Foundation helped the different organizations to their heads together focusing on the future and how they ought to be prepared for the impacts and for the change that would come out of the amazing projects that have been implemented. There is need for more awareness at the community level on matters environmental conservation.
