Planting seeds of change in Kenya
Aga Khan Foundation
Kenya · 2 June 2021 · 3 min
Courtesy of Yetu
Driving along the Kericho-Sotik highway by the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, the breathtaking landscape is full of hilly terrain, farmlands and seemingly endless rows of trees.
The landscape looked different just a few years ago. In the late 2000s, the forest cover was dwindling in the Mau Escarpment, a steep slope along the western edge of the Great Rift Valley. The forest in this area plays an important environmental role, helping to mitigate floods, regulate river flow, recharge the groundwater and purify water.
Today, the forest is coming back, thanks to community initiatives spearheaded by civil society groups working in partnership with government agencies.
Locally Rooted Transformation
As reports emerged about the diminishing forest cover, community members came together to form Transformers Community Based Organization (CBO). Transformers CBO works with a network of more than 100 community groups from Bomet and Kericho counties to promote environmental conservation and encourage tree planting.
View of previously cleared forest area. Transformers CBO is spearheading rehabilitation of such areas to reduce environmental impacts of deforestation.
Courtesy of Yetu
Ronald Keter, secretary of Transformers CBO, notes that the main challenge facing environmental conservation is a lack of understanding of the benefits of tree planting and conservation.
“We work first to change the mindset of the community and show them the benefits and need to conserve the forests,” he said.
In 2019, Transformers CBO was one of the civil society organisations that took part in the Yetu Initiative bootcamp. Yetu is a partnership between the Aga Khan Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to strengthen local organisations. Through bootcamps, Yetu equips Kenyan civil society organisations with practical knowledge and skills to mobilise resources locally.
Using the training from the Yetu bootcamp, Transformers CBO was able to establish key partnerships and raise US$ 100,000 (KES 10,000,000).
“We used to write proposals or hold fundraising activities once or twice a year,” Ronald explained. “However, through the bootcamp, we learned that this is an [ongoing] process and we should have someone dedicated to fundraising throughout the year.”
Transformers CBO also learned how to approach and partner with businesses and government institutions to meet their environmental conservation goals. Since participating in the Yetu bootcamp, Transformers CBO has established partnerships with Finlay Tea, Unilever, Kericho County government, Kenya Forest Service and Kenya Forest Research Institute.
The partnership with Kenya Forest Research Institute gave Transformers CBO an opportunity to nurture a culture of tree planting and environmental conservation amongst school children. It allowed Transformers CBO to launch a programme to plant fruit trees at public schools in Bomet and Kericho counties. These trees provide much-needed tree cover in the area and produce nutritional snacks for the students. Before the COVID-19 pandemic shut schools down across Kenya in 2020, Transformers CBO had partnered with more than 50 schools to plant over 20,000 trees.
“For me, the Yetu bootcamp was an eye-opener,” Ronald reflected. “[It] helped transform our organisation to where we are – a better place.”
This text was adapted from an article published on the AKF USA website.
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