International Women's Day - March 8, 2012

Today is International Women's Day celebrating women worldwide with this year's theme "Empowering Rural Women." It is hard for women here in the developed world to think that women are impoverished in the developing world.

My work in Kenya has given me a true appreciation of all that women in developing countries have to deal with - HIV/Aids, lack of food, proper shelter, difficulty in paying her children's school fees, husbands who leave to find better employment but fail to send funds home to support their families, rape and much more. I have only respect for these women who seem to draw from a spirit deep inside themselves to accept, deal with and rise above these problems. They have a true resiliency that I don't know if I could find within myself.

We need to support these women and help them move from poverty to prosperity by assisting them with education, training, and microfinance loans. I have seen the benefit that these women get from a small loan that can help them improve their business and increase income to support their families. Training can give them new skills again to help with income generation like the woman in the photo above. She works for Bega Kwa Bega, a fair trade organization in Mathare slums in Nairobi. Here former drug users, prostitutes and alcoholics have been given life skills and craft training and now are able to get useful work. Her life has changed for the better.

Today celebrate a woman who is special and close to you or a woman you don't know in a developing country, think about the beauty that lies within her despite her circumstances.

March 3rd - Wangari Maathai Day

Members of Lukundo Youth Group check seedlings in their tree nursery.

It was this past year 2011 that Wangari Maathai, the Nobel Peace Prize winner from Kenya succumbed to ovarian cancer. It was a very sad day for those of us who work and live in Kenya for she had been an outstanding leader for the country giving hope to those like herself who have grown up with social injustice and poverty.

Wangari is best known for starting The Greenn Belt Movement, a tree planting campaign that she initiated to provide empowerment for women by planting trees. A staunch environmentalist she realized the effects on the environment from deforestation and the ripple down effect this had on women's lives and the lives of their families. In the past year Wangari had initiated the Billion Tree Campaign, asking people around the globe to help in planting a billion trees worldwide to help counter the effects of climate change.

With the development of The Mghongo Leadership Centre, Eco Lodge and Demonstration Farm soon to be built in Wongonyi Village, Kenya we celebrate Wangari and her work as a role model and great leader to the youth and women in our village. On the day of Wangari's funeral, each student and teacher in the village planted a tree in Wangari's memory.

Today we forever will mark as Wangari Maathai Day as designated by The Green Belt Movement organization and we will continue to plant trees in her honour on this day. Wongonyi Village, located high atop the Taita Taveta Hills in southeastern Kenya is a biodiversity hotspot of rare flora, fauna and bird life who inhabit the indigenous forests of the hills. Deforestation has touched our remote area too as villagers have ravaged the forests for firewood and building materials without thinking about or knowing the consequences of their actions for daily survival. Ronnie is working diligently to educate the youth and villagers on the consequences of deforestion, more mudslides in the rainy season, loss of soil due to rain and wind, the effects of the loss of the forests on weather patterns. And to this end we have also embarked on a tree planting project to revitalize this important ecological feature. Youth groups have set up tree nurseries and are propagating tree seedlings for planting. The forests are being regenerated and wildlife is returning and with each tree that is planted we will continue to keep Wangari's dream alive.