Celebrate Earth Week Every Day

Last week was Earth Week and all over the globe people were initiating or continuing projects to help save Mother Earth. Each day we are doing things that destroy the precious planet we inhabit. Cities expand at an alarming rate with farmers fields being destroyed to make way for megahomes to house the expaning urban population but no one seems to question how we are going to feed ourselves as that precious farmland can never be reclaimed. Industry spews out chemials into the air poisoning our environment and polluting the air we need to survive. But all is not doom and gloomed as all over the world sensitive people are realizing the terrible state of our world and are working away, not only on Earth Day or during Earth Week but every day of the year on projects that are helping to return health back to planet earth. Wangari Maathai, the Nobel Peace Prize Winner from Kenya started the Greenbelt Movement planting trees, returning forests back to her native country and prior to her death encouraged everyone to plant trees to achieve the Billion Tree Campaign, a billion trees to be planted worldwide. I recently read of a man in India who began 30 years ago to plant trees in a sandspit and now his forest covers 1,360 acres, a testament to the spirit of regeneration and rebirth for our world.

Jeremy and Peter plant four trees with Ikanga Scouts at Ikanga, Kenya

Earth Week is a reminder to all of us to look at the world we live in, to do our part to make a difference. It doesn't have to be something huge, something simple like planting just one tree every year can help the environment. Trees are an investment. But it can also be turning out your lights when you don't need them, washing your clothes in cold water instead of hot, turning off the tap when you are brushing you teeth, having a quick shower instead of taking a bath. It is the simple things that can really add up and make a difference. Look at what you are doing in your home and see how you an make a difference. Planet Earth is not an infinite body, someday if we don;t take care of what we have, our children and their children will not have a place to all home. So make a difference in our world not just during Earth Week but all year long.

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.