The Beauty of Wildlife

"Rain, rain go away

Come again another day."

This childhood refrain has been playing over and over again in my head as the rain has been falling and falling and falling. I look outside and see all the garden tasks yet to be completed but the wet weather has kept me indoors.

But on Sunday as I replanted some autumn crocus bulbs that the squirrels had dug up, I turned my head and there on my neighbour's lawn was a mama deer and two fawns. Quite a sight for we live in a residential area of downtown Bracebridge. Actually it became a traffic stopping sight as the young ones tried to navigate across the busy road. But finally they all safely crossed the road and high-tailed it down towards the river. We must remember that we humans have invaded these beautiful creatures native areas and forced them into areas they are unfamiliar with.

But getting back to the garden chores yet undone. I keep praying for a sunny day to dry out the gazebo so I can put it away, for the grapes to ripen so I can pick them and make grape jelly before the birds eat them all or they perish with a frost, and the opportunity to clean out all the containers and store them away for another season. The prognosis for the Thanksgiving weekend isn't all that good and I even heard mention of the "S" word - snow!! Please not yet, not until the gardens are put to bed. The sky has been leaden, the pewter shades of winter in the wings and rest to come.

"Blessed Unrest" - A Worldwide Movement

I just finished reading a most powerful and interesting book by leading environmentalist and social activist Paul Hawken. His book, "Blessed Unrest, How The Largest Movement In The World Came Into Being And Why No One Saw It Coming" is a wonderful reminder of the power of small groups and individuals to effect global change. In the book Hawken recounts the history of the movement of social groups and the great leaders who have championed for those whose voice has not been heard.

Those of us working in developing countries can fully understand the importance of the work we are doing and we feel the gratitude of those we are helping by providing education, tools and resources that allow them to develop sustainable projects creating income to take care of their families. Sometimes people say they feel overwhelmed by the injustices in the world and they don't know how they can help. Our message is simple to start one person at a time, and in time those who have been helped will in turn help others, and so on, and so on. The gift gets paid forward.

Paul Hawken and his team have also created a website www.wiserearth.org at which you will find the world's largest free and editable international directory of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and socially responsible organizations from across the globe. This directory includes more than 110,000 organizations in 243 countries, territories and sovereign islands. Here you can find others working globally by category or by country. I found it a fascinating site and one I know will be so useful in making connections and networking to find useful solutions to common problems.

For those working in developing countries I would highly recommend you give this book a read. This quote from Paul Hawken's book sums it up, "...the future implications of the movement's daily actions is to remember Emerson's moral botany: corn seeds produce corn; justice creates justice; and kindness fosters generosity. How do we sow our seeds when large, well-intentioned institutions and intolerant ideologies that purport to be our salvation cause so much damage? One sure way is through smallness, grace, and locality. Individuals start where they stand and, in Antonio Machado's poetic dictum, make the road by walking. Thoreau insisted in 'Civil Disobedience" that if only one man withdrew his support from an unjust government, it would begin a cycle that would reverberate and grow. For him there were no inconsequential acts, only consequential inaction: "For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever."

We are a perfect example of the movement, our family started saving pennies in a jar for one young man, Ronnie's, education and have grown to help a village, Wongonyi in Kenya, Africa. And along the way others have joined us in the journey. If we can do it, so can you!

The Bottom Billion - moving people out of poverty

I have just finished reading "The Bottom Billion, Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be Done About It" by Paul Collier. It has been an interesting read on global poverty. The book focuses on the poorest of the poor countries who have gone unnoticed by the West. Collier contends that the causes of the failure of these countries can be attributed to several traps including extraction and exportation of natural resources, civil wars and bad governance and that aid and globalization can hinder rather than help these countries climb out of poverty.

A couple of Paul's comments really resonanted with me and with the work we are doing in Kenya through The Ronnie Fund. Paul says, "...development is about giving hope to ordinary people that their children will live in a society that has caught up with the rest of the world. Take that hope away and the smart people will use their energies not to develop their society but to escape from it - as have a million Cubans. "

Collier goes on the further explain the impact of the migration of educated people from developing countries - that globalization has led to emigration of the brighest and best skilled and knowledgeable people leading to skills shortages in the poorest countries hindering the development process. Collier notes, "This all adds up to a depressing picture of what globalization is doing for the bottom billion. To get a chance to play in the global economy, you need to break free of the traps, ... in order to turn a country around it helps to have a pool of educated people, but the global labor market is draining the bottom billion of their limited pool of such people."

We realize that education is the key to improving quality of life and we especially support those like Ronnie Mdawida who pursue further education and then pass that information on to others or use their newly gained skills and knowledge to create a better quality of life for their countryman instead of leaving their homeland for greener pastures abroad. I think Collier nails it on the head when he says, "In every society of the bottom billion there are people working for change, but usually they are defeated by the powerful internal forces stacked against them. We should be helping the heroes. So far, our efforts have been paltry: through inertia, ignorance, and incompetence, we have stood by and watched them lose."

In poor countries across our planet there are heroes like Ronnie Mdawida in Kenya, young men and women with dreams of making their country a better place to live, to lift their fellow humans out of poverty and achieve quality of life. We salute, encourage and support those individuals to keep believing in their dreams and we along with others who share a belief in common justice and human rights will help, in respectful ways, to make those dreams a reality.

How to Make Money - Kenyan Youth Group Projects

This Banana nursery is the start of a new banana plantation creating much needed employment for youth in Wongonyi village.

Recently, my daughter Martha gave me one of her Girl Guide magazines that had an article about Kenya in it. It was about Kristen Hope, a student at the College of the Rockies in B.C. who spent time in Kenya researching various small businesses operated by youth groups. Kristen produced this informative document while working as an International Youth Intern.

Kristen has produce a very knowledgable Manual for Kenyan Youth Groups on Starting Revenue Generating Projects. The manual lists the projects Kristen visited and profiles of their projects along with that group's advice for others starting a similar project. At the end of the manual Kristen provides a summary of the lessons learned, other project ideas and advice on starting a revenue generating project including registration information, websites on Kenya business and relevant laws as well as sources of capital. And finally Kriten offers some suggestions she gleaned from her visits on why some projects fail.

I found this document to be a wealth of information for those of us working in Kenya, especially with youth groups wanting to start businesses. The youth sector in Kenya is large and most of the youth have not had the benefit of secondary education and they lack skills necessary for beginning businesses, so a document like this gives them a helping hand as new groups can benefit from the experience of others, both successful and unsuccessful. She also includes contact addresses and phone numbers for the project co-ordinators.

I commend Kristen for her hard work in producing this manual entitled "How to Make Money, A Manual for Kenyan Youth Groups on Starting Revenue Generating Projects." Kristen has made her manual readily available by download at http://www.projectsmanual.shorturl.com/ or through a link at College of the Rockies. Sharing information is one of the greatest ways we can help others to be successful - thanks Kristen for sharing your work with all of us.

Grass Pea - High Protein Foodstuff or Lethal Weapon

Some call it serendipity, I say this book was sent to me for a reason. Not long ago I was sent fellow garden writer Amy Stewart's new book "Wicked Plants" to review. I was giving it a quick glance before placing it on the pile of new books to read when it fell open at the page on "Deadly Dinners". The word Africa caught my attention because of our family's charity work (The Ronnie Fund) in Kenya. So I began to read and I couldn't believe the text.

Earlier in the year, Ronnie's mother Getrude was afflicted with a strange illness. She suffered an unexplained paralysis in her legs. She simply couldn't walk and her sons even had to carry her up to the outhouse. The doctor in the local hospital in Mwambira District couldn't diagnose the problem, so she was sent to the bigger hospital in Voi. She eventually regained the use of her legs but the problem was never correctly identified.

But as I began to read Amy's chapter on Deadly Dinners highlighting Grass Pea, I knew I had found the answer. Grass Pea or Chickling Vetch is a dietary staple in Africa, India, Asia and the Mediterannean as it is an excellent source of protein and is one of the few crops to survive severe drought. However it does contain a neurotoxin called beta-N-oxaxlyl-diamino propionic acid or beta-ODAP and one of the first signs of beta-ODAP poisoning or lathyrism is weakening of the legs. The toxin kills nerve cells paralyzing the victim from the waist down and without treatment, the victim will die. Wow, I thought, perhaps this could be the source of Getrude's problem.

Further reading suggested that since it was a popular food stuff, it was actually safe when prepared properly. Grass Pea must be soaked for a long time in lots of water or fermented in breads and pancakes. The problem in Africa is that when grown in times of drought, there obviously is not enough water to properly soak the peas, thereby creating a lethal problem.

I immediately e-mailed Ronnie and told him of my findings asking if they grew Grass Pea in Wongonyi Village. The answer was, "Yes Mama, we eat it all the time but I never heard of this problem with the peas. I will contact the local health authorities to make sure they know about this." Amy's book advises, " Today one of the great tragedies of famines in places like Ethiopia and Afghanistan is that the high-protein pea is typically reserved for men to give them strength so that they can feed their families. Instead, it has the opposite effect, reducing them to crawling on their knees (and as one report noted, "Wheelchairs aren't an option for most lathyrism sufferers, as they tend to live in dirt-floor huts"). Even if the drought receded and they stopped eating the peas, they might still be disabled for life."

Hopefully, this new found knowledge, thanks to Amy's book, will help prevent other people in Wongonyi Village and the other villages that Ronnie visits in Kenya to keep healthy by preparing Grass Pea in a safe manner. Thanks Amy!!

If you are working in areas in Kenya that are growing Grass Pea, please ensure that the local residents are advised about this life-threatening toxin. With a little knowledge and safe preparation techniques, Grass Pea can continue to provide a high protein foodstuff to those in need.

Kathy

Wangari Maathai - Peace for Kenya

Recently I finished reading Wangari Maathai's memoir "Unbowed". In this telling tale, Wangari Maathai, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, provides a history of her life to her present day position as Founder of the Green Belt Movement.

The book provides interesting insight into a Kenya, that just decades ago was self-sufficient and people living in rural villages enjoyed prosperity. She details how internal strife in the country coupled with colonialism and then a huge influx of international aid has spurned corruption and a decline in quality of life resulting in a revolving cycle of poverty.

Wangari is an amazing African woman, who benefitted from a chance opportunity through the Kennedy lift to study outside her country. But unlike many others who would remain in a developed country to enjoy prosperity, she returned to Kenya to use her knowledge to help repair a broken country. Her life has certainly not been easy, a broken marriage, opposition from government officials who sent her to jail on numerous occasions and even death threats have not broken or deflated her resolve. Even when her own country did not acknowledge her and her efforts, the global community did by awarding her the Nobel Peace Prize.

She started her campaign to heal Kenya by planting trees and through her Green Belt Movement she has mobilized thousands of women in rural villages to plant trees in an effort to bring peace and prosperity. And today the Green Belt Movement has spread to other developing and developed countries. Even today Wangari continues to encourage the women of Kenya to seek positions of power and leadership in their own villages and in government to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

I would recommend this book for anyone working in community development projects in Kenya who wants to get a sense of the history of Kenya and the reasons for the problems that exist today.

The Green Belt Movement - A Model for Community Development

"The Green Belt Movement has over the past 30 years shown that sustainable development linked with democratic values promotes human rights, social justice and equity, including the balance of power between women and men. The (Nobel Peace) Prize demonstrates that although the work of grassroots groups, especially women's groups, does not always make headline news, it does make a difference."

Wangari Maathai, 2004

In 2004 Kenyan Wangari Maathai received worldwide recognition for being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for sustainable development, democracy and peace, her most notable achievement being the creation of The Green Belt Movement, an organization promoting the planting of trees in Kenya and now around the world. I just finished reading her book "The Green Belt Movement, Sharing the Approach and the Experience", an intimate look into the creation of the organization and its achievements over the past 30 years.

For those of us working in Kenya in projects of sustainable development, agriculture and community initiatives this book is a must read. Wangari provides a history of Kenya and how it has lapsed into its present state of poverty but tempers that with a practical analysis of how improvements can be made ending with a positive outlook that hope exists for a new tomorrow. For those of us coming from a Western perspective, it gives us insight into the workings of Kenyan culture and how we can approach our projects so we get successful results. Of especial note is her chapter on Lessons Learned. We can all learn by heeding The Green Belt Movements experiences:

1. Community Development initiatives should address community-felt needs.

2. The messsage must make sense to the participants.

3. There is need for good leadership.

4. Work patiently to motivate communities.

5. Offer some short-term incentives.

6. Reach both decision makes and communities at the same time.

7. Field staff must be keen observers.

8. The community must understand the project.

9. The community must own the project.

10. Community development takes commitment.

11. Limited resources demand prioritization.

12. Democratic administration and management is key.

Community development takes patience, especially when you are working in a different culture. Not all the world works with the West's quick paced business style nor are all the resources readily available at your fingertips in Kenya. But with understanding, inclusive actions, an integrated community consultative program and lots of patience you will be able to achieve positive change. When we started The Ronnie Fund, we did not do so with the aim of imposing projects on Wongonyi village. We have followed Wangari's advice by relying on Ronnie to identify the needs of the community, to prioritize the projects and to negotiate with local administration. Through his leadership we have initiated several successful projects that the villagers have taken ownership of and that have made a difference in their lives in creating quality village life. There are still many needs and challenges in Wongonyi village but I have no doubt that The Ronnie Fund will continue to make positive changes.

For those of you who are heading non-governmental organizations working in Kenya at the grassroots level or those establishing schools and orphanages, I highly recommend you add this book to your library. Wangari's chapters on establishing a tree nursery project will also be very helpful as a model for instituting community development projects in Africa.