By Sr Justicia Nekesa, Programme Director, Euphrasia Women’s Center, Kenya (Eastern Central Africa Province)
On the occasion of World Environment Day on June 5, sisters and partners-in-mission at the Euphrasia Women’s Center (EWC) in Kenya organized two activities in collaboration with partner organizations and stakeholders.
For the first activity, the program reached out to our project partner Kenya Commercial Bank who bought 200 trees for us to plant across different locations.
We planted 150 trees at the St. Euphrasia Vocational and Training Institute (EVTI) and on the convent grounds. Each student at EVTI has been given the responsibility to care for one tree until it reaches a year of maturity.
The remaining 50 trees were planted on the grounds of a protestant church that partners with us to provide adult literacy classes for women.
In light of this year’s World Environment Day theme which is ‘land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience’ we planted drought-resistant trees that will strengthen the soil to prevent soil erosion in all circumstances of weather change.
The second activity was organized in collaboration with the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya- Sisters Led Youth Empowerment Initiative (AOSK-SLYI), the Gichagi community, the Ngong Parish, Kajiado county government, the African Initiated Church (AIC), and the women involved in our social and economic development project and at EVTI.
The primary objective of this event was to clean up two dumpsites located at the entrance of Gichagi community and along the road to the EWC program. However, we also wanted to raise awareness among those who live in the slums that maintaining a safe environment keeps everyone safe and can save lives. In addition, we wanted to call upon the county government to embrace its responsibilities of keeping its citizens healthy.
Our motivational message was clear: “Any small action you take around you affects the whole world directly or indirectly”.
Since these activities, EWC has been engaging with the wider community, AIC, and the county government to come up with possible strategies for waste management and entirely clear and remove the present dumpsite.
The challenge has been to raise awareness among women and youths in the program, the community of Gichagi, the county government, and AIC about the need to become conscious of our actions because every action we take affects all of us – for good or for bad.
