Carolina for Kibera's Trash is Cash Program

Many of us recycle our bottles and waste without ever seeing the tangible benefits. Although recycling is practiced far less commonly in Sub Sahara Africa, the recycling efforts of two Aid for Africa members are having profound effects on the communities they serve.

In the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya, Aid for Africa member Carolina for Kibera’s Trash is Cash program employs 35 youths to collect four tons of trash each week from some 2,000 households. Because there is no formal sanitation program, the trash would be scattered in the area and lead to health and environmental problems. The trash is brought to two recycling centers. One employs 20 youth, who convert paper and sawdust into low-cost alternative fuel briquettes. The other center sorts, collects and makes pellets from plastics for sale to local industries. The program also works with local women’s groups, who turn plastic bags into retail products like purses, and with artists, who turn bones discarded from local butcheries into jewelry they sell.

Planet Aid in Botswana

Since 1997, Aid for Africa member Planet Aid has collected about 160 million pounds of donated used clothing and shoes, which would  otherwise end up in landfills, from more than13,000 drop-off bins in the United States. The items are then sold to fund international aid and development projects. In Angola, Mozambique and Malawi, for example, Planet Aid has funded teacher training programs for some 2,400 new teachers and has helped close the gap in primary school teachers. In Zambia, Planet Aid built thousands of latrines to prevent the spread of disease.  In Botswana, thousands of children left orphaned by HIV-AIDS receive educational programs, entertainment, and participate in sports through local youth clubs.

In Sub Saharan Africa, recycling programs are not just about rejuvenating waste, they are also rejuvenating lives.

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Lions are vanishing outside of reserves in Sub Saharan Africa.

Panthera vice president George Schaller laments the demise of big cats in the December issue of National Geographic and asks if we as a people have the will to save them.  “Conservation is politics, and politics is killing the big cats,” Schaller writes.

Since 1970, several factors have caused the numbers of these large predators to decline. Human population has more than doubled, there has been a loss of forest land to farming field, and livestock herds have encroached on reserves.

“Lions, once so abundant are vanishing outside of reserves. Shot, poisoned and snared by pastoralist and farmers, partly because they kill cattle and occasionally a person, lions may ultimately survive only in protected reserves.”

How do we manage these reserves to ensure the survival of these large cats? “Most existing reserves are small, able to sustain only a few of the great cats–and these may become extinct due to inbreeding, disease, or some accidental event,”  according to Schaller. He believes conservation has to “enlarge its vision to manage whole landscapes.” He sees the reserve as a “mosaic of core areas, connected by corridors that would allow safe passage, where a large cat can live and breed in peace and security.”

Schaller’s approach would put the incentive on the surrounding community to enforce the laws and policies of the reserve by paying them to maintain a healthy lion population. But he admits that “our greatest challenge is to instill national commitments to save the great cat.”  “Communities” Schaller states, “must be directly involved as full partners in conservation by contributing their knowledge, insight and skill”. Any government involvement has issues of its own, such as insecure funding, and a lack of political will to save wildlife.

Panthera, a member of Aid for Africa, is dedicated to conserving the world’s 36 species of wild cats.

Drilling wells to provide clean drinking water for African communities is one focus of World Hope International’s work.

They did it!  World Hope International recently dug its 700th well and achieved its goal of providing 500,000 people in Sub Saharan Africa with clean water! World Hope and its partners in the Himutwe Wamalale district of Zambia dug well 700 in support of 273 people. Reaching this milestone is even more significant because providing clean water is just one part of World Hope’s mission, which also includes education, microfinance, and community-health programs.

World Hope began drilling for water in remote areas of Africa in 2004 to help poor people who were forced to search for water from local springs and rivers that are often contaminated from animals, bathing, and otherwise poor sanitation. This frequently leads to the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid.

The program which currently exists in Liberia, Mozambique, and Sierra Leone has also operated in Zambia and Malawai. One of its goals is to work with the local population. Rigs are operated by local crews and World Hope staff work with villagers who use their knowledge of the topography and geography to locate prime drilling spots. Once hand pumps are installed to bring water to the surface, community members are given training on well maintenance because the remote locations make returning to the site in a timely manner difficult. They are also given sanitation training to prevent wells from becoming contaminated from wandering livestock and nearby latrines.

Each well serves approximately 700 people and lasts for decades. Not bad for a single day of drilling.

Dave Deppner, Director of Trees for the Future, talks about the importance of tree planting at a dinner attended by the President of Ethiopia as Grace Deppner looks on.

In our previous blog post on the 2011 International Year of the Forest we highlighted the importance of forests in Africa, which account for the livelihoods of more than half of Africa’s population according to experts. Trees for the Future (TREES) has been instrumental in maintaining this synergy by helping people living on degraded land improve their lives through environmentally sound development projects using trees.

It is with great sadness that we announce that Dave Deppner, who founded TREES 22 years ago, recently lost his battle with cancer and passed away. With the passing last month of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, we have lost two champions of the environmental movement whose compassion helped improve the lives of millions of impoverished people.

The roots of Trees for the Future can be traced back to the 1970s when Dave and Grace, his wife, volunteered with local farmers in the Phillippines. There they witnessed first-hand that planting trees on a wide scale could solve many of the developing world’s problems including deforestation, fuel and food shortages for people and livestock, and overall poverty. Dave found that the key was to sustainably harvest fast growing tree species that could be planted at high-densities and produce enough wood to meet the energy needs of rural populations. These trees also infused agricultural lands with fresh nutrients which slowed erosion and improved crop yields.

Today, TREES operates in 23 countries providing technical knowledge on agroforestry, reforestation, and sustainable development, as well as planting materials. In Africa they have worked with more than 300,000 families in nearly 12,000 communities to plant more than 20 million trees. To help keep Dave’s dream alive, TREES has created the Dave Deppner Legacy Fund.

It is ironic that the world lost two champions of reforestation and sustainable development during this International Year of the Forest.  It is reassuring to know that the work they started, which has benefited millions of people and improved our planet, will continue and grow.

Children at the Sabina school enjoying fresh vegetables with their meal.

For the last three years in Rakai, Uganda, students and teachers at the Sabina School, an elementary boarding school supported by Aid for Africa member Children of Uganda, have been learning to grow their own food sustainably. Since the program began three years ago, students and teachers have planted some 100 fruit trees, including mango, jackfruit, avocado, and pawpaw.  They have also added tanks to store water collected during the rainy season to be used year-round in their gardens and have learned to compost and raise chickens. The result: Students now supplement their traditional diets of corn porridge with potatoes, carrots, beets, pumpkins, eggplants and other vegetables. Not only are the students eating better, they are also serving as examples to others.  The Sabina teachers who created the program are now working with Uganda’s Department of Education to replicate it in other schools around Uganda—which they hope will ensure a sustainable program!

The Sega Girls School is working toward becoming a full sustainable, self-supporting operation.

In Tanzania, teachers and students of the Sega Girls School in Morogoro, which began in 2008 with support from Aid for Africa member Nurturing Minds, produce fresh food used by the school community.  The school’s curriculum emphasizes environmental care and includes identifying and planting fruit and other indigenous trees.  The school uses solar panels, harvests rainwater for gardening year-round and works to minimize the school’s environmental impact.  As their programs grow, the school community hopes to become self-sufficient through student- and teacher-run small businesses.  Sega School is located in the foothills of the Uluguru Mountains, which are part of the Eastern Arc–a region that serves as the water catchment area for urban populations downstream and critical animal and plant biodiversity.  As a result, the girls attending Sega are learning how human activities affect the environment and how to better manage natural resources.

As Children of Uganda and Nurturing Minds provide their students with the tools they need to achieve in school, they are also imparting life-long lessons of sustainability and self-reliance.

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Droughts, the famines that follow, and urgent relief efforts are not new to East Africa. The current drought is the third in the region since 2005.  But the discouraging repetition of disaster and emergency response can be successfully addressed. A drought does not have to become a famine, which is a disaster, not of nature, but of a lack of good governance and planning.  Droughts occur worldwide, even in the U.S., but they do not become famines unless governments fail to act. Even as we work to help those who need immediate care, we must learn from and expand long-term solutions for areas vulnerable to drought and prone to famine.

A Glimmer of Hope Foundation has launched an Emergency Relief Campaign for Ethiopia to help reduce human suffering in the areas affected by the drought.

Aid for Africa members address both needs. Two examples are highlighted here.  A Glimmer of Hope Foundation is raising funds to provide emergency food aid  in Ethiopia.  In northern Kenya, The BOMA Project is monitoring the benefits of their development projects that are helping people cope without food aid during this current emergency.

A Glimmer of Hope Foundation is partnering with other leading international NGOs and relief agencies that have a long-standing presence in Ethiopia and a proven track record of delivering emergency food, water, medical care, and shelter. Glimmer’s co-chair, Phil Barber said, “When people, particularly children, are collapsing and dying because there is no food and water, you cannot just turn the page, and turn a blind eye. This is a harsh reality that is not going away overnight.”

Northern Kenya has experienced three droughts since 2005. Credit: David duChemin for BOMA.

The BOMA Project is monitoring events in northern Kenya where communities have been learning how to adapt to recurring droughts.   During the 2008-9 drought, 90 percent of the livestock—the traditional source of food and income—died.  With little income to buy food to feed their families, the region was devastated. Since 2009, BOMA has provided small start-up grants to more than 500 small businesses that have brought income and stability to some 12,000 people who are now able to purchase the food they need to feed their families.

According to BOMA’s founder, Kathleen Colson, “We’re giving residents the tools they need to help themselves, and they’re putting those tools to remarkable use . . . we need to invest in programs that support adaptation and the diversification of incomes for people who live on the front lines of climate change in rural Africa.”

Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh with Teco

Aid for Africa member Great Ape Trust has two reasons to celebrate.  In Iowa, the Trust’s Sue Savage-Rumbaugh was named one of the TIME 100 for 2011 for her work with bonobos.  In Rwanda, the government reaffirmed its partnership with the Trust to save the Gishwati Forest, also known as the Forest of Hope, which will expand the habitat of isolated chimpanzees while benefiting biodiversity, climate and the welfare of Rwandan people living near the degraded area.

In Iowa since 2005, TIME honoree Dr. Savage-Rumbaugh, an associate program director at Great Ape Trust, has studied primate intelligence for more than 35 years.  She is the only scientist to conduct language research with bonobos who she communicates with through hundreds of pictograms. Her research in language acquisition could one day lead to new approaches in cognitive science, autism, and developmental disabilities.

In Rwanda, the Trust began the Forest of Hope project in 2007. Since then, it has expanded by 67 percent, and the chimpanzee population has increased to 15 with the birth of two infants in the past year. The project will link this isolated colony of chimps, which face certain extinction without the greater travel range through a 31-mile (50-kilometer) corridor connecting Gishwati to Nyungwe National Park, which is home to 400 chimpanzees.

Great Ape Trust, based in Des Moines, Iowa, works for the conservation of great apes—bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans—through a variety of programs. It is dedicated to understanding the origins and future of culture, language, tools and intelligence, and to the preservation of endangered great apes in their natural habitats.

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Trees for the Future (TREES) helps people living on degraded land improve their lives through environmentally sound development projects. Through its network of technicians, volunteers, and community leaders, they provide technical knowledge on agroforestry, reforestation, and sustainable development, along with planting materials. TREES has worked with more than 300,000 families in nearly 12,000 communities in Africa and elsewhere. To date they have planted more than 20 million trees in Africa alone.

A bird’s eye view of their progress can be found on Google Earth where 500 projects (40 percent of the total) are recorded with accompanying photos and descriptions. TREES is working to make all of its African projects available and users will soon be able to track progress made at each location over time. Speeding up the mapping process will be the replacement GPS units with Android phones that will provide instant uploads of videos, photos, and project locations. See for yourself how they are turning the Earth green.

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A number of Aid for Africa members are working to save forests.  For twenty years African Rainforest Conservancy has been supporting forest protection on the ground in Tanzania, where only 30 percent of ancient forests still exist and some 1.5 million people live in forested areas.  The Conservancy’s focus is a range called the Eastern Arc Mountains. The key to their work is empowering local people living in and near the rainforests to conserve them.  Projects include tree planting—they have planted more than 10 million trees–the use of more efficient word stoves to save fuel wood, and bee keeping, butterfly farms, and other businesses to reduce tree destruction.  With programs in some 200 schools, the African Rainforest Conservancy is ensuring that the importance of caring for Tanzania’s forests is passed to the next generation. And they have figured out how you can help: just $20 a month or $240 a year conserves 30 acres of forest for one year. Learn more

Mkama is the only public interest environmental attorney in Swaziland. Legal activism has been important in southern Africa for decades, but there clearly is a need for more.  Aid for Africa member Southern African Legal Services Foundation (SALS) supports South Africa’s Legal Resources Centre, the oldest legal center in South Africa, which was founded during the fight against apartheid and whose 65 lawyers today work for human rights, the principles of democracy, the rule of law and justice, and equality for the poor and disadvantaged. SALS also supports legal resource centers in Zimbabwe and Namibia.  The law is a vital instrument to use against injustice and to support the poor who suffer from it the most.  When the only environmental lawyer in the land can challenge her government and win because she has the law on her side, one cannot help but value it all the more.