After me the deluge?

Let's Bring the Trees Back Home!

When I left for Germany to visit family at the beginning of May, it felt like I was - literally -leaving a sinking ship.

The roads to Nairobi were rivers, parts of the city disappeared under the water masses.

The number of dead and missing people across the country had already risen dramatically.

In our neighboring village on the river, hundreds of households had long since been evacuated. Our school farm in the Kandongu project had turned into a lake, and the 500 newly planted papayas that had been washed away without a trace. Water began to seep through the cement floors of the classrooms.

The village community's flat fields, which were mainly planted with corn and beans, were already largely beyond saving.

By tirelessly digging drainage channels, we had "kept afloat" our private farm, in which we had invested for a year as an organic demo farm, on which we had experimented and developed and which was soon to be opened to anyone curious about it.

I had barely reached Germany when El Niño really started to gain momentum. Two weeks of continuous heavy rain not only cost more lives, houses and livelihoods, but also completely destroyed our and other farms.

A few weeks before the floods

With a group of members of Project FaMoja and young people from our support programs, we go on a trip to the "Forestfoods" farm near Nairobi three months before the floods. The farm is a pioneer in agroforestry, farming "in the forest", and we learn a lot about the benefits of growing food among trees.

Even if the educational excursion to "Forestfoods" arouses curiosity and gets some of the group thinking, back home they prefer to go for the old "tried and tested" - or at least the old familiar. At the time of sowing, just before the floods, everyone is busy planting their monocultures of corn and beans again, with no thought about trees.

A few weeks after the floods

I'm back in Kenya and after weeks of dry weather, the next rainy season has arrived. We hold our breath every time there is heavy rain. Will it be as destructive again?

I have often reported here how much I admire the unshakable hope of the local farmers who never seem to give up despite constant setbacks. This time too, I admire them. But with a heavy heart: How long will they be able to carry on like this?

Just in time

I visit Brother Francis, director of the Kandongu school project and chairman of the FaMoja project, and walk with him across the recently rebuilt school farm.

And what does he proudly show me? He shows me the first trees he planted among the vegetables!

What may sound quite insignificant feels like a breakthrough to me in this place.

Brother Francis saw the devastating rains a few months ago as a "final warning". He felt he had to change something in his farming method. And when he remembers our tour to "Forestfoods", he immediately begins to put what he has learned into practice. The trees help to stabilize the earth and keep moisture in the soil during dry periods. They protect the seeds and provide important nutrients for higher productivity.

I believe that the strong, often catastrophic climatic changes can leave something other than hopelessness here: courage and determination to rethink ways of doing things.

Hardly any other community in Kenya has committed as much deforestation as the Kikuyus in this part of Kirinyaga.

Fields are treeless, newly planted trees serve only the purpose of making quick money through processing, they are rarely replanted and hardly valued. The flat land at the foot of Mt. Kenya is unprotected from floods and droughts - a result of many of the agricultural lessons learned by Europeans during colonial times.

I believe that every pain gives rise to a mission.

My feeling is that NOW is the time for local farmers to show openness to new things and to rethink their relationship with nature. The level of suffering is high enough...

What if other farmers in the village also planted trees in their corn fields?

What if they could see that their crops could be not only better protected, but even more productive than in treeless monocultures?

What if we can help other people build exemplary farms, share their knowledge with others and support them in their rethinking?

There is a lot to learn, to try out and, above all, to TALK!

I am incredibly happy and motivated and firmly convinced that one of my next tasks on site is to bring back the appreciation for trees in this village and the surrounding area.

It will take time, discussions, exchanges, learning from each other, exemplary pioneers, to then be able to tell of some failed attempts and the first success stories. For me, Br. Francis' first attempt on the school farm is already one of these stories!

Now it’s time to KEEP GOING!

I am ready for this because I believe that reviving the appreciation for trees can have a life-changing impact on the farming community.

Are you in?

Your support helps me and us to regularly open spaces for learning, for knowledge exchange, for inspiration, to organize seminars with local experts, to empower new experts of the young generation and to achieve a change in environmental awareness.

If you have any questions or need inspiration, please contact us at any time.

You can support my mission here .

Greetings from Kandongu,

Jana