Environmental Club Helps Fight Deforestation

"Simple acts can lead to great change” – Wangari Maathai, Kenyan Environmentalist.

Inspired by these words, the AKA,M Environmental Club a.k.a the Green Gang, decided to do their small part in fighting deforestation in Kenya.

On Saturday, October 24th, 2009, the Green Gang, along with other interested students, travelled to Mpirani Nursery School in Mazeras, a community approximately 45 minutes outside of Mombasa, to plant 70 seedlings.

The seedlings were grown in the “AKA,M Shamba”; an on campus tree nursery created by DP students who had participated in a large scale tree planting project in the same drought prone district, (Kinango), last year. .

After planting 1,000 seedlings at another school, (Mafufundi ECD Centre), students realized that the Academy unlike many of the schools in drought prone areas, has some land, fertile soil, and a reliable water source. So they established the AKA,M Shamba and have been growing a variety of indigenous and drought resistant seed varieties to be planted at other schools.

Equipped with the seedlings grown at the Academy and plenty of enthusiasm, the Green Gang worked in small groups with local primary students to plant the seedlings. By the end of the morning students from both schools had worked hard, contributed to reforestation in the area, and created the beginnings of a natural perimeter fence for Mpriani Nursery School.

The Green Gang hopes that these simple acts, of running a tree nursery and planting seedlings, will lead to great change in combating deforestation in Kenya. *Note: Mpirani Nursery School is supported by the Madrasa Resource Centre, Kenya (MRC, K), and Mafufundi ECD Centre is supported by the Coastal Rural Support Programme (CRSP), both programmes of the Aga Khan Foundation and were linked with AKA, Mombasa through an ongoing Community Service Partnership between the two AKDN agencies.