SI Karen Blixen
Club Name: SI Karen Blixen Nairobi
Club location (town): Nairobi
Club Email Address :
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Officials
President and secretary 2010 – 2012
Jutta Quade
Secretary 2010 – 2012
Akosa Wambalaba
2004-2008
2008-2010
2010-2011
President
Eileen Mbaka
Elizabeth Nyadwe
Jutta Quade
Secretary
Elizabeth Nyadwe
Charity Mwangi
Akosa Wambalaba
Treasurer
Rose Mwangi
Nadia Okello
Josephine Kerubo
Description of activities under women and climate change project
- Training of women on Cleaner Production
- Planting trees in Schools around the city
Description of other club projects
1. Supporting Farmers in Siaya for food security
2. Paying school fees for needy students including 2 handicapped siblings.
3. Construction of 60,000 litre water tank in Girls school in Arid area.
4. Fundraising activities for club projects
WOMEN AND CLIMATE CHANGE REPORT PART I
WORKSHOP AND PROJECT VISITS
SI KAREN BLIXEN CLUB P.O. BOX 66308 –
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SI Karen Blixen Club Project Committee
5/13/2011
WOMEN AND CLIMATE CHANGE WORKSHOP.
Trainers
- Elizabeth O. Nyadwe – Lifestyle Change and Carbon footprint within our local environment
- Akosa Wambalaba – Global Climate Change and Responce
- Alice Odingo – Eco friendly Technologies for Sustainable Development
- Rose Mwangi – Demonstration of Fireless Cooker
- Evans Nangulu – Cleaner Production
- Asha Abdulrahman – How Project Came to Kenya
Project report.
We started the project with a training session on Saturday, November 13, 2010 at the Westbreeze Hotel in Upperhill Nairobi. Total attendance was 30 pax. A mixed group of women in the professions including some domestic workers and business ladies running institutions. Attached is the attendance record including the programme to show what we captured during the training.
We had a morning session with presentations by facilitators and also had a demonstration of the fireless cookers, made for the project by Mumias Primary School for deaf girls. Some participants purchased the extra cookers sent by the school, income which was given to the school for making the fireless cookers for the project.
After lunch break, the group visited the following projects in line with the theme of the training:-
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1) City Garbage Recyclers in Makadara, Nairobi. This organization collects garbage delivered by inhabitants of the neighborhood. Since there is no organized garbage collection in the area, Instead of dumping domestic waste around their home environment, the residents collect and take their garbage to this organization. Here the garbage is sorted into organic waste which is made into manure and sold, other waste like plastics are recycled and sold to manufacturing plants then other waste is made into brickets and sold. This demonstrated a lot at how garbage can is recycled into useful commodities and participants were especially keen on how we can collect especially home plastic waste and supply the organization for their plastic recycling unit.
2) Brian Center in Kasarani where we were taken through waste management, rain water harvesting and farming in an urban domestic environment. Participants were very impressed by how much can be done in a home environment to ensure minimizing waste of water and energy, rain harvesting for home and farm use, composting kitchen waste for farm manure and rearing rabbits and chicken for eggs as income generating activities. This was a very good and applicable experience for all participants since what we observed was very applicable and easy to implement in our homes.
3) Carnivore Wetlands. This restaurant recycles its kitchen and toilet waste through filtration channels in their wetlands. We were taken through the filtration process and noted that the clean water is directed into the nearby National Park into a pond where the wild animals go to drinks. The pond never dries up and is very helpful to the park during the dry season. The wetland had a very beautiful botanical garden demonstrating how waste water can be used to improve and beautify our surrounding.
4) Homegrown Flamingo Flower Farm in Naivasha. This is a commercial flower farm growing flowers for export only. We spent the a good part of the day touring the flower greenhouses where we witnessed how the farm minimizes soil degradation by cultivating the flowers not on the soil but in plastic troughs filled with gravel mixed with plant and organic manure. Watering of the flowers is controlled such that each plant gets just enough water and any extra or runoff water is directed from the flower beds into a pool that collects waste water which is channeled back for reuse in watering the flowers. A good demonstration of water management in a commercial farm. The farm also does not use pesticides but relies on the use of friendly pests (which are bred within the farm) to get rid of predator pests hence making their farm products organic which was very commendable.
We were also able to visit the farm section where they do vermiculture. Here they use earthworm composting. They introduce the worms in a mixture of farm plant waste with cow manure. The worms help in composting the manure which is then used as fertilizer for the flowers. This is an organic way of keeping the soil fertile and rich in nutrients. This was a good demonstration to participants on how we can turn our kitchen waste into plant manure.
Lastly we were able to visit their wetland where all the waste water from the staff kitchen and bathrooms is channeled into pools that go through various stages of filtration and the final clean water is channeled back into storage and used in their laundry.
We were also happy to see that the harvested flowers are transported within the farm by donkey drawn carts only, showing that they are mindful of the environment and avoid using motorized vehicles for transporting the farm produce to the pickup point. Very good practical lessons for the participants on how we can minimize unnecessary expenses which in the end spare the environment.
The farm demonstrated that it’s mindful of its large scale effect on the environment by its minimum disposal of waste into the environment. It operates in an environmentally friendly manner which was quite refreshing to see and a good example to be emulated by those running institutions.
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