Founder's Message
THE BIBLE says in Gen1:31 that God saw all he had made, and it was very good. This to me means that no matter where one lives now, it once, was very good. So where have we gone wrong if our rivers are choked with heavy metal, forest cover depleted and the air we breathe is killing us? For centuries, man has grown to know the immense importance of a healthy environment to a point where super power governments engage in the talk of climate change whilst looking for innovations that aim at reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
Image- Flowers and Trees on Sale along Ngong Road
Evidently, we have the answers, so how we get up, dust off, roll our sleeves and get to reversing this.It is President Paul Kagame of Rwanda who got it right when he said, “Solving our own problems begins with fighting against poverty of the mind.” We need a society that is informed, empowered and selfless to restore our land. Let us look forward and refuse to be defined by poverty of receiving handouts, leftovers and modern day slavery of managing other people’s resources.
We need to build, even if from scratch, our own resources and restore that which nature has given us. No one but our selves can give us the decent life that is our birth right. Each parent, each child should have a tree or plant in their home and compound. Flowers are pretty however we need trees to clean the air, revive water catchment areas, and create fuel and food sources. So how do we become agents of change and prosperity? For this we go back to school, literally. Green Earthing has set out to create projects which within the shortest time possible will give each school going child with a tree to plant each year.
These initiatives will be backed up by policies that will ensure each primary and secondary school has a boundary of trees. From what they learn and practice in school, they will demand of the same in their homes, farms and estates. The students will care for the trees and by planting more fruit trees add to the advantage of getting food, firewood and timber for our children. The whole idea is to set up a reality that taking care of the environment begins with you and me and if we raise a generation that sees its importance, we run the chance that the world will definitely be a better place.If you destroy nature, nature will destroys you, as stated often by the late Prof. Wangari Maathai. Thus if we restore and build it, it builds us. Both old and young we need to play our part- however small. We are all accountable of where we live and we need to restore our environment.
Our goal, as a community based organisation, remains clear: to transform our environment, improve the quality of life, and ensure that future generations can continue to thrive in harmony with nature.
David Muema Founder, Green Earthing CBO.