community event

Beneficiary meetings

Over the last couple weeks,The Assets team has been going all round the forest to have beneficiary meetings.The meetings was to remind the students benefiting from the scheme of the conditions for their bursary to continue. Along with that,parents were also in the meeting to hear and also have a meeting about the CFA structure and how they will slightly change the way they do things.

All the beneficiaries had been visited after six days and on 18th the meetings, ended with Bogamachuko being the last one.

It was quite interesting to see how passionate the parents received the CFA news and how it would make a positive difference in their activities.

 

The meetings brought alot of debates and discussions especially about students    discipline. MrSuleman Bakari gave alot of inspiring examples of how the parents and the students can work together and how both can improve .

 

Muvera Wa ASSETS

Muvera wa ASSETS  is an association of the parents of the beneficiaries of the Assets programme .It was formed in 2006 after the first Assets beneficiaries graduated from secondary school.The main aim of forming this association was to improve the benefits already received from the Assets programme,the name''Muvera''  is  a giriama word meaning ''Thanks''.This group now has over 100 members from all the 10 schools that are in the Assets programme. Over the past few years there were problems in the registration of this association because of a lack of a good forest management plan.This has changed since the Arabuko-Sokoke  forest,forest   management plan was launched couple months ago and it has three regions which are, Gede, Jilore and Sokoke Community Forest Associations (CFA) . Now the Muvera wa ASSETS association in the Gede region has been registered. The gede group comprises of Mida, Mijomboni, Mzizima and Chipande.

Last week we visited the four groups to explain to them the whole registration issue and how this brings an avenue of how the group can come up with eco-tourism projects for their benefits.The meetings were very well attended and we had 30 members all together.Stanley and Mr Suliman(one of the Assets Commitee member) were there to explain the registration issue

 

Mangrove Restoration Event

Yesterday, Bimbo, Naomi, and Lydia from the ASSETS program were involved in a mangrove planting event. ASSETS joined Kenya Forest Service, Kenya Wildlife Service and other Community Conservation groups like the Matsangoni youth group, Mkongani Conservation, and Uyombo subcreek in mangrove planting at Uyombo bandarini. Several schools, including Chipande Primary, Marafiki Primary and Uyuombo Primary also participated in the activity.

Community members planting mangrove seedlings

Four thousand six hundred (4,600) mangrove seedlings were planted! This activity was meant to conserve the sea shore and create a good breeding habitat for fish and other aquatic creatures. Mangroves are often illegally harvested for building materials, and their removal causes sand erosion and greatly disrupts the marine ecosystem. Events such as this are very important for recovering areas that have been damaged.

Mangroves planted by school children

Later in the day, community members were educated on the importance of conserving mangrove forests and the entire environment. Effects of cutting down trees were also discussed in length and members were urged to conserve the environment for future generation. We hope that the community will take this event to heart!

Bimbo speaking on behalf of ASSETS and A Rocha Kenya