Combating Climate Change with Agroecology

Dear Donor,

We are always happy to report on the moringa project since once a tree is planted, it grows. It also continues to nourish and provide an income to women who grow the trees.

This last planting was again for Muhuru Bay with the families who have children with Sickle Cell Anemia. The Sickle Cell Warriors as they are known, are families with the challenge of caring for critically ill children who need better nutrition to keep them from life threatening crisis’s. The parents grow the trees and learned how to care for them this last month. The last plants were planted at Mama Maria Clinic and Hospital.  This project puts the power in the hands and its planted at their homes to have ready access to this powerful nutrition. 

For those of you who supported this program, we are asking that you consider another donation or even a monthly subscription. We are buying moringa powder from the Kar Geno Women's Group in Asembo to provide the children of the Kipsongo slums who eat mainly corn porridge with no protein. The feeding program is for pre school children because of the high incidence of malnutrition. Malnutrition when not caught is chronic and it will effect the children their entire life. Moringa is truly a miracle according to those who provide the supplement of moringa in the children's porridge daily.

The benefits of a monthly subscription will fortify a child to face the world they live in with the intellectiual capacity they were born with and the stature they were meant to have. 

Thank you,

Shana

Dear Donor and Supporter,

A tree planted anywhere helps everyone! We are convinced of that statement but the moringa tree is very special.  Besides the tree providing oxygen and shade, moringa has rightfully earned the name of "miracle" tree.Containing more than 90 nutrients and 46 types of antioxidants, the Moringa tree project provides a social enterprise that combats malnutrition. 

By planting moringa trees with the Kar Geno for Hope women, they powder the leaves and are provided to children who are malnourished. Malnutriton is chronic so we try to catch the children in preschool feeding programs.

For Earthday, we have partnered with the wonderful Kipsongo Project who make beautiful necklaces made by the women who live in the some of the worst slums in Kenya. The sale of the necklace pays the women, plants ten trees and the children of the Kipsongo slums will receive the nutritional powerhouse to grow and thrive to nourish a healthy brain and body.  To check the necklaces out go to our Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/VillageVolunteers?ref=hl

Volunteer with the Kar Geno Women's group to teach work with their social enterprise programs and learn about moringa from the cultivation to powdering and distributing moringa to children's feeding programs. The programs where we have moringa projects have all seen benefits of health and well being.  As a person who has contributed, we thank you and hope you will continue to help us spread this wonderful program so other communities.

Thank you,

Dear Supporters,

Thank you for your past donation for moninga trees. Moringa trees are a great investment in the future for impoverished communities. We've planted thousands of trees in many of the areas we work in Kenya and Ghana but we've also found that it does not grow everywhere. Where it does grow, its thriving so we are indeed always happy to report on the importance and health benefits of children with malnutrition getting the nutrition they so badly need.

Our initiative to help children with Sickle Cell Anemia, a devastating and painful endemic in Sub Sahara Africa, has led us to plant moringa trees in regions where there is a large population of children suffering from the disease. Sickle Cel Anemia is the cause of the highest rate of childhood mortality and the children usually suffer from malnutrition as do their siblings. While there is no cure, keeping children out of crisis is a matter of health interventions like good nutrition, clean water and breathing exercises.

We work with many students and professionals who are helping us create curriculum to educate communities who had considered it a curse on their families. Sickle Cell Anemia takes its toll on families as its expensive to keep a child alive who may need blood transfusions.  The protein and other nutrients required are hard to come by and this puts a  strain on families who are poor and cannot afford adequate protein. All the children of a family suffers as poverty is a cruel cycle of difficulties. Moringa has the highest plant protein rate that is higher than soybean meal. 

We are so pleased that our moringa trees are growing and the families have access to the trees that were planted. We still need help to buy the powdered leaves from our women's groups to send to other villages where the children are malnourished.  

The moringa tree project is making a difference and it just keeps growing!

Shana

What we do know is that Sickle Cell Anemia (SCD) is a debilitating disease that has created the highest rate of childhood mortality in Sub Saharan Africa.  What we also know is that most of the children with SCD also suffer from malnutrition and have extremely painful joints. Like many diseases, nutrition and exercise plays a big role in keeping bodies strong to fight each crisis. In a study in Benin, they have shown that health interventions has dropped the mortality rate of SCD in children to that of other diseases. That to us was enough information to set this project into action with the super food moringa. 

With this knowledge we have formed a holistic program with educational curriculum and also using moringa to provide critical nutritional support. This project also facilitates an income producing opportunity for impoverished families who are dealing with a very vulnerable child who needs medical intervention.  

Peter Kithene Founder of Mama Maria Clinic and Hospital has donated two acres of land around the clinic being made available for moringa planting and harvesting, for the families who have registered as a member of the Sickle Cell Warrior Muhuru Bay Chapter.

As part of the Moringa Tree Project, Asembo Kar Geno’s training under Raphine Muga on using moringa as a food source is training the families and has covered topics such as planting methods (including demonstrations), ideal growing conditions, pruning, harvesting seeds and leaves, processing the powder from leaves, the plant’s nutritional and medicinal benefits, and recipes. Seedlings were given to each of the participants and the trees are being planted as funding will allow around the compound. He is currently working with the clinic director Silas Nguru to prepare land to support another 200 more saplings that we hope to plant.

The planting of the trees and the camaraderie is crucial for families who feel a sense of isolation in a community where disease in the family is seen as a curse, and for whom feeding and nourishing their children is a constant challenge. Our aim is to get families talking so they can share and unload their burdens, plant trees and see their children's health improve.  

Thank you for your continued help with planting this health promoting tree. 

Shana Greene, Village Volunteers