Thursday, 20 May
2010 - ‘Without trees there is no life’:
this is the ethos that AAR founder and Executive
Director Maryjka Beckmann endeavours to
instil at the Our Lady Nazareth (OLN) School
located in the Mukuru kwa Njenga slum, and
she spreads the message wherever she goes.
Maryjka has a long history
of health and environmental commitment within
her company, the AAR Beckmann Trust, which
was set up to empower East African communities
to improve their environments, protect their
health and engage in income-generating opportunities.
The Mukuru kwa Njenga
slum is just a twenty-minute drive from
downtown Nairobi, but the absence of trees
strikes the visitor, passing through the
maze of shanty dwellings that are home to
a bustling community striving to improve
their lot.
In the midst of this
hectic sprawl, we catch our first glimpse
of the OLN School, where some 2,000 young
children from the slum have the opportunity
to learn, grow, and play… and to plant trees.
It is here that Maryjka, through the AAR
Beckmann Trust, has founded the School Tree-Planting
Programme.
The vision to plant
trees came ten years ago when AAR’s visiting
medical teams reported that the OLN School,
like many in Kenya, was buying large quantities
of firewood – most of which was being cut
and trucked illegally – depleting native
forests and contributing to global warming.
Since then AAR has been
donating hundreds of tree seedlings, whose
branches can be harvested for firewood,
leaving the trees to continue to grow. The
school community has planted a total of
some 8,000 trees, mostly indigenous varieties.
Today, the school grounds look green and
lush, and the school children have enormous
pride in their trees.
Says Maryjka: “Tree-planting is intended
to foster sustainable consumption and production
in the school.”
The AAR health teams
also realised that the biggest health hazard
to children are worms, which compete with
the children for nutrients, leading to diseases
such as anaemia. Symptoms can include fatigue,
breathlessness and leg swelling, which hinder
the children’s learning.
Thanks to the tree planting
initiative, money that the school would
have used to buy firewood is now being used
to fund an annual de-worming programme launched
by AAR.
AAR is a member of the
Billion Tree Campaign – an initiative of
the United Nations Environment Programme,
which has promoted the crucial role that
trees play as fundamental components of
the biodiversity, providing breathable air,
drinkable water, fertile soils and a stable
climate. Over 10 billion trees have been
planted worldwide by participants of the
Billion Tree Campaign from all parts of
society.
The OLN School Tree-Planting
Project shows how simple ideas can harness
the environment in a sustainable way to
improve people’s lives. Trees are just the
beginning in AAR’s programme of promoting
health in environmentally-friendly ways:
“The Trust plans to be involved in encouraging
the use of solar power in schools,” adds
Maryjka.
Report by Gathoni Kiboro,
Photo by Millicent Muriithi
