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This lovely article from our Kenyan colleague shows how women’s lives are being transformed through education and empowerment. Thank you to all our supporters for facilitating this work.
Behind every great woman in Kenya, there is another great woman!
Women are generally known by their innate qualities of endurance, empathy, creativity, tolerance, dignity, gentleness and for their integrity, among many others.
We, as Mothers of the Forest, regularly combine our efforts and come together to share our unique perspectives on knowledge about trees and saplings, life in general, the environment and much more. We also support each other to learn new skills.
Over the years, Word Forest has played an important role in transforming our lives for the positive, through many different routes.
Women’s Empowerment
At our Permaculture Training Centre (PTC) of which, I am proud to remind you, we crafted the building blocks with our own hands, we have an Edible Classroom. In this learning space, we participate in literacy and numeracy lessons, cooking classes, social life skills, and we embrace education about climate change, tree planting; other lessons take place here too.
In our literacy and numeracy classes, the Mothers are taught how to read and write both in English and Kiswahili. The Mothers are also taught much needed numeracy skills. These two lessons are enabling them to be able to respond to familiar and unfamiliar situations. They do this by deploying their mathematics and reading skills, which help them make better informed decisions and make problem solving more efficient too.
During these lessons, the Mothers are always happy and excited. Kabibi is among the Mothers who feels very grateful and lucky to get this opportunity for learning as an adult woman. She is always the first to settle down in class and she waits patiently for the teacher and other women to arrive.
She tells me: “Sikujua naeza jua kusoma na kuandika katika umri huu wangu lakini sasa naeza saidia wanangu kufanya kazi ya ziada nashukuru sana”. In English, this means “I never knew if l would ever learn how to read and write. Now l can help my children with their homework.”
Kadzo added: “Naeza andika jina langu vizuri jambo ambalo hapo awali sikueza kuandika hii ni furaha ilioje”. Translated, this means: “I can write my name without any difficulties, what a wonderful privilege.”
Through coming and working together, we’ve been able to achieve a lot. Most of our lives have changed for the better. We’ve shared our weaknesses and strengths which has helped to shed more light on our previous caged lives.
The Mothers of the Forest have table banking, where we save money for a whole year. After acquiring the knowledge and understanding of how to run a business, we came up with the idea to open a shop with the money we had saved from this ‘merry go round’. Mothers are now running a shop which is doing well due to the knowledge and skills we have acquired during our business lessons.
Nuru said: “Mbeleni nilikuwa nafanya biashara lakini sikua na ujuzi wa kuendelesha vyema, lakini kupitia mafundisho naeza endelesha biashara yangu vizuri”. This means: “Back then l had a business and l didn’t have enough knowledge on how to run a business but now through my learning l can run my business well.”
“Since we started learning about cooking methods, it has become a key which unlocked our happiness, peace and love in my family. Most of the time my husband and l used to differ on how I used to cook and present food to the table. I never did it with passion and love now I am a superhero”, Nyevu added.
“Mimi nilidhani kusoma na kuandika ndiyo mwisho wa Kila kitu lakini kumbe sivyo. Tunaeza jifunza kazi za mikono kama vile kutengeneza sabuni, matofali,viatu vya shanga, mikufu, kushona mikeka ili kujikimu kimaisha”, comments Sidi Alisema. That is: “I thought reading and writing was the end of everything, but it’s not. We teach handicrafts such as making soap, bricks, beaded shoes, necklaces and sewing mats to make a living.”
Kafedha aliongezea said: “Ninalipia mwanangu karo ya shule Kwa kuuza sabuni na kushona viatu vya shanga.Sasa nimempunguzia mume wangu mzigo wa kulipia watoto karo ya shule”. Translated, it means: “I do pay my children’s school fees by selling liquid soap and sandals that have helped to ease my husband’s burden.”
Tree Planting
Trees play a great role when it comes to climate change. We, Mothers of the Forest, plant trees and take good care. We’ve learnt different ways to conserve our forest in order to restore and curb the long term problem which has resulted in climate crisis.
Every mother has planted at least 50 trees at home. The target is to plant 100 each at our homes by the end of this year.
Dama explains: “The trees I planted at home make my home cool and attractive. Trees are a habitat to many species. Early in the morning, the weather is always cool and one can hear sweet wake up songs from birds. I encourage the mothers to plant more trees.”
Sidi adds: “We have learnt a lot about tree planting and we need to implement it in our homes. We will have cool and fresh air like Dama, and our community will not be affected by climate change. Also, we will be able to plant food crops and harvest good yields.”
At the PTC the mothers have an acre of land where they plant maize, beans, green grams and vegetables; we share the harvests amongst ourselves and also sell the extra.
For half an hour in our meetings we sit and just be. We take this time to share experiences and challenges and best of all, just be there for each other.
Neema asked Rehema: “How can I ensure that my husband stays focused and caring?”
“I do this by cooking well and showing my love for him and our family,” Rehema answered.
Rehema is aged 39 and a mother of 5 children. She encouraged us all by giving us a piece of advice and hope. She went ahead and narrated how she was stigmatised because of her health condition. Through counselling and guidance she absorbed it and moved on. Rehema advised us not to allow setbacks in life to stop us from facing each new day with determination.
Rehema added: “Through the encouragement I receive from my mentor, I am able to rise beyond my problems and my struggles and I always have a positive attitude about life’’.
I hope you’ll see from this snapshot discussion with the Mothers of the Forest that this really is a wonderful experience; the Mothers show how their lives have turned over a new leaf. We will continue to express our feelings in our meetings because it helps us greatly to cope with our ever changing lives.
Thank you for all you do to help us do the activities we do. You are making lots of memories here as you make wonderful things happen for us all.
Juliet Anyanzwa and the Garashi Mothers of the Forest
