REVISITING BACK TO EDEN - NOT JUST A MERE TERM BUT A REALITY

The Kenyan youth under the umbrella of Kenya Climate Youth Network, KYCN have this time made it perfect! For long, we have been undertaking many activities. But the question, "what have you done?" remained almost constant amongst many people. I think this has been the case partly because for a long time, we have been in advocacy which is equally important as it serves to instigate many others to start and run physical activities.

Last year, 2010, we as have now become a routine responsibilty of the network; we organized one of the most successful annual national youth conferences on climate change. Unlike the previous ones, this one culminated to another initiative which referred to as “Back to Eden”. In this initiative, we had planned to plant ten thousand trees in Eastern province in partnership with Muli Children’s Family, MCF. Unfortunately, we managed to plant 4500 trees.

On Saturday May 28, 2011, Thanks to St Johns Community, four of us had an opportunity to travel to Yatta and see the work of our hands. And I have good news for you guys. We are just on our way to have our name stipulated as one of the groups that were able to make Man Made Forest not just one of academically recognized terms but a reality. Trust me when I say this. The seedlings we planted six months ago are now trees.

The most interesting part is that the survival rate was almost 95% and even the few that died were replanted! I personally thank The Muli Children’s Family for the work they have done in taking care of the trees. Certainly, they are not just humane to children but also to the environment. And as i listened to Virginia, one of the girls at the center and the current leader of MCF environmental club; i had no doubt that this team was and is still committed to making Yatta a better place for living. May God bless them all accordingly and meet them at there points of need.

If you are out there and you know that you were involved in this process, either through organizing or otherwise, be assured that you have a reason to be proud to have contributed to this successful process. On behalf of the organizing committee, I take this opportunity to send my heartfelt congratulations to you all. But most importantly, I want to thank Norwegian Church Aid for hosting Kenya Climate Youth Network. It would have been impossible for many other NGOs to host over twenty youth running in out of their offices till late in the night as we did on the on the eve of “Back to Eden”