#9 Doing the Future a Favour: The Rehabilitation of Arid Environments Trust in Kenya

SAWA Theme: Ending Environmental Degradation and Extreme Poverty

"We're looking at a situation where about 82 percent of the area of Kenya is semiarid, and very much of that area has become overgrazed and denuded. Now, using the techniques that we have developed here, a lot of that area can be rehabilitated and become useful again." – Murray Roberts, founder of Rehabilitation of Arid Environments Trust

In sub-Saharan Africa, and in Kenya in particular, land degradation and desertification due to overgrazing and overpopulation pressures, are having serious environmental and social consequences - as erosion, drought and diminishing resources exacerbate the problem of poverty. Today, about 30 million people are dependent on resources from Africa's Lake Victoria, a body of water large enough to share its waters with Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, and yet, not large enough to sustainabley support so many people.

Much of the surrounding grasslands around the lake have become overgrazed, leading to severely eroded savannas and destroyed ecosystems. To the north of Lake Victoria lies Lake Baringo, another beautiful fresh water oasis amid the surrounding arid plains. But as the lake receives about 4 million cubic meters of silt every year it is predicted to turn into a swamp.

Murray Roberts, born and raised in Baringo, Kenya, has seen with his own eyes, the lake’s waters begin to disappear. In 1982, he formed the Rehabilitation of Arid Environments Trust with the goal of rehabilitating local grasslands and so far, by working closely with local pastoralist communities of Baringo, the RAE Trust and its programs have managed to reclaim almost 5,000 acres of once-devastated landscape! There are incredible before and after pictures on their website.

By using knowledge from practical research, development experience and local expertise, the RAE Trust has created a program that benefits both people and the environment of the Baringo lowlands. The RAE Trust not only works to restore the savanna, it also aims to alleviate poverty by providing sustainable income generating opportunities for local agriculturists.

By addressing the challenge of environmental degradation today, the RAE Trust are doing the future a favour.

To Learn More:

The Rehabilitation of Arid Environments Trust: http://michna.com/rae/

PBS article: http://www.pbs.org/journeytoplanetearth/hope/baringo.html

#8 UN World Urban Forum 2008 in Nanjing, China

SAWA Global, together with the Huairou Commission, have applied to participate in the upcoming UN World Urban Forum happening in March 2008 in Nanjing, China. Together, and in partnership with two other organizations, they have sent a proposal to do a training workshop on video production for organizations of the economically poorest countries. The goal of the workshop is to empower these organizations to be able to make and submit short effective videos promoting their projects. The ability to create effective short videos and submit them to media outlets like SAWA is an empowering way for organizations to raise awareness and gather resources to support their causes. SAWA is excited by the prospect of connecting with the many organizations that will be at the conference and being able to offer them the opportunity to promote their causes through SAWA.

The UN World Urban Forum - hosted by the UN every two years, bringing together NGOs from all over the world to discuss the environmental, social and economic impacts of rapid urbanization - is a wonderful opportunity for organizations to network, share ideas and solutions and work together to figure out how to make our cities environmentally, socially, politically, economically sustainable. This is an extremely important and valuable conference and SAWA Global is hoping to participate.

The 100 years from 1950 to 2050 will be remembered for the greatest
social, cultural, economic and environmental transformation in history
– the urbanization of humanity. With half of us now occupying urban
space, the future of the human species is tied to the city.
– Anna Tibaijuka, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Executive Director
UN-HABITAT in remarks at the third session of the Forum in Vancouver, Canada, in 2006.

#7 SAWA partners with The Huairou Commission

SAWA Theme: Global Partnerships

SAWA is pleased to announce its new partnership with the NGO Huairou Commission – a global coalition of networks, institutions and individual professionals supporting and promoting the creative and grounded perspectives of grassroots women’s organizations involved in development. Grassroots women’s organizations have emerged as innovative leaders offering creative and tested solutions to many challenges facing their communities. They also play a vital role in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment as a priority in development work

SAWA is excited to partner with the Commission and help support and empower the different grassroots organizations it is involved with by sharing their stories and spreading their ideas. Through this new partnership these grassroots organizations are given the opportunity to submit videos of their inspiring stories, strengthening their influence and impact on the global community.

The Huairou Commission provides a platform where grassroots women’s organizations share creative solutions to problems facing their communities; a goal SAWA Global is happy to support. Together, SAWA and the Commission will help improve the overall practice of development by sharing the stories of grassroots organizations using local solutions that work.


To Learn More: http://www.huairou.org/