Planting trees in Voï – Kenya

Our non profit organization ‘ Free Spirit ’ created the “re-green the planet”, a reforestation program dedicated to restoring the forests all over the world. In Africa, we offered seedballs to the Rotary Club organization based in Voï (Kenya).  Voi is the largest town in Taita-Taveta County in southern Kenya, in the former Coast Province. It lies at the western edge of the Taru Desert, south and west of the Tsavo East National Park.  A Seedball is a seed inside of a ball of charcoal dust mixed with some nutritious binders. The biochar coating of the ball helps protect the seed within from predators such as birds, rodents and insects and extremes of temperature until the rains arrive ! Once soaked, the seedball will help retain and prolong a moist environment around the seed to encourage germination. We offered seedballs to the Lion Guardians organization in the Amboseli national park.

« Hi Free Spirit Team

So this year, we assessed our work of the last seedballing, and GUESS WHAT.. the seeds had taken root and the gulley that we had filled up with the sand-filled sacks and seeded them with the seedballs got all filled up during the rains and this method had prevented further erosion and the seeds had turned into trees. The community people said that some newly sprouted trees got eaten by some insect but others survived as you can see in the pics below.

Because of the success of the last seedbombing, we sourced for 120 empty sacks and did the same thing. Hehe.. we even had children, dogs and chickens who also joined us whilst we walked with our sacks of seedballs and empty sacks to the place where we were going to seedbomb. The villagers turned up in large numbers and with the help also from volunteers from the Rotaract Club of Taita Taveta, we all dug, filled out empty sacks with sand, placed them in a different long gully this time and seeded them with the seedballs and placed seeds under the sacks too and seedbomed on flatter land to avoid them from being washed away during the expected rains by end of this month. We pray the rains come as early as possible and the trees grow (rains seemed to have delayed this time)

After the seedballing, whilst the food was still on the fire, we played local games and danced under the tree with the community and finally as we as we were winding up, and having our yummy traditonal lunch of Mseto and Kimanga, and handing out the fruit trees to the community members who were present, we also all shared ideas on how to tackle the gulley problem and the soil erosion menace using local materials. We had invited a local farmer who grows Vertiver Grass on his farm and the benefits of the grass and he had also joined us and brought some and he gave us a talk on the benefits of the grass and how if planted together with the seedballs, it will help stabilise the soil along the gulleys and prevent further erosion. We decided that shall work around their idea of big rocks, and sand sacks, seedballs and the grass and do one gulley at a time. As you can see in the last few pics (two pics), the gulleys further up the road closer to the hills are just humungous. There is so much potential here to harvest the run-off water during the rains by digging out a huge water pan (sand dam) in the village and directing all the water to it which will provide water for the next few months once the rains have gone, to the community and also provide water for their farming and their livestock. The water dam can help with food security and help improve the economy of that community and at the same time the continuous seedbombing that we are planning to do there will have a positive impact on the environment and the villagers will no longer have to shift to another area which will help prevent conflicts.

All hot and dusty and dirty we were, but what an amazing, fulfilling time we had and we all headed back home late in the evening, driving 50km on that bad back-breaking dirt road. Thank you Seedballs Kenya and to you, Equipe,our generous donor, for supporting us in helping reafforest our land and help reverse climate change globally and thank you to our two amazing Rotaract Clubs, Rotaract Club of Voi and Rotaract Club of Taita Taveta University, who are always there volunteering.«