FAMILY LIFE HEALING INITIATIVE: 2013

A TREE FOR A BIRTHDAY CAMPAIGN

The Forest area (% of land area) in Kenya was last reported at 6.09 in 2010, according to a World Bank report published in 2012. Forest area is land under natural or planted stands of trees of at least 5 meters in situ, whether productive or not, and excludes tree stands in agricultural production systems (for example, in fruit plantations and agroforestry systems) and trees in urban parks and gardens.

The government has targeted to reach 10% tree coverage standard set by United Nations and in line with that, Family Life Healing Initiative through their partnership with The president’s award scheme has set to provide their input to realize that goal. Under the initiative ‘project mrembo’ that reaches out to girls in less visible and privileged parts of Kenya, empowering participants and their communities, increasing their sense of civic responsibility, and reducing incidences of early pregnancy, early marriages and HIV and AIDS.A team of volunteers in the program have embarked on a campaign where they are now planting trees with individuals in the community whose birthdays fall within a certain date in an year. A question may be asked, why birthdays? Well, birthdays mark celebration of life among many people and in most cases one would want to have such memorable moments that would mark such occasions. Apart from eating birthday cakes and having birthday cards or other niceties, planting tree(s) and in this case annually is a sure way of celebrating and propelling life and in preserving flora and fauna. The campaign is expected to significantly contribute to having more trees planted in Kenya annually as people celebrate their birthdays annually.

A foundational project was started at Marurui, in Roysambu constituency, Nairobi County with backing of the local administration through the chief’s office who was in attendance to participate in the initiative. Also in attendance was the director of Family Life Healing Initiative – FALIHEIN, Mr. John Mburu and beneficiaries of project Mrembo Initiative.