Colobus Trust

Category: Education, Habitat Restoration/Conservation, community, sustainable | Date: Sep 15 2009 | By: colobus

Staff and volunteers spent a morning in Mwakambe, a small local village, helping out with a community project. The Mwakambe Youth Group consists of 20 members and has two main aims: turning two sections of wasteland that have been abandoned for 20 years into an agro-business and a forest of native trees. Both projects will provide an income for the members of the youth group and their families.

Below: Rob (front right) working with the youth group

A local NGO has agreed to donate fertilizer, seeds and saplings to cultivate plants such as bananas, mangos and vegetables. They have set a deadline for the youth group of 20^th September to clear the land, so when we arrived they were all busy working in order to achieve this. We helped by slashing the long grass (which before they started work covered the majority of the plot) and cutting down small shrubs. The land, once cleared of denser vegetation, is then tilled using jembes. All this in the boiling hot sun means it’s very hard work and resulted in many blisters!

Below: We couldn’t resist documenting our injuries!

We made a visit to the second site where many saplings have already been planted. We helped by bringing water and watering them. The forest, when mature, will provide an ideal local location for ecotourism.

Below: Becky checks the progress of an indigenous sapling

We later joined the local group for some shade under a tree while the chairman explained more about the project and how we can help them. Peter then gave a motivational speech to the group members, as projects such as these can take a long time to come to fruition and can be frustrating for those involved.

The Colobus Trust looks forward to continuing to work alongside the Mwakambe community on this project to help them achieve their goals.

Tags: community, habitat restoration, teamwork