Private Story
Oluwatosin Eiseke Bolaji
In July 2022, two environmentalists from Miti Alliance, Joan Njoki and Michael Waiyaki, partnered with ACK Kirangari Primary School near Nairobi to equip students with practical skills to plant and grow trees and to engage in sustainable organic farming in small spaces. Through modern technologies including virtual reality, Joan and Michael are able to show the climate issues affecting Kenya and the world.
“We have been using fertiliser for too long, we’ve over-exploited the soil and microorganisms are being depleted due to high acidity levels,” says Michael. One of the ways to do soil regeneration is by means of agroforestry, where indigenous trees, fruit trees and vegetables are planted on the same land to increase biodiversity. Transfer of this knowledge from one generation to the next is the most crucial part and Micheal understands this: “We are correcting the soil now for the next generation”, he says.
I spent a week and a half documenting Joan and Michael as they taught their students how to prepare the soil for planting, how to make organic manure via a compost pit, how to correctly plant seedlings and how to care for trees as they grow.
“I care about the environment because it's a critical part of our survival. Others should care because failure to be responsible will not only affect them but their future generations,” says Joan.
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