WHAT I WILL BE DOING...

VILLAGE VOLUNTEERS:

So this is the first of many informational blurbs that will chronicle the journey I am commencing on. As of today January 5, 2012 the plan is to leave mid to late
September of 2012 for Kenya to volunteer for a year with a group called Village
Volunteers.

I will be assisting two women’s cooperative projects in setting them up so they
can function as an ongoing business. So hopefully I can help them learn to fish as well as sell fish, market fish, package fish, etc. You get the drift.

WHAT I WILL BE WORKING ON:
The first project is called “The Moringa Tree Project”. The moringa tree is a drought resistant tree that is also called the “Miracle Tree”. The next paragraph tells you how and why.
Moringa trees are: rich in vitamins A, C, calcium, iron & potassium; higher in protein than soybean meal; adds nitrogen to the soil;anti-bacterial; also can be used for water purification; and is a source of edible oil, bio fuel, and cattle feed. So the seed pod can be processed in to a flour, pressed for oil, and the husk can be
chopped for cattle feed, and also mixed with non-potable water to purify it.The
Moringa tree contains: All the essential amino acids, 4 times the Vitamin A of
carrots, 7 times the Vitamin C of oranges, 4 times the calcium of milk, 3 times the potassium of bananas, and 3 times the iron of spinach.

The 2nd project is as follows:

The Water Hyacinth Sanitary Pad Project is a sustainable social enterprise that produces sanitary pads out of water hyacinth, an invasive aquatic species becoming a worldwide scourge. The production of a locally made pad from water hyacinth provides girls and women a low cost, biodegradable product that sustains income-generating jobs and provides school girls with access to necessary personal hygiene products.
Girls without access to sanitary hygiene products can miss up to 50 days of school per year causing them to fall behind in class and be ill-prepared for national exams. Therefore, they are rarely eligible for scholarships and are often unable to attend secondary schools. Access to education can significantly change the course of a girl’s life. It is estimated that when a girl receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children, giving her the opportunity to reach her full potential. Additional schooling also provides life-saving public health education, such as HIV/AIDS prevention.

Most young women lack privacy to be able to wash and dry reusable cloth pads.
Without access to clean water, dangerous bacteria can grow on cloth pads and
menstrual cups. Imported pads are plastic, difficult to dispose of and expensive.

Water hyacinth is one of the fastest growing, invasive plants on the planet. This non-native species grows rapidly causing obstruction of water-based t transportation while limiting access to fishing and valuable community water sources. Water hyacinth also provides optimal breeding conditions for vectors that spread illnesses such as malaria, encephalitis, bilharzias, gastro intestinal disorders, and schistosomiasis. The proliferation of water hyacinth threatens biodiversity and destroys native plants, fish and other species by depleting natural nutrients and deoxygenating the water. Water hyacinth speeds water evaporation, therefore, shrinking sources of fresh water at an incredibly rapid rate. It is estimated that the flow of the Nile has been reduced by 10% as a result of the water hyacinth in Lake Victoria.

The rest of what is leftover after processing can be pressed in to blocks and used as a fuel source for cooking.

So you can see I will have a busy year along with much
more.
Stay tuned..KWS
.