An Arid of Affliction
by Ndisha Mwanjala
Coming from an arid and semi-arid background in Taita Taveta County, a village near Tsavo National Park in Kenya bordering Tanzania, I had to be resilient to acquire knowledge. As a young 11 year old girl in primary school, I was denied a right. Due to lack of easy access to school, I had to walk miles from home and walk while still dark in order to get to school in good time. My little brother and I at 5 am in the morning met an elephant and its baby who were migrating from Tanzania to Tsavo National Park. We were so close but by the help of God, my younger brother saw the elephant tusks and we had to devise an escape plan. We ran fast screaming and we hid behind a bush shaking and afraid as I hugged my brother close. We waited for them to graze as we waited for help. After hours, we got rescued by a village elder and we were taken to school.
Though this kept on happening no one said or done anything to act on human wild life conflict. Human wildlife conflict around my area led to us being fearful and this is why children seek to drop out of school for the sake of their safety. Not only to school going children but also to farmers and households had who had property losses and damages. Due to conflicts and environmental & social inequity and injustices to even land grabbing and conservancy encroachment, rumors spread that civilians are creating bush and forest fires in Tsavo National Park in 2020 to make their voices heard costing a damage to a very large ecosystem adding on biodiversity loss.
As a family who practiced agriculture, use of chemicals to enhance productivity and soil disturbing tillage was rampant where chemicals found its way to scarce water sources we had posing adverse health risks. These climate risks coupled with pollution, land degradation and big gullies left behind due to erosion and mineral harvesting brought about natural systems imbalances hence contributing to climate change which on the other hand gives the wild animals no choice but to migrate to other places in search of pastures and water. With all these coupling issues at hand, and exposure to these risks, families find themselves in a vicious cycle of poverty with generations with no future.
My personal school experience that I’m proud to talk about stretched my mindset and belief systems. Water was scarce and I had to move long distances after school to search for water, complete my house chores and still attend to our mini shop based at home, attend to my siblings and prepare dinner. With no time and light for me to complete my homework since there was no electricity and paraffin was too expensive for my family to cater, I had to get up so early so that I get to school before the teacher to complete thee homework and still perform my duties as a time keeper for the whole school. This routine tested my resilience to search for education, tested my patience, ability to stretch and perform even without any form of appreciation and to always find a solution to problems.
Since the experience with wild animals on our way to school and being chased by stray dogs as we walk to school, I have sought to stand for safety rights of young school going children who walk miles to school. Being a global youth ambassador for education at TheirWorld, This has enabled me to also influence leaders to act on the human wildlife conflict which a factor is affecting healthy spaces for children to learn. I envision a world where every child has a safe place to learn and a child’s education is not compromised by environmental factors as human wildlife conflict especially with the climate change.
As a global county ambassador for peace at Global Peace Foundation in my county I engage in implementing clean-up activities, together with youths in my county and in the various youth led environmental and conservation groups we have trained children and mentored in 2 children homes on environmental conservation and participated in tree and grass planting in schools, Nairobi National Park and government spaces to bring to life spaces for meditation and recharging to fight against the climate change anxiety and also proposed recycling contests in schools to manage plastic and glass waste.
We trained more than 500 small holder farmers and youth farmers in Taita Taveta county on conservation, climate smart agriculture and capacity build them on sustainable land management, ecosystem management and on traditional ecological indigenous knowledge to manage the wildlife interferences under UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and also implemented walks and advocacy campaigns to influence policy makers through activism for authorities and organizations responsible to listen to voices of the people especially victims of human wildlife conflict who need compensation and protection. In the process of finding sustainable solutions proposals on the ground are to create and empower farmer groups to have literacy skills and launch by themselves a pool of funds to compensate for their losses on the event of risk occurrence due to human wildlife conflict and climatic risks.
According to a new research, consumer are responsible for more than 60% of the globes greenhouse gas emissions an up to 80%of the world’s water use. Acknowledging tree planting and activism, it is important to also look at the environmental impacts from a consumer perspective because according to the new research, consumers are directly responsible for 20% of all carbon impacts. This means that the real environmental problems are embodies in our daily choices and the services and products we consume and before the natural resources and biodiversity is rendered extinct, we have to use means including psychological means to change consumer habits and also educate on concepts as minimalism.
As a community development and environment student and an entrepreneur, I have launched a social start up that deals with production of ecofriendly products as single use as well as reusable nature-based straws, packaging bags, kitchen items and beauty items and eco fertilizer at its prototype and development phase to enable people reduce their carbon footprint without compromising lifestyle. We also focus on educating people to change their consumption patterns and habits since these changes in consumption habits will have a drastic effect on our environmental footprint. This way we will join hands to manage single use plastic waste and pollution and reduce greenhouse gas emissions due to burning and in turn bring about a circular economy with co-benefits as poverty eradication, good health and wellbeing, sustainable production and consumption patterns and intergenerational equity.
About
Ndisha Mwanjala is an award winning passionate, proactive problem solver on a mission to serve humanity and the environment by empowering and enlightening communities to explore on solutions to problems caused by environmental and climate change affliction. She is a global youth ambassador of education at TheirWorld, a global youth county ambassador of peace in Kenya at Global Peace Foundation, a Greenpeace Africa Kenya Chapter and Heroes For Change volunteer. She has dramatically indulged in climate action and worked towards realization of UNs sustainable development goals in conservation groups while creating employment for youth in her green early stage social startup she found. She is a Hult Prize OnCampus winner and regional final six 2020, Africa Green Grant 2020 finalist, a Youth Empowerment Program Initiative fellow and Africa's 25 under 25 Young Leader Award recipient in the environment category. Her objective is to proactively develop and implement initiatives and projects geared towards climate action, environmental conservation and green revolution.
More On Ndisha…
1. https://theirworld.org/news/steve-nguyen-and-theirworld-gyas-join-forces-with-graphic-stories-for-worldstorytellingday-2021
2. https://opportunitydesk.org/2020/09/28/annointing-the-ikapture-25-under-25-young-leaders-changing-the-game-in-africa/
3. https://www.blankpaperz.com/ikapture-25-under-25-award-ndisha-beatrace-mwanjala/
4. https://globalpeace.or.ke/global-peace-ambassadors/
5. Facebook profile: Wario Mentor Africa