How did the
project “Women and Climate Change” – a partnership between SI Kenya and SI
Denmark, come about? Else Larsen, previous SI UN Representative at the FAO in Rome, recently visited Kenya with a group of Danish Soroptimists. Here she
reports the highlights and shares their learning.
Recently (5-16 March) I was the happy member of a
group of 12 Danish soroptimists, who travelled extensively in Kenya,
together with our Kenyan sisters. The key purpose of the tour was to visit a
number of the many women’s groups in far off rural areas, schools/schoolgirls
and industries, targeted under the 2 year project “Women and Climate Change in Kenya” – a partnership
between SI Kenya and SI Denmark.
To understand how this project came about, here is first
some of the background to the project. In 2009, twelve Danish clubs worked together
on a joint project ”Women and Climate Change”, as a lead up to the high level
UN conference on Climate Change (COP15)
held in Copenhagen in November/December that year. At the conference we participated
with a SI stand at the parallel NGO Forum. At the stand we exhibited the
results achieved by the 12 Danish clubs, through their different advocacy,
awareness raising and action oriented projects. These projects focused on what we
can do, as citizens and professional women, to mitigate and adapt to climate
change and how and why climate change affects women differently from men. The SI
stand was visited by thousands of people, UN delegates, government officials,
students and people off the street. It was an overwhelming success, but it did
not end there!
Towards the end of the conference, the committee of
Danish Soroptimists, who had helped coordinate the projects with the 12 clubs, was
approached by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry encouraged us to apply for funds
for a project on climate change which should focus on women and this time in Kenya.
Following quick consultations between the committee and the board of the Danish
Union, we were in no doubt that this could be done, and, indeed, we were honoured
to have been recognized by the Danish government as a competent, action
oriented, international NGO, capable of
supporting and overseeing the implementation of such a project.
By January 2010, a project implementation plan was submitted to the Danish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. By February the project was publish by the Ministry, and we were
awarded a grant of Danish kr. 2.1 million (US$ 370.000) and so, the 2 year
project “Women and Climate Change in Kenya ”was
born. A Project Steering Committee was set up in Denmark and a matching committee
in Kenya, each committee including the then SI Union Presidents, respectively,
Tove Johanson and Asha Abdulrahman, and, now, we were ready to go.
The key objectives of the
project “Women and Climate Change” is to enable Kenyan women, including most needy women in rural areas,
schoolchildren/girls supported by soroptimist clubs in Kenya, as well as employees/mainly
women in selected textile, food and hotel industries, assisted by the Kenya
National Cleaner Production Centre to:
1. better
handle climate change, and
2. implement
cleaner production practices that will benefit the environment, save on
resources (water, energy, waste, money, time, health) and improve their wellbeing.
More details on the
project objectives, design, and implementation plan and partners, can be found on
the SI Kenya homepage www.soroptimist-kenya.org .
What has come out of the project and what lessons
have we learned? That is what a group of Danish soroptimists, 12 in all, including
3 members of the Danish Project Steering Committee, went to Kenya to learn more about – and we
learned so much.
We recognized that
many of the project achievements, had gone far beyond what could be expected,
due to the dedication, hard work and effective use of the diversity of
professional skills and experience available among the almost 200 soroptimist members in Kenya and due to their ability to collaborate
with local institutions, such as the Kenya National Cleaner Production Centre, and
due to their contacts within government, other NGOs and the private sector.
Soroptimists Meeting with the Minister of Agriculture
We had a
very tight and demanding programme for 12 days. Thanks
to the professional help of the members of the Project Steering Committee and a
Kenyan soroptimist, Elizabeth Nyadwe, who runs a travel business in Nairobi, our accommodation and all our
travels in Kenya, by air and by road, were superbly
organized and no time was wasted.
With the
long dark evenings and no electricity in most remote areas in Kenya, it is no wonder
that the introduction of solar lanterns or LED
lamps has made a significant difference to many women and schoolchildren and,
of course, the environment. By the end
of the project more than 200 rural women/households = approx. 1000 people are
benefitting from these lanterns. They reduce dependence on other energy
sources, such as firewood or kerosene, they save money (buying kerosene is
expensive) and reduce CO2 emissions. Additionally the LED lamps enable schoolchildren
to study at night.
Solar lantern and mobile phone charger
The women were
so eager to show us their solar lanterns, and demonstrating to us how they had learned
to maintain the solar panels and telling us how they were now making business
out of charging phone batteries, which gave them power and respect. In fact, we
were told that many men in the village were envious of the women’s ownership
over these new gadgets. As a
compensation for receiving a lantern for free, each woman was required to plant
50 indigenous tree seedlings, which they would nurse and own. Tree planting is
a big priority for the Kenyan government according to their National Climate
Change Response Strategy (2010).
The solar lanterns
are just one of several successful interventions that impressed us. Others
include learning how to make and use an improved energy saving stove, a “Jiko”
using less firewood, and a “fireless” cooker, which is similar to the hay box,
used in the “old days”, in the western world. It has become very popular by the
women in the project, as it frees up time and saves on firewood, which the
women, or often girls, have to walk long distances to collect every day.
During our
visit in Eldoret, we were taken by members of SI Eldoret Club on a full day tour to Kaptui, a village only
reachable by car in the dry season. After 4 hours drive on bumpy roads we were
met by a group of 29 widows. These women were so
excited about the visit and could not wait to show us how well they cooked
meals using their improved stoves/cookers. Many of them had dressed in their
best clothes – a piece of cow skin – and following lots of singing, dancing and
hugging, we were invited to join in a sumptuous meal, consisting of maize
porridge with hot spicy chicken stew and spinach type green leaves. We forgot
all about the long bumpy drive – just being with these women experiencing how
proud and grateful they were, made us understand that really the project is
making a difference, and these women understand how to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
We also
visited several schools that have been assisted by the project. One school in Nairobi, the Embakasi Secondary Girls School, a boarding school with 400
students, located in one of the fast growing slum areas in Nairobi, made a very big impression on us all. The school lacks all kinds of physical
facilities. The classrooms and dormitories are insufficient and in bad shape and there is no canteen or covered place
for the girls to take meals. They eat standing, outside under a tree, but, we
clearly got the impression that the teaching, with 13 dedicated teachers, is
the best it can be under those circumstances, and guess what? The Head of the school, Nancy Mutai, is a
soroptimist – perhaps that explains it all.
The girls at this school have planted trees,
they have formed an environmental club, made a vegetable garden and a fish pond
and a huge 6000 litre rainwater tank has been installed, and we donated 2 more
such tanks during our visit. There is no doubt that the project is making a
difference at this school and the many others that we visited.
Rain tank at the school
The many
activities directly supported by SI Kenya under this project impressed us so
much, but the project also has another arm, the textile, food and hotel
industries directly assisted by the Kenya National Cleaner Production Centre
(KNCPC). Seven such industries have participated in the project. They have all
been audited by KNCPC, and presented with an investment plan, on ways to
improve their production to make it cleaner, safer, more environmentally
friendly and, ultimately, leading to cost savings on energy, water, chemicals,
other. We visited a textile industry, RIVATEX, in Eldoret. One of the managers
accompanied us though all the stages of the production and gave us exact
figures on environmental and financial savings achieved on use of energy and
water. The financial savings will be used, in part, to help give access to
clean water for people in the surrounding community.
In Mombasa we stayed 2 nights at North Coast
Beach Hotel, which is also a part of the project. The entire staff has been
trained in cleaner production practices under the competent leadership of the
Executive Housekeeper Sarah Maritim. We were taken on a tour of the hotel and
saw how the hotel is working towards becoming a CO2 conscious hotel focusing on
reduction of water, energy and waste. As a result of the project, a solar water
heating system has been installed in the laundry area, and plans are underway
for a similar system for the kitchen area, energy saving light bulbs are used everywhere,
and notices on conserving energy and water are placed in all guest rooms and
public places. A big kitchen garden had been established, providing the hotel
with fresh vegetables and fruit, in turn saving transport and CO2.
Sarah, North Coast Beach Hotel, showing solar panels
on roof of the laundry area (left).
Mombasa was our last stop on this 12 day study tour.
It felt good to relax for a few days, enjoy a swim in the Indian Ocean, while also taking time for a workshop
together with our Kenyan sisters, to take stock of what we had learned and how
we can move on from here, building on the strong partnership developed between
our two Unions. It was a great way to end our tour, and on top of that, with a
good conscious, knowing that we were not adding too much extra strain on the
environment while staying at North Coast Beach Hotel.
Our joint
project, “Women and Climate Change in Kenya”, is now almost completed. Time is
up, the funds donated by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs have been used
up – and used fully in line with our current soroptimist programme goals and
objectives. So what is next? The partnership will continue. Major
fundraising has taken place amongst Danish SI Clubs and individual soroptimists
over this past year. The two project committees in Denmark and Kenya will continue working together
along with the almost 200 soroptimists in Kenya, who are now well equipped to act
as climate change ambassadors.
Finally,
yet another gain of the project has been the nomination of 2 SI representatives
to the UNEP HQ in Nairobi, Alice Odingo and Rose Mwangi, both members of the
Kenya Project Steering Committee. We are all proud of that and we are also proud
to say that the project “Women and Climate Change in
Kenya” was nominated the overall winner of the SIE Best Practice Award 2011.
SIE Best Practice Award Presentation