Earth Day: When Haller ignites change
Earth day focuses on natural processes, emerging green technologies and innovative thinking that can restore the world's ecosystems. Here is one of our Haller success stories showing how livelihoods can be improved and ecosystems can be restored.Muungano Kwa Mwaluwe is a CBO which is located in Marimani, Mombasa near the famous Mwakirunge dumping site. The area has a population of 600-800 community members, all who practice seasonal crop farming, livestock rearing and poultry keeping.The CBO benefitted from the full Haller Journey which comprises of Basic Farmer training, dam and well building, ESF, fish ponds and tree planting. After the basic farmer training, one lady by the name Adeline Dzame stood out and expressed a lot of interest in farming specifically crop irrigation.
Adeline, who is a 36 year old mother of 3 and a widow, earned her daily living through business by selling soap and food items which wasn't sustainable and earned her less than a dollar a day. The three daughters all who are of school going age troubled her so much with school fees and upkeep since she was the sole bread winner.The project at Muungano kwa Mwaluwe came as a blessing because all along Adeline wanted to practice farming but due to the dry weather conditions, poor rain patterns and lack of water led her to not follow her dream and venture into other income generating activities. After the completion of the well, Haller Team members provided the CBO with Tomato, Okra, Aubergine, Maize and Sorghum seeds for them to start planting and also distribute to other community members.It is at this point that Adeline quickly got to start her 200 metre square plot and begun planting vegetables. Shew set up a nursery bed for the tomatoes and spinach and replanted them on her plot.
Due to shortages of rain she relied on the Well for water and continuously irrigated her plot using Jeri cans at least twice a day and after a while she had a bumper harvest. She could now feed her family and sell the surplus produce to her neighbours and other community members to earn some income.Adeline is thankful for the project because it has led her to fulfil her dream of practicing crop irrigation. Her future plans are to acquire a bigger piece of land near the project sites so that she can utilise the Well and the Dam. Due to her outstanding performance she was chosen as a Haller Farmers App Ambassador to represent the Marimani area and she has been very vocal in creating awareness and sensitisation of the App.