TIST Kenya seminar attendants 11th April 2005 at Gitoro Conference Centre, Meru Infront: CAAC president Mr. Ben g.
Henneke JR. WELCOME TO TIST (THE INTERNATIONAL SMALL GROUP AND TREE PLANTING PROGRAM) Greetings to all TIST small groups. Thank you for your continued work. The first TIST activities were begun in Kenya between July and October 2004.
TIST Kenya Chapter was officially launched at the TIST initial Kenya seminar at Nanyuki. Finally the International Small Group and Tree Planting program went home to the grass roots. In March 2005 there were TIST seminars conducted by the eleven TIST administrative groups around our villages. They trained farmers and other interested persons the importance of the TIST program. TIST procedures and best practices amongst other lessons were taught during the 40 day plan. In April 11-14 there was a TIST Kenya follow-up seminar in Meru.
The venue at Gitoro conference center was a place of joy and satisfaction as various administrative groups reported impressive results with over 1,000 TIST groups in Mt Kenya having expressed wish to join the TIST fraternity. There was jubilation and dance at center as shouts of “sisi ni TIST” rent the air. It was a very good time for trainers to share ideas about how to improve and identify specific needs of their communities and prepare achievable and realistic time bound, observable, quantifiable and measurable action plans for the next 60 days.
CHUGU OFFICE The office has been having special meetings. - N.A.L.EP program which has much interest with TIST program with their objectives Divisional Departmental heads of Agriculture officers • Foresters • Public Health • Officer’s chiefs. The District Officer of the Division has welcomed the program and he ensured he would make an effort for the program to run smoothly in his area. From the office we have managed to serve our groups properly in training-follow up, quantification and recruitment of new groups in both Chugu office and the closed Meru Central office. Our TIST Director has managed to have meetings in our office together with Philip TIST KENYA MAZINGIRA BORA Trees for life – Conserve environment Monthly newsletter March 2006 www.tist.org March 2006 and especially joining quantifiers in the field for quantifications - Community Empowered- Groups are getting their rights directly and able to share their ideas. - Program progress.
We have been holding node meetingswhereby small groups are coming together having sent two representatives to their meetings. The groups share ideas and from the node we are able to have the active group and those having other activities besides in the program do with others. A lot of trees are planted in the community own farm exotic and indigenous. Groups have opened bank accounts and from 224 groups registered group have bank account group active. Active and qualified groups are determined by the seedlings and at least have 1,000 trees validated alive for 6 months or 1 yr old. • Conservation farming in our Office: 56 groups have practiced (Kilimo hai) with big and small farms • 69,281 trees quantified • 173,000 seedlings quantified
• 265 Registered groups in the palm • Energy serving Jikos (more economical of firewood in order to save our trees) • Rearing of Dairy goats • Fish farming • Vegetable growing • Banana ripening. • Macadamia nuts Trees are important for both humans and animals. At least every single group has a nursery with 1,000 seedlings and over and are continuing with the planting on their own farms. 10 groups have already been paid in November 2005, which uplifted the groups and giving moral support to the others that were not yet paid. Our office is very happy to have a TIST Kenya Director who is capable, open, intelligent and who is supportive. NTUGI OFFICE 268 groups have been registered, with 51,979 trees quantified, and 175,809 seedlings. We have 18 Node Centres. Those centers are spread from the north (Tutua), east to Timau, Mutunyi (Isiolo) to Naari (Murunguma), Kibirichia (South), and Ntirimiti. Cordial relationships have been built with the administration i.e chiefs, forest department and all stakeholders. All these have attended our seminars. 10 groups have been paid for trees already quantified totaling Kshs 38,132/- . Our office had a great opportunity to demonstrate about TIST when we took the U.S.A team to nurseries and groves where we had planted trees.
The chief of Ntugi location work is planting trees and improving the environment. KINYARITHA OFFICE On 3rd November Kinyaritha Office had a meeting of all group members who had their nurseries at Kirandine lower Imenti forest Office. The meeting was attended by lower Imenti forester Mr Murichu, and Njuri Nceke elders also were there. Mr Murichu addressed the meeting by telling members that he had given them more than 2 hectares in the forest to plant trees. He told them that every group should plant their trees and quantifiers of TIST would come and count them. On 7th have encouraged groups to enlist with TIST. The trainers have also been able to use the administrators meetings to educate people about TIST. There are currently 171 groups registered with 60,973 quantified trees and 288,081 seedlings. MAZINGIRA BORA TIST Kenya has recorded phenomenal growth since its inception in February 2005. There are 1148 small groups registered with over 291,000 live trees quantified and 1,086,000 seedlings in the 5 districts of Meru Central, Meru North, Meru South, Laikipia and Nyeri.
TIST has also created rapport with the local administration, the forest department and Kenya wildlife society. But the greatest impact of the program has been the payment to small groups for their carbon credits totaling to Ksh 94,576. These first payments have encouraged more groups to join TIST by planting more trees, establishing more nurseries and practicing the economical conservation farming. Conservation farming in Chugu TIST’s main goals are to encourage small groups with limited resources to be able to sell carbon credits through tree planting and to encourage conservation farming. Rotational leadership and individual participation in the groups’ activity makes TIST an attraction indeed.
Note from TIST Staff Thank you to all TIST groups who have worked so hard this year. In this month of March please remember to prepare your conservation farming holes early so that you can get a larger yield this year. Please make sure you receive a letter from your office about the upcoming best small group seminar. We are inviting small groups to apply to attend the seminar, and the best will be chosen. Full details are available from your office. We are intending to pay all quantified groups at the end of this month. Again, please contact your node or office for more details. We hope to have regular Mazingira Bora newsletters from this point onwards. We will be including news from the offices, training material and articles from small groups. Please send in your articles to your offices one week before the end of the month.
Keep up the good work. NOW WE ARE GREEN Poem by Chugu Office 1.We came from East, black as we are We came from west Red as we are We came from South, white as we are Now we are green, our touch is green. 2. Now we know green is something Now we know seeds are valuable Now we know seed are trees Now we green our touch is green. 3. Soil is life, we now know it Soil is wealth; we have a lot of it Soil is gold we keep it forever. Now we are green our touch is green 4. Now we know, we are all brothers. Now we know we are all sisters Now we know we share our things Now we are green our touch is green.