Groups help hungryAfrica to adapt to climate change
DONALD Trump may not believe in climate change, but it’s not a matter of debate for small-scale farmers in rural Africa. They are already hit hard by climate change as temperatures rise, the rains fail and seasons change.
Africans are leading efforts, across the continent, to adapt and prosper in a changing climate. With support from Hub Cymru Africa and funding from the Welsh Government, people from around Wales are rolling up their sleeves to help too.
Bursting with energy and new ideas, they are supporting communities through a series of innovative projects to slow down climate change and help those on the front line to adapt.
Ru Hartwell, from Community Carbon Link, in Lampeter, is working with the Giriama tribe in Bore, Eastern Kenya, to protect and conserve tropical forest. Ru said: “We’ve been working together since 2007 with children, elders, mothers, as well as volunteers from Wales to protect and conserve more than 300,000 tropical trees.
“Forests don’t just help calm climate change, though, they provide food and protect communities from flooding and landslides. Our next project together is to develop new ways to earn a living to change the way people use the forest to move away from charcoal burning.”
It’s often women who are hit hardest by climate change, and they’re responsible for growing the majority of food crops. In Ghana, for example, women grow 70% of the nation’s food.
Women are also more likely to be working in isolated rural communities, caring for children as men move to cities to find work. So it’s no coincidence that lots of the Wales Africa projects are led by women.
Mothers in a drought-stricken Zimbabwe community were previously surviving by picking wild fruit. Now they are feeding their families through new gardening techniques, fruit trees, water tanks and bore holes thanks to the determination of Martha Musonza Holman, founder of Love Zimbabwe.
This Fair Trade charity, with its home in the Brecon Beacons and its heart in Zimbabwe, works with women in Chinamhora village, near Harare. Since Zimbabwe is facing its second year of drought, the whole community’s health is affected.
Martha has responded with more energy than ever to keep children in school, food in their tummies and cash coming in. Martha said: “As well as selling fairly traded handicrafts, we’ve built key-hole gardens together as they are more productive than a normal garden and they can provide a family with up to three meals a day.”
Key-hole gardens are a way to grow vegetables in poor environments. A clever permaculture design of a raised bed around a central compost where ash from the cook fire, household waste water and food scraps are deposited provides constant nutrition for growing vegetables.
Bridgend-based retired health visitor Deana Owen heads up the kitchen-table charity Friends of Monze. Almost half the population of Monze, in southern Zambia, is undernourished as climate change has caused poor harvests. Deana said: “My love for Zambia began when I was nursing there. Now we’re transforming a barren schoolyard into a drought-resilient ‘food forest.’ It’s soon to be full of fruit trees and vegetables.”
Irrigation and water-harvesting practices are also needed. The Acacia Partnership, from Cardiff, is working with Songhai women and market gardeners in Gorom Gorom, Burkina Faso, to repair the “bouli” – a traditional reservoir for families, livestock and market gardens.
Steve Knapton, from Acacia, said: “Good water conservation and management ensures that families, animals and gardens have what they need through a mix of wells, rainwater harvesting and troughs.”