Mdela JANEEMO tree nursery
Last week a car full of Kusamala staff traveled to Dowa for a full day of meetings with the communities, checking out progress on the tree nurseries, and planning the upcoming project launch.
The day started off with a tour of the Msokonezi Primary School, where Kusamala, in conjunction with the Hutton Institute, Climate Futures, and the participating communities, will be hosting the JANEEMO launch on November 30th. We are all very excited to have the opportunity of introducing the project to a larger audience and showing off all of the hard work that the communities have already done.
Eston admires a healthy moringa tree planted last rainy season
We then traveled across the dambo to Mdela Village, one of the JANEEMO permaculture demonstration villages and home to three JANEEMO tree nurseries. The women of the JANEEMO clubs welcomed us with dancing and songs about permaculture, which they had written themselves. We toured the tree nurseries and saw thousands of healthy jatropha, moringa, and msangu trees. During a meeting with over 70 community members, we discussed the progress of the project, gave advice on tree care, and hosted a question and answer session.
After a quick lunch at Gladson’s house, our Dowa Village Project Manager, we were off again to Psyeda Village, the second JANEEMO permaculture demonstration village. The Psyeda clubs have had some trouble with germination rates, but we are hopeful that, with proper care and guidance, the most recent round of seeding should produce more successful results.
The Kusamala staff enjoyed our trip to the field and were impressed to see the hard work and dedication of the communities. They are very enthusiastic about the project – it is a continual learning process for all of us!
The clubs welcomes us with songs they’d written about permaculture
