Kisumu Connections - talk and discussion 15th April

• Come and hear about my recent visit to the Aniga Womens Initiative, one of our partner projects near Kisumu, Kenya.
• Meet other Gloucestershire people who have links  with projects and schools in the area.
• Join the discussion on the challenges the Kenyans face, and how we can work with them.
• Browse and buy cards and gifts from the area.

at FOOTSTEPS CAFÉ

269 High St, Cheltenham (corner of Henrietta St) Sunday 15th April 2012 7pm


Refreshments available. Free admission

Carbon and Climate Change

The carbon offsetting companies reckon that my flights will cause around 2 tonnes of carbon emissions, so I thought it would be interesting to compare that with other carbon emissions and savings that I am responsible for or contribute to.

The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for our house says that our heating, lighting and water will cause 2.1 tonnes of carbon emissions per year. I did 6,220 miles in our low emissions diesel car last year, which equates to 1.14 tonnes of CO2. So clearly this flight makes a BIG impact on my carbon footprint.

Comparing it with carbon I am saving this year – our 8 solar panels are calculated to generate 1,447 kWh electricity per year. That equates to 0.785 tonnes CO2. Our solid wall insulation, according to the EPC, will save 1.2 tonnes CO2 per year, so the eco-work we did last year will almost  compensate for these flights!

I take some comfort from the work I do to encourage other carbon savings – trustee of FootSteps and helping with the major eco-refurbishment which has actually just started! Also trustee of Gloucestershire Community Energy Co-op  which has just installed a 45 kwp system which should generate 40,000 kWh electricity per year, saving 21.7 tonnes CO2. We have just heard that TransitionTown Cheltenham has won some Government funding to encourage energy savings in Cheltenham, so the work continues.

The Co-op are offsetting our carbon emissions with ClimateCare and I thought I would do the same for mine with Renewable World  Both these companies invest in renewable energy projects in poorer countries – which seems to me a more worthwhile and immediate way of offsetting carbon than planting trees. Having said that, planting trees in East Africa, where there are massive problems with deforestation, is a great, and appropriate thing to do in the circumstances. There are a number of excellent tree-planting charities. We Forest   sounds good – I’ll investigate when I return.

Communities and the Co-op

So how come I’m going Global Footstepping to Kisumu in Kenya? But firstly, how come the Midcounties Co-op “Green member of the year” is flying thousands of miles to help decorate a school in Tanzania? Decorating isn’t one of the skills in my CV (although I’m practising at home at the moment) and labour is cheap in Tanzania. In a nutshell, the Co-op thought it was a good prize for the 6 winners, and a PR opportunity in the International Year of Co-operatives. I thought it was too good an opportunity to miss, and a chance to stay on an extra week to visit Kisumu and hopefully make myself useful.

Here is a link to a similar, but longer, trip to the same school www.worldexpeditions.com/uk/index.php?section=trips&id=162354

I don’t want to appear ungrateful or hypocritical by listing all my questions and dilemmas, but they’re related to what is the best use of time, money and carbon. I think the dilemmas remain, without simple answers, but I’ve always liked the idea of paradoxes since I first learnt what the word meant. I read this in an old “Permaculture magazine”  recently: “Practice holding a seemingly unsolvable paradox in your awareness until awareness widens enough to dissolve the contradictions (instead of stepping into false compromise). New possibilities emerge at a higher level of complexity, they are not solved at the same level of complexity that created them (Einstein’s famous quote).” At the moment, that just makes my head hurt, but I think I have a glimpse of what the article means. Comments very welcome.

In any case, I am extremely grateful for this opportunity – hopefully for new and thought provoking experiences, good connections with people from different cultures, challenges and adventures, and not least to experience the magnificence of the planet, the landforms and wildlife. The Co-op will probably be making a blog, but I haven’t got a link to it yet.

Specifically in Kisumu, I hope, as a community activist, to make links with other community activists operating in more difficult circumstances, and to share ideas and encourage each other. I expect I’ll learn more about resilient communities. However, if nothing else, I will be doing a good job as a messenger/courier. I didn’t realise Cheltenham had so many links to the town, and I believe they all come down to Dennis Mitchell. I will be visiting Korowe primary school, taking books from Cat, Morgan’s daughter, who went there a few years ago. Carol and Simon, who have done so much for that school and Lela Secondary School over the years, have given me lots of helpful information, and I will be taking seeds and teaching materials from them for the teachers at Lela. The National Star College has good links with Joylands School, and I’ve got DVDs, CDs and gifts from the students for them. Hopefully I’m also going to meet Edwin, Dennis’s main contact, and Margaret from the Widow’s project, just to pass things over.

However, most of the time I will be staying with and working with Benter and the Aniga Women’s Initiative, and also meeting up with Steve from CADIF – thanks to Roz who visited Kisumu last year and has done all the arranging for me. All that, and sightseeing too, will keep me busy for a week.

Come and share our experiences of Kenya!

Friday 16 September 2011 7pm

Jennie and I have been back in England for almost two weeks now, juggling getting back into work, with updating Global Footsteps on our news and taking forward some of our ideas as to how we can help some of the projects which inspired us in Kisumu. Together with Jon Kelly, who spent three weeks in Kisumu researching into the role of women as peacekeepers, prior to our trip, Jennie and I will be hosting an evening describing our project work in Kenya. Come and hear about our adventures and share our experiences through an evening of video and photography.

All welcome.

Friday 16 September 2011

7pm for refreshments, presentation starts at 7.30pm.

Venue: Friends Meeting House, Warwick Place, Cheltenham, GL52 2NP

Rosalind Camp

Heating your home - with silage and liquid manure?

When we first heard of the Bio Energy Village of Jühnde, about 15km outside Göttingen, we decided that this might provide some interesting volunteer opportunities and be a worthwhile project for Global Footsteps to partner with.

The people at the Center for New Energy are often approached by individuals or organisations who would like a guided tour of the anaerobic digestion plant and woodchip burning facility, as well as information on how the project has been conducted, and details of the way it is currently run. We had little idea whatkind of welcome to expect when we approached the CNE, but they immediately invited us to meet one of the two leading figures in the organisation, Eckhard Fangmeier.

Mr Fangmeier very generously gave us an hour of his time and a free tour of the facility (groups usually have to pay a fee for this). We learned about how the biogas plant is run, using grass silage from various grasses as crop-based raw material, and liquid manure from cattle and sheep to aid the gas generation process. We watched several deliveries of liquid manure from local farmers, who also produce the silage in two successive crops per year.

We were told that Jühnde had been selected from around 25 villages who applied to pioneer the “bio energy village” model in 2001. Since the plant started production in 2005, 70% of homes in the village have been connected to the village heating grid, deriving all their heating requirements from the biogas and woodchip boiler installations (supplemented by an oil-fired boiler catering for around 5% of annual heating demand, if the coldest winter weather requires it). Generated electricity is also fed into the national grid, and attracts a feed-in rebate.

What impressed me most was the extent to which local villagers and farmers have bought into the project. The project leaders have worked hard at keeping the community informed, not only about successes but also about the problems the project has encountered along the way. In this way they have gained trust. They take a long-term view and are very conscious of the financial constraints on farmers.

Our next step is to agree a volunteer profile for someone to assist CNE with their promotional and marketing activities, especially in the English language. If everything works out, Global Footsteps could be sending one or more volunteers to this project in the summer of 2012.

Kenyan News Round

Monday 22 August 2011

Kenyans love to talk about politics and during our time here the media and the people we have met have been obsessed with two key issues: the Kibaki succession in 2012 and the Gender Balance Act.

The Kibaki succession debate concerns the question of who will succeed the current president in next year's elections. There are a large number of potential candidates currently campaigning already for nomination but a shadow hangs over two of the most powerful politicians, who face charges of inciting racial violence in the 2007 elections. Jennie and I have witnessed burnt out hotels and shops – evidence of the widescale tribal violence which saw many Kenyans losing livelihoods and lives in the last election. The International Criminal Court is about to confirm the charges facing these men and they will be called to The Hague for trial. The question occupying many Kenyans is whether these men should be allowed to stand for president, given the accusations against them and there is a subtext present which implies that if they do stand and win, the international charges against them could then be refuted. Obviously this could act as a serious deterrent for those currently involved in giving evidence against them.

The Gender Balance Act was brought in with the new constitution, announced last year – the first post-colonial Kenyan constitution. The Act states that no more than two thirds of one gender should occupy the total seats in the government, meaning that in practical terms, one third of ministerial posts should be held by women. Many people hope that this will be a way of navigating out of the murky waters of corruption which have ensnared Kenyan politics over the last decade. Unfortunately implementing this act is proving difficult and if agreement cannot be reached soon, it risks being dropped from the constitution: many who stand to loose by it are actively conspiring for this to happen.

Jennie and I will continue to follow these events with interest, long after our return from Kenya.

Rosalind Camp

Yoga in Benter's Garden

Saturday 20 August 2011

This morning, finally, was my first serious attempt to hold a yoga class for a group of excited Kenyans. The venue: the garden of our host, Benter. Most of the participants were friends of Benter's daughter, Paulette, and comprised a range of people of different ages and backgrounds, including a male dance student with whom I later swapped dance moves in the kitchen. [He taught me some African contemporary dance and I taught him the Charleston!]

The students took the yoga session very seriously and appeared to enjoy it, despite the unwelcome interest of the neighbours who took to throwing balls over the fence as an excuse to come round to see exactly what was going on!

Rosalind Camp