Sending support to Kenya’s Athi River

Here are a few communities Violet has recommended Global Greengrants support—and what local people are making possible with targeted Greengrants:

• For more than 20 years, people in Karinde drank from a well contaminated with dangerously high levels of fluoride, which deteriorated their bones and teeth. Villagers used a donor-advised Greengrant to build water systems to supply 40 homes with clean spring water and upgraded this system with additional funding from Danida to cover 1,500 households. They are also taking steps to reforest the river’s banks and the Thogoto Forest.

• Giraffes and elephants roam the Kimana Wetlands—one of the sources of the Athi River. But drought and irrigation are drying up their habitat, and the land is eroding away. A local Maasai women’s group used a Greengrant to start a tree nursery. So far, they have planted 30,000 seedlings to curb erosion and mitigate climate-related drought.

• Mida Creek’s mangrove forests are an important stop off for flamingos and other migrating birds, but local people were logging them to sell for firewood. Recognizing that ecotourism could provide a powerful economic alternative to selling firewood, a local youth group used two Greengrants to establish a creekside restaurant, and to promote ecotourism over a suspended walking bridge above the mangroves.