“We have quit complaining” - Redempta tells the story of reviving Dundori Forest
Six thousand miles away, in Nakuru County, Kenya, Redempta Mutisia opened a video link. We listened intrigued in our UK office, as Redempta told us her extraordinary story, and her mission to see the ravaged Dundori Forest restored.
Dr. Redempta, the inspiring Chair of Wezesha
Redempta is the determined Chair of Wezesha, a woman-led organisation with a grand restoration vision. But how did Wezesha come about? How has it become a tree-planting phenomenon in Nakuru County? Well, it began with a coffee morning.
“A group of ten women used to come together for coffee and to discuss problems we observed in our community,” she began. “A lot of these touched on environmental degradation, vulnerability of women when the rains failed.”
Deforestation was hitting Nakuru County hard. People were struggling, even starving. Help was desperately needed.
“One day I challenged the team. ‘Look,’ I said, ‘we’re professionals in our own fields. We’ve a lot of skills and experiences. How about we go back to this community, with the skills and experience we have, and help solve some of these problems?
“With that, there was a lot of excitement, and then our journey began.”
And that was the beginning of Wezesha.
The mission
Wezesha is a Swahili word meaning to empower, to enable.
“We have quit complaining”, says Redempta. “We’ve gone back to our communities, to hold up, to enable...We have a grand vision, of empowering our local communities to lead the way in restoration, and there was not a better place to start than in our own forest in Dundori.”
The beautiful Dundori Forest, Naruku County, Kenya
Dundori Forest is a precious resource, nestled in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley. Yet it’s suffered from charcoal burning and exploitation for over 25 years, and restoring it would be no easy task.
Redempta was undaunted. Slowly, her vision became a reality.
“We work with 100 self-help and women’s groups in the community,” she says, explaining how her organisation reaches out to groups living close to the Dundori.
With ITF’s help, Wezesha train the groups in collecting and planting thousands of tiny native seedlings, growing them in tree nurseries.
Once they’ve grown tall enough, the community plants them in the forest and monitors their progress, as the trees take root and start to thrive. Or they plant them in farms, to be a future source of food and income.
Wezesha nurseries from above
Women at the heart of reforestation
“It’s not just about going out and planting trees,” says Redempta decisively. “It’s about relationships that impact livelihoods.”
Redempta’s determined that Wezesha will go above and beyond for their communities, often taking special note of the enthusiastic women.
“It’s mostly the women who love to take part,” she notes, “sitting down and filling the potting tubes, pricking the seeds, that kind of delicate work.”
Yet early conversations revealed that many women were already overburdened with work, so Redempta, determined that “we never lock any interested person out of a project”, worked with ITF to tailor projects so the women could participate and flourish.
“I remember when we began, only one woman volunteered to lead a team. Now, women will actually make up 50% of leaders. We also have a team of 30 scouts. Before, a job walking around the forest to see how the trees are doing would be seen as a job for men, but 40% of the team are women.
“As a woman, it gives me confidence.”
The joy of cooking
Sadly, Redempta’s mission is challenged by a real need, one which disproportionately affects women.
Trees are constantly being hacked down for firewood, which is often carried by women for up to 10km a day. Their traditional stoves eat up huge amounts of fuel, often burning for hours, keeping women in their homes as they cook food for their families.
Yet Redempta was able to see energy-efficient stoves installed in over 500 homes.
The happy owner of a brand-new eco stove
“When you go into the village, the joy is palpable! Women will tell you how happy they are, and how it’s been a significant shift from those smoky kitchens. Now they use very few pieces of firewood, cook very efficiently and in a very short space of time.
“Within 30 minutes, they can give their family a meal – something that used to take them several hours to do.
“For us, it brings joy, and it should bring you joy too.”
Last words from Redempta
It’s easy to see passionate partners like Redempta as the real heroes.
But in her own words, “It’s not ITF’s forest. It’s not Wezesha’s forest. It’s the forest the community have worked. They’re the ones who prepare the ground, who plant the trees, who monitor them and see them growing.”
They’re the heroes.