How My Clean Africa Project evolved to A Nairobi Gal Gone Urban Farmer

When I first heard Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame speak about the Africa’s filthy streets as a poverty mindset. I was really intrigued, because I simply could not relate the two. But as I listened and read more about it, I realized what he said was true. Would you dump your trash or garbage on your bed. No!! any human being normally wants to live in a clean environment, even those living in the dump site will still move trash around to find a space they can lay down and sleep.

So why are Africans so quick to throw away trash anywhere. The truth is because we see it as someone else’s problem and responsibility. Visiting Nairobi’s Dump site did something to me. It bothered me and caused me to think of ways to reduce my trash and garbage. Nairobi like most urban African cities is faced with people with complete disregard to where they throw their trash, yet are the first ones to complain when the sewage systems is blocked and access to their homes is flooded.

So the more I began to see dumpsites similar to Nairobi’s Dandora dumpsite in many African Urban cities, the more I got bothered. And I decided to be deliberate in reducing the amount of trash I throw out, and also began recycling waste water. And that is how my amazing journey of Urban farming began. The first step was to reduce the amount of waste water running down my drainage into the sewage systems. It was my small way of thinking on how I was going to reduce waste water running into Nairobi’s sewage systems. So, I started collecting the waste water from washing my dishes and laundry simply started pouring it on my grass.  When I realized how much waste water, I was dumping on my grass I decided to use it to grow fruit trees.

The realization of my success finally come when one day I realized that my trash was so little that it kept being blown away , ending up on my neighbor’s pile. I honestly had not realized how much progress I had made, and at that point I had to let my garbage collector that I would no longer be paying for garbage collection because I simply had nothing to throw away. My journey to a clean Africa had seen me become an African Urban Farmer, and that is how my Nai Gal gone Farmer story began. Yes am a Nairobi Gal whose gone farmer in an urban city. Being an urban farmer has been wonderful, I have learnt a lot, have failed a lot, but I have also enjoyed some amazing fruits that have caused me to start my path of planting more fruit trees not only in cleaning up Africa, but also as my contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions. That is how I am now contributing towards global warming and climate change by the reduction of carbon emissions.