KENYA – Food for Thought Mondo

Study trip to the rainforest in Kenya

Published on December 14, 2021December 14, 2021 by maailmakoolLeave a comment

Fifteen students from St. Patrick’s Ebubere mixed secondary accompanied by two teachers, Mr. Okwako Zadick and madam Imelda Indeche went on a study trip to Kakamega rainforest.
Students interacted with indegenous tree species preserved in the Forest.
Students were taken through the importance of conserving indegenous trees which has contributed to high and reliable rainfall in the western part of Kenya.

The students got to see many tree species that grow in the rainforest. For example:

An Elgon Teak tree that is 150 years old

African Mahogany tree, often used for wood carving

Sand Paper tree( Sacred tree or tree or tree justice). This tree has pockets used to store water for wild animals.

Aningeria altissima. A medicinal tree that improves the body’s immunity

The study trip took one hour and students came back to school to share what they had gained from the trip. The students came to appreciate the role that forests play in regulating and stabilising the climate system of their region. It is very important to preserve forests to save habitat for animals and endangered plant species.

Day in my life: John and Zamira

Published on November 11, 2019January 14, 2020 by marijogisteLeave a comment

John is 11 years old and in class 5 and Zamira is 8 years old and in class 2. They are cousins and both live with their grandmother Genoveva.
They go to Mukambi Primary School in Shianda, Kenya.

Want to know how their schoolday looks like?

Take a look at the video below 🙂

And here is a small interview with them:

Videos filmed by Julie Escoffier and edited by Triinu Tulva.

A Day in My Life: Lilian

Published on May 16, 2019May 27, 2019 by maailmakoolLeave a comment

Meet Lilian, she is 17 years old and goes to school at Munganga Secondary School in Kenya.

Here is a lesson plan that teachers can use to discuss about Lilian’s video (in English and Estonian languages):

Lilian_ENG , Lilian_EST

A Day in My Life: Dispat

Published on May 6, 2019May 20, 2019 by maailmakoolLeave a comment

Here is a video of Dispat Alambe’s day in East Mumias area, Kenya. Dispat is a 13-year-old boy who lives with his grandmother. He is a very good student and his favourite subject in school is maths, in his free time he likes to play football and study.

Music by Dungwa Sindano Rev: Charles Jangalason

Videos filmed by Panagiota Afaloniati and edited by Triinu Tulva.

Drawing wildlife with Mukambi Primary School students

Published on August 10, 2017May 6, 2019 by eleonoresusiLeave a comment

In January NGO Mondo volunteer Olle Kaidro and WEFOCO school coordinator Sophia Malaha visited different schools in Uganda and Kenya, among them Mukambi Primary School. During their visit, students drew pictures of various plants and animals that could be found near their school.

Students were given drawings made by the students of Pärnu Rääma Basic School. They were fascinated to see some Estonian animals and learn their Estonian names.

After seeing the drawings students were eager to draw their own.

Students were inspired by the surroundings

Everyone were excited and had lots of fun. Especially commenting on each other’s pictures.

They wrote down the name of the animal in English and in their language, suahili.

All of the drawings were gathered to send them to their partner school, Pärnu Rääma Basic School.

Every one were active and really enjoyed the day. Hopefully the pictures will be as well received as the pictures from Estonia!

Photo Essay – Munganga and Tamsalu

Published on March 20, 2017March 20, 2017 by maimikkelsaarLeave a comment

Munganga Secondary School and Tamsalu Gymnasium have a long history of partnership. As the latest activity, NGO Mondo volunteer in Kenya and Uganda Olle Kaidro and WEFOCO school coordinator Sophia Malaha organised a fun workshop for Munganga pupils and Anne Kraubner from Tamsalu gather her students to discover the pictures sent!

Step one – Receiving letters from Tamsalu’s students

Step two – Answering to Estonian partner school

Step three – Receiving letters from Munganga’s students

St. Stephen´s Eshiakhulo Secondary School – Wild Nature

Published on March 16, 2017August 10, 2017 by maimikkelsaarLeave a comment

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA — Pupils in actions – reversed classroom

Hello! We are St. Stephen’s Eshiakhulo Secondary School in Kenya. Our WILD Nature activities involved groupwork around two tasks – messages of plants and making dolls with reused materials and natural materials. All students could work on the project they liked!

We hope our partner school, Toila Gymnasium will see them and organize their project work around the same topic.

Here you can see the pictures we draw. The most important plants in our nature are sugar cane and lemon tree with local importance and coffee tree as an international export article.

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

The second group worked on making dolls. We used materials that we could easily find – plastic bags, seeds, plant fibers. It was really fun to get creative and make something with our hands! The ready-made dolls we brought to our younger siblings.

You can see the process from these pictures and the video:

One group got very artistic with their poster while using the colors of Kenyan national flag!One group got very artistic with their poster while using the colors of Kenyan national flag!

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

One group got very artistic with their poster while using the colors of Kenyan national flag!

Black millet ugali with meat

Published on June 23, 2015June 23, 2015 by tanelsaunaLeave a comment

Making black millet ugali in Khabakaya Primary school and Rise&Shine special school.

In Kenya, ugali is the name for the most common mealtime starch: a thick, stiff porridge made from white cornmeal or red millet.

Ugali is a very simple dish of milled white maize, cooked with water until it’s very stiff and pulls away from the side of the pan. It’s served in big floppy slabs together with meat and vegetables.

Traditionally, ugali was made with millet – a rich and nutritious grain. But when cornmeal, or maize, found its way to the African continent, it became even more popular as a grain staple.

Millet is a gluten-free grain that is nutrient dense and fibre-rich. It is linked to good heart health, diabetes management, gallstone prevention, in fact, it ranked as one of the world’s healthiest food.

The traditional way to eat ugali is to gather it up in small, thumb-sized balls, pressing it together with the tips of your fingers. Then you make a small indentation on one side and use it to scoop up meat, vegetables, or stews. It’s a substitute for any sort of cutlery at traditional Kenyan tables.

black-millet-ugali jm 003 — Gladys making black millet ugali in Rise&Shine special school

black-millet-ugali jm 013 — Serving the food in Rise&Shine special school

black-millet-ugali jm 039 — Sophia in the kitchen of Khabakaya Primary school

black-millet-ugali jm 051 — Almost ready to eat

black-millet-ugali jm 048 — Hygiene is essential! Washing hands before eating in Khabakaya Primary school

Ingredients for black millet ugali:

1)dried cassava

2) some sorghum

3) black millet

4) roasted meat (red meat)

5) omufume (dried special grass)

6) little bit fresh milk

7) enough salt

Recipe: Bring to boil some water and salt. Add flour to your liking and then spin over very low heat. Cook for about 40 minutes.

Materials:

https://healthylivingkenya.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/how-and-why-to-eat-more-brown-ugali/

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=53

http://www.thekitchn.com/word-of-mouth-ugali-76209

Read all the post by students of Kenya

Read all the posts by Rise and Shine special school

Read all the posts by Khabakaya Primary School

Sugarcane or maize? A challenge for kenyan farmers

Published on June 22, 2015June 22, 2015 by tanelsaunaLeave a comment

Kenya’s economy is dominated by agriculture which is also the largest contributor to Kenya’s gross domestic product (GDP). But at the same time only around 15-17% of the land has sufficient fertility and rainfall to be farmed and only 7-8% can be considered to be first-class land. Kenya is a leading producer of tea and coffee, one of the biggest producer of sugarcane as well as the third-leading exporter of fresh produce, such as cabbages, onions and mangoes. Small farms grow most of the corn and also produce potatoes, bananas, beans and peas.

Farming sugarcane has been an essential activity in Kenya, especially in Western part of Kenya and also in Shianda village as there is a local sugar factory in Mumias. Sugarcane is mainly planted by farmers who deliver it to the processing factory after maturity. For farmers it has been convenient to grow sugarcane because the factory has been providing seeds, harvesting with transport and even incentives. But nowadays the factory is struggling with payments and because of increased costs of input, lack of incentives from the factory, farmers are withdrawing from growing sugarcane replacing it with maize and vegetables. Which is a good development as sugarcane’s growing cycle is around one year and people don’t use it for their own consumption. Now sugarcane farmers are facing a serious problem as they need to invest into inputs and fertilizers but have to wait a year before harvesting benefits and in addition the factory is delaying with payments resulting often with negative returns. As most of the farmers are small-scale, this kind of situation is increasing poverty and food insecurity in the area. So replacing sugarcane with maize is rather recommended. Maize can be harvested twice a year and people are using it for their own consumption. But even growing maize has its own disadvantages. When there is a dependable marketplace for sugarcane in the face of Mumias Sugarfactory, there is none for maize. Small-scale farmers in Shianda have two options when selling their maize, whether to sell it during the harvesting season, when the price is often below the net value or store their maize to even out fluctuations in market supply by taking produce off the market in surplus season and releasing it back onto the market in lean season, receiving higher price but suffer heavy losses, both of which are detrimental to the farmers. Furthermore small-scale farmers in Shianda village are lacking dependable marketplace and have no bargaining power over the price on selling their products. At the same time due to low job opportunities and lack of education in the area, for most people farming is the only option to earn some income. Farmers are facing many challenges to ensure food security for their families.

Like many other African countries Kenya is also struggling with desertification. The majority of local farmers use chemical fertilizers. Natural fertilizers such as compost are often preferred to chemical fertilizers. Also, the overuse of chemical fertilizers can have negative effects on the land. For the past twenty years the rains have not been very reliable. The prevailing dry periods have created food supply problems. The rains have been unfavourable to basic crops such as corn, potatoes and beans and food insecurity has resulted. Many local farmers are obliged to buy food to meet the needs of their family because the soil has become completely sterile.

Drought has eroded the country’s natural resources to an extent that they are inadequate for production and support for livelihoods. Droughts have accelerated soil degradation and reduced per-capita food production. In the last decade alone, four major food crises have all been triggered by desertification. Desertification processes have led to massive internal migrations, forcing communities to flee their localities to already-overcrowded areas thereby causing disputes over scarce resources use. Although the government has put in place National Food Security and Nutrition Policy, the quantity and quality of food available, accessible and affordable to all Kenyans, achieve good nutrition for optimum health has remained a challenge.

Text by Kaie Laaneväli

Materials:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Kenya

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/lifestyle/article/2000086318/rapid-desertification-in-kenya-threatening-livelihood

Kama – a traditional estonian food

Published on June 10, 2015 by tanelsaunaLeave a comment

Eshiakulo Secondary School pupils had an opportunity to taste traditional estonian food – kama. What is kama? Kama is a traditional Estonian finely milled flour mixture. The kama is a mixture of roasted barley, rye, oat and pea flour. The oat flour can be completely replaced by wheat flour.

Historically kama was a non-perishable, easy to carry food that could be quickly fashioned into a stomach-filling snack by rolling it into butter. Kama didn’t require baking, as it was already roasted.

“Kama flour” is healthy and natural product made of Estonian crops. A meal from kama flour will provide you with a healthier diet option. Kama flour is a product rich in fibres and minerals and a valuable source of B group vitamins. Use kama flour with fermented milk products, it will double the healthy impact.

Nowadays kama is used for making some desserts. It is mostly enjoyed for breakfast mixed with milk, buttermilk or kefir as mush. It is frequently sweetened with sugar and berries.

Traditional Estonian dishes are conspicuous for the simplicity of their preparation. Just take kama, mix it with milk or buttermilk and eat it! Simple as that!