From Garbage to Organic Veg!
The Kibera Youth Reform Group transformed this garbage site
to this lush organic plot!!
105 days from start to harvest!!
Kiberas Youth Reform Organic Farm -Count down to first harvest!!!
The Kibera Youth Reform Organic Farm originally a 3 meter deep garbage dump, is finally only days away from harvest!! The transformation which started in April 2008 has taken a mere three and a half months, prooving anything is possible.
In April, Claire Niala came to me with a proposition. The Kibera Youth Reform Group, a group comprising 70 girls and guys in Kibera who had decided to change their ways of crime, requested assistance with an idea they had. They wished to transform a garbage site into a farm, growing crops for their own consumption as well as for sale if possible.
To begin with, I needed to see the area in question and my friend Wakio Seaforth went into Kibera with Mr Saidi one of the representatives of the group. She returned with the following pictures
From then until now the youth have worked at a terriffic pace to make their dreams come true. Assisted by Dominic Wanjihia who trained them in setting up their drip irrigation system, Johara who arranged the soil tests, Zak who assisted in the early days, Claire who made the connections, raised finance and guided the group with their finances and myself…mainly co-ordinating, planning and advising, the following pictures are a testimony to the youth groups hard work and success.
Appropriate Seeding-Easy Planting Tool?
Dominic always impresses me. No two things are done the same way if he has anything to do with it.
We are growing sunflowers between the veg as part of an experimental solution to cleaning the soil. Rather than the usual stoop and plant , Dom designed an easy planting tool, a plastic hallow pipe with recycled yoghurt pot tied to the top and a stick tied to the bottom. Without stooping all you have to do is jab the stick into the ground to make a hole, take a couple of seed from the pot and drop them down the pipe Done! No back ache farming!
The guys and gals in the youth group are almost fully fledged farmers.
CHECK IT OUT!!
Totally Awesome !! 
Where there’s a will there’s a farm!
The youth are ecstatic!! The farm is almost fully kitted, the first of its kind in Africas largest slum Kibera,
Where there’s a will, there’s a farm!!
Dominic making sure the piping fits!!
Almost time to plant!!
The seedlings are almost ready. What a transformation!! The photos were taken on the 9th of June exactly two months from the date the Youth Reform boys and girls started to clear the dump site. We still have issues with the soil test and will try to intercrop plants that will extract the heavy metals, with food plants. When the crops and extraction plants are mature we will test them to see the effects. Hopefully the food crops will be ok? 
The greatest event of today !!!
A week ago we discussed the Kibera project with a business associate, Patrick. He was up from Uganda, touring projects and I remember asking him if he wanted to come to Kibera. I also remember how he stumbled and mumbled a mixed reply before agreeing,………a little apprehensively I felt.
Unfortunately the day ran out before we managed a site visit, and Patrick only had this blog to refer to.
Today he asked if we would take him and a friend to the project on the weekend. I asked if he finally had time to see it and he replied……….”We want to see it as we want to do the same in another slum near the industrial area.”
And that just made my day!!!
Not So Good News :(
The soil tests were abysmal. Two samples were taken each representing half of the field. The field was transected into two halves, A and B. Then using a zig zag pattern, 30 soil samples from a depth of 30 cm were collected from each side. These samples were put into 2 especially designated bags and shaken. A single sample was then taken from each bag and taken to the labs. (We used this method as soil testing is hugely expensive. Thankfully the lab did our tests for free though they would have cost $125.00
The results can be seen on the attachment.soil-tests-kibera
The picture shows the clear separation between two soil types. The grey soil (closest) was brought in a year ago from a construction site.You can also see the office block at the far end and the area of space beside it just at the end of our planting beds, designated to be a community center.
Our samples were high in Zinc, Boron, Copper and Lead!! The sample that had the largest portion of the ‘construction site soil’ was the worst. The other sample wasn’t as bad but was still a little alarming.
I feel the contamination in the second sample was from the ‘construction site soil’ which due to the method we used in collecting the soil samples was in a lower percentage. I’m hoping that this is the case and to try to prove this we are now doing another test on the red soil area.
We have consulted with a few experts on how to decontaminate the soil, Anne Bruntse has advised us to grow sunflowers and indian mustard for a season, and then to destroy the crop………somehow…..
I will discuss further with her today over lunch…….
Our options are 1) To remove the soil 2) To redesign the plot and plonk the community center on the bad soil which will allow us to use their good soil for the farm. 3) To grow sunflowers and indian mustard. The problem here is these plants will be consumed as we are in the slums. It would look beautiful but would be dangerous.
I think we will probably go with relocating the community center and growing right up to the office block. It will mean rethinking the seed bed area, which ironically is already where we would need it if we have to change! So on the positive side of things, we are actually ahead of schedule
Meanwhile we have all learnt something new……..sunflowers and indian mustard extract lead and zinc from the soils!
Fingers crossed that the new test will come out in our favour!!
Boy at work- Josh in Kibera
The man behind the mic,
Joshua Kegode my nephew, all of 15 yrs and starting out on his journalistic career. Seeing and hearing his interview for our pod cast last week allowed me to ‘view’Kibera through the eyes of an urban teenager. Joshua asked me what he could do with his peers to help with or be part of the ongoing project. We talked about a rabbit breeding component for the farm. He would be expected to research the entire operation , come up with ways of funding the construction of the cages as well as training of the young men and women on how to rear rabbits…………and not just any old rabbits either, we have a unique set of breeders in our next-to-be-featured project The Limuru Agricultural Youth Center
Cute as a button at this stage, and soon to be 6 kilos of much needed and appreciated protein.
Camouflaged Garbage and Seedlings taking root- Kibera Day 5
The garbage is finally camouflaged, and the pumpkins are up to what we expected.
Soon we hope this shadenetted wall of garbage will be covered entirely with green foliage.
The seedlings have now sprouted, thus the race to get the entire system set up is on. We have 3 weeks maximum!! The comfrey hedge is coming up too, as are the tithonia. Both much needed for composting materials. 
The guys have made a geese proof seed bed area
