Somalia -- planting trees for peace
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Somalia's civil war has left the Horn of Africa
country in ruins. In addition to supporting local initiatives to
build peace, strengthen education and heal the environment within
Somalia, MCC reaches out to refugees -- some of whom may return
one day to rebuild their country.
Some 160,000 Somalis have fled across the border
into Kenya. Most struggle to survive in crowded camps and urban
slums. Somali refugees often come to the MCC Somalia office in Nairobi,
Kenya's capital, to ask for help or tell their stories. Halima was
one of these refugees. Her husband and eldest daughter were victims
of the violence in Somalia, and today Halima struggles to support
her seven remaining children. Trained as a nurse, she bakes cakes
and biscuits, tutors in Somali and does other odd jobs.
Halima's dreams for her children are based on their
getting an education and avoiding the clan-based mindset that has
so damaged their country. Her older children attend school with
financial help from MCC.
Despite the destruction in Somalia, Halima would
like to return to her country someday.
"Somalia is my place," she says. "If there's peace,
I'll go back."
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Conflict and deforestation
More than a decade of clan-based civil war in Somalia has devastated the
landscape as well as human lives. An MCC project links trees-planting
with peace.
Without a viable central government to enforce environmental laws, some
Somali businesses are cutting down the country's scarce trees to make
charcoal for export. This deforestation is catastrophic for nomadic herders
already struggling with poverty. They live from the milk and meat of their
camels, goats, sheep and cows. They depend on trees to prevent erosion,
feed their animals and offer shelter. Out of desperation, elders from
one clan went so far as to plant land mines in nearby roads so that trucks
could no longer carry away their trees.
Planting trees of remembrance
During these years of anarchy, countless lives have been cut down as well.
In virtually every Somali family, at least one person has been killed
in the fighting. As part of MCC's project, students studying biology and
the environment in Somali schools will plant trees in remembrance of family
members. These trees will be a living monument to the miracle and value
of life. They will help heal the environment as well as comfort a grieving
child.
$11.55 Cdn/$7.50 US
will buy a neem tree to plant in Somalia
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