World Nature Conservation Day

CONSERVATION & RECREATION

The Holy Cross Church’s Youth Environment & Communication (E&C) marked the 2021 World Nature Conservation through recreational hiking, biking and fundraising for their seedlings nursery around and about the Kaptagat Forest. The theme was Experience Nature. KFM Foundation sponsored the newly founded E&C Club. The recreational activities were organized under the banner of Kaptagat Eco-Sports. The sports support in planning and organizing conservation and recreational activities done for fun or human wellness. Recreation makes nature conservation a pleasure, joyful and amusing. Participation in recreational activities improves self-esteem, manages stress and reduces anxiety.

ECO-SPORTS RECREATIONAL

• Games, fitness, yoga, jogging, running; cycling through the forest and escarpment, early morning forest walks
• Hiking, photography, picnic by a beautiful riverside.
• Painting, scrapbooking, ceramics, woodworking
• Art appreciation, music appreciation, discussion groups, singing, dance, plays, puppetry, skits
• Browsing the internet, extensive and intensive reading and writing for journals

Cycling For Seedlings

KFM Foundation sponsored Holy Cross cycling was both a recreational and fundraiser for the E&C Club youth seedlings nursery. All proceeds from the event financed the establishment of Holy Cross Youth nurseries. The first sales from the seedlings shall purchase Club biking helmets.  The foundation learned that none of the cyclists had helmets! Wearing a helmet was not consider a requirement for cycling. Cycling without helmets is a common occurrence.

Over twenty cyclists participated in Eco-sports cycling activity. The route was a slow tarmac road rolling down gently through small farms into a rough road that cuts through the northern part of Sabor Forest. Pedestrians, motorcycles, and a few herds of cattle were the main features of the road. The route was scenic. The Uasin Gishu plateau was green with woodlands dotting the once savannah grassland, Maasai warrior grazing land of yesteryears. Most of the cyclists were rural folks, members of Holy Cross, a fast Catholic parish in a quiet rural farming area in Uasin Gishu and Elgeyo Marakwet Counties. 

The 20-kilometre local youth organized conservation and recreation cycling started at the Holy Family Church, Mokwo and finished at Holy Cross Church Tembelio. Along the route, the cyclists celebrated the gift of a seedling nursery site at St Francis of Assisi Holy Cross outstation at Tendwo and over 250 seedlings at Kipleletet Primary School.

Cycling For Helmet

A review of the cycling activity revealed an essential in cycling missing in the event – helmet.  Though we hired sufficient bikes for cyclists who did not have one, the bikes came without helmets. Rented cycles in Eldoret do not come with helmets. Cyclists who owned bikes, too, had no helmets. Cycling gears for safety is not taken into account while cycling.

We adopted helmets as essentials for the duration of the next Kaptagat Eco-sports cycling events. Moreover, the Covid-19 scourge has made it risky to share personal items, let alone helmets.

To take the next event cycling activity beyond the village, the Foundation undertakes to support E&C acquire helmets and other cycling gear in preparation for the 2022 Eco-sports cycling on the occasion of the International Day of Forest. In 2012, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 21 March as the International Day of Forests.

The Day celebrates and raises awareness of the importance of all types of forests. On each International Day of Forests, countries are encouraged to undertake local, national and international efforts to organize activities involving forests and trees, such as tree-planting campaigns.

DONATIONS: HELMETS FOR MARCH 2022 INTERNATIONAL DAY OF FORESTS

Kaptagat Eco-sports is a new KFM Foundation conservation and recreational programme targeting children and young people. To create conservation awareness through fun, we organize biking, hiking and other sports. Experience shows that bikes and helmets are essentials supplies for every new road cyclist needs

Rains!

It rained for three nights just before the World Nature Conservation Day, the day the Holy Cross youths and their friends would pledge to save animals and trees on verge of extinction. Time to discuss the need to protect the environment, our home. World Nature Conservation Day is celebrated every year on 28 July all over the world. “The day recognizes that a healthy environment is a key foundation for a stable and strong society.”

KFM Foundation Eco-sports team planned to mark the day through biking and hiking. A few weeks before, we had made a cognizance of the cycling route. We drove from Holy Cross Church – Tembelio, through Kaptagat Parish to Mokwo Parish. Cycling would start at Mokwo and finish at Temebelio. St John Bosco, Kaptagat was a water point. Games would take place at the finish point.

Three days before the events, heavy rains pounded the Kaptagat Forest. We woke up, on a Monday to the cycling day, with uncertainty about the usability of the route after the heavy night rains. We left Ellegirini Greenpark around 10.00am. Road a tarmac road for about a kilometre and a half before turning left to red murram road, which became wet, slippery and risky as we got into the forest. It became obvious that we had to find an alternative route. The new route skirted Kaptagat Forest and sliced through a portion of Sabor Forest. Most of the road was tarmac, with a section running through the forest murram and quarry dust.

-End-