THE TRIP TO NGARENARO

It was an inspiring date when we went to learn by practice in Ngarenaro. In brief I can say it was the nice trip with other YETS which every body admired. Personally I hard a chart with Set life management especially Jacob who before anything introduced the approach they began.

They started as a group of few people leading others what to do to keep the NGARENARO River clean. They started in difficult conditions but it improved as time passed by.They now use tractor to take wastes and dispose in a right place.

Assistance was coming from the village council and resistance from the ward counsellor. The project they run is based on volunteering and self motivation, in each case they have to collect wastes and get paid very little from the household they save.

I learnt a lot from Set Life. The lesson that changes must come from us and not from wothout. It must originate from some one and shared and adopted positively and negatively at the same time with the rest. Once more self esteem and love to environment can manifest through Volunteering in each case environment can be protected even when there no donors to support the scheme.

From my experience this is the first environmental group originated from natives themselves. Set Life was no organised by CSO or any authority other than the native themselves.

It is very easy to implement a community felt project since it is a social touch and not a man made problem or Changing circumstances to problems.

There is challenge of community mobilization for changes. It is not easy to mobilize and adopt changes by the community involved. There still slums and toilets with outlet to the river. The community do not control the cabbages from their home stead as required by the group making difficult task to clean the river.

There were challenges like using old truck and other crude equipment for collecting dusts. The other challenge involved material poverty where collecting money to run the project is very difficult. Local counsel is not supporting the project in its full sense.

By Bernad Wilfred