Happy Birthday Tree Present

My name is Giesla Aseyo. I am 9 years old. I live with my father, mother, my elder brother, two younger twin sisters and brothers respectively. We also live with my grandmother and my cousin sister on the same family farm.

Our family farm borders a tropical rain forest in western Kenya rural town called Kakamega, East Africa.

During school holidays our grandmother narrates to us African traditional stories about our Luhya community, stories which borders on virtues, myth and vice as was also narrated to her by her grandmother while she was our age. These story-telling sessions habitually happens in the evenings around a traditional fire stove in her occasionally smoky kitchen.

It is during this story-telling sessions that I happened to learn of reserved roles where African girl-child should play second fiddle to boy-child.

This is evident during the right-of-passage of boys in my village after circumcision, a ceremony that rubber-stamps the boys from “Boys to Men”.

During such moments, girls from my village are taken through various ‘dos & don’ts’ by their mothers or grandmothers, out of which, a girl or woman from my Luhya community are forbidden to plant trees since they are traditionally not entitled to own land property.

Being neighbors to a tropical rain forest I have seen my mother run a tree nursery enterprise that has supplemented our family income; I have as well seen my dad host international guests in his eco-tourism project towards environmental conservation initiative.

Despite the well drawn out differences in the traditional culture between boys and girls from my community, I have found a common denominator for both boys and girls in my family via birthday certificates from family records that my father keep. All these birth certificates have on them respective birthdates for all of us.

Due to low economic status of most families from my village I have decided to present a tree seedling to any of my friends both at school and in my home neighborhood during their birthdays – since I get these tree seedlings freely as an offer from my mother’s tree nursery and that most of our families cannot afford to buy or prepare conventional birthday presents as seen elsewhere by affluent families do.

I offer my friends and accept for myself as well a “Birthday Tree Present” which plant on the children’s family farms or in pots placed within their houses to celebrate their birthdays.

For the last 3 months however I have revised the types of plants to present at birthday celebrations to plants that repel malarial-causing mosquitoes. Such plants include Osmum kilindischaricum; and Rosemary, plants which can be grown in pots and placed near potential entry points for mosquitoes such as doors and windows or on a deck or balcony where people spend a lot of time outdoors. These plants for example rosemary can also double as a kitchen spice as well as use their natural fragrances to keep away annoying mosquitoes and introducing sweet scents throughout our gardens.

So far, no other institution or environmentalists have undertaken such a project within my region hence an open opportunity for any entity to be on the pioneering end of what is sure to become an important area the African girl-child rights for a sustainable Population, Health and Environment