FLEAT member feature: Sebia Kwaramba

In this week's Faith Leader Environmental Advocacy Training (FLEAT) feature story, we look at the work of Mrs. Sebia Kwaramba, a member of our FLEAT Zimbabwe group who represents a number of organisations including the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the Methodist Church of Zimbabwe.

Sebia writes about her work and the different hats she wears:

I am working on clean up campaigns with churches in the Zimbabwe Council of Churches-and other cooperating partners such as Zimbabwe Prison Services (ZPS), the project started on a pick in July 2019 with support from Act Alliance Zimbabwe providing cleaning materials.

We have mobilised Faith Community-Women’s fellowship at an annual women’s fellowship convention and inspired them to form networks and community groups to do nurseries and plant both fruit and non-fruit trees for Health, Nutrition and livelihoods. We also set yearly targets for each member of the network or group.

More than 50 women are participating in 4 provinces namely Mash Central, at Chindotwe Primary School, Mash East coordinated by Mrs. Bepete , Mash West coordinated by Ms. Sebia Kwaramba and Harare Metropolitan coordinated by Mrs. Nyungwa.

While Matabeleland has recently joined the network, with Mrs S. Ndebele Spearheading selected team leaders and created a WhatsApp group for updates on progress. From October 2019 to March 2020 we planted more than 300 trees (100 fruit and 200 non fruit) and currently managing a nursery of more than 2000 tree seedlings.

We have established a centre in Harare for showcasing our work and selling the tree seedlings in the coming tree planting season.

We also donated trees seedlings at the Apostolic Faith Mission church for planting a month ago and I planted shade trees at Methodist Church in Zimbabwe in December 2019. I was then invited by the congregation to educate the community about tree planting. We also facilitated a UNDP tree planting session at Fatima College.

SUCCESS STORIES SO FAR

The City Council gave me a small piece of land for free measuring about 600ms in the urban suburbs after they saw the passion of planting trees even in areas not within my jurisdiction to show case my talent. In that area I planted more than 100 non fruit trees and 4 Lemon trees.

LESSONS LEARNT

The community is slowly appreciating the environmental issues particularly tree planting for Health and Nutrition, Sustenance and Livelihoods. The project requires self-motivation, commitment and passion.

Sebia has been a champion for environmental justice in all that she does. She has been working with women in different communities where she educates groups on the value of planting for nutritional benefit.