After weeks of hard fought games the finest young stars of GAFFER’s teams have battled their way to within just 90 minutes of the biggest final of their lives!

The Semi-Finals are due to be played this coming weekend and feature neighbouring villages and long standing rivals Jora and Rukanga villages facing off on Saturday. On Sunday another derby will see Itinyi Village take on Kale for a spot in the big final! The standard of football is improving at a great rate in Kasigau and from a league traditionally dominated by bigger teams; it is fantastic to see that training can pay off so sweetly for these young guys from the smaller villages. All at GAFFER are excited by the prospect of selecting the next GAFFER Youngstars from the finest players from the teams that have played so hard in the qualifying stages! We have a date with the big boys in Mombasa and are looking to take our first Under-16 victory in the big city in 2011!

The massive increase in the population living in and around the villages GAFFER works with has strained the natural resources to breaking point. A huge percentage of the indigenous trees have been cut down to fuel the illegal charcoal trade. Deforestation leads to soil erosion and local climatic change making self-sufficient farming even more challenging.

Planting trees is relatively easy but ensuring they survive the hostile conditions long enough to reach maturity is more of a challenge. So GAFFER had an ingenious idea! Get the school kids to plant and look after the trees for three years in return for lots of sports at school! This also ensures the trees will be protected from ever being chopped up and burnt for charcoal.

GAFFER sources the indigenous saplings from Wildlife Works and educates the children in effective irrigation and protection from pesky goats who eat everything they see! These kids are from Rukanga and Kiteghe Primary schools.

So far we have planted 447 trees! A big THANK YOU to Wildlife Works for all the education and support!

"The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago, the second best time is now..."

UPDATES!

10/04/07 - Rewards for the best trees!

The school children who care for the trees are periodically visited by GAFFER and the regional Forestry Officer. The trees that are best cared for and have the most effective anti-goat protection are rewarded with certificates and school exercise books.