Unlocking Mother Nature’s secrets

Nabaala explains the hidden secrets of the plants in the Maasai Mara

For those of you living in Ontario, I’m sure you’ll remember the piles of snow we received this winter. It seemed like each morning, I began my day by shovelling a path from my house and wishing I could change my environment. But, at last, in February I had a chance to escape the snow and travel to Kenya with Leaders Today.

In Kenya, we visited the Enelerai school in the Maasai Mara. We learned that before Free The Children began working with the community, classes were regularly cancelled because elephants often traipsed through the schoolyard. When Free The Children began building, instead of disrupting the elephants’ walk, the community chose a new location a safe distance away from the elephants.

The indigenous communities in the Maasai Mara have been living in harmony with the land and animals for hundreds of years. Nabaala, a new friend I made while in Kenya, explained that he and his family of 72 brothers and sisters were able to collect food, medicine and shelter from the environment, without destroying it.

Planting trees in the Kenyan school grounds

Nabaala showed me a special type of plant he used to clean his teeth and another type of plant called Aloe Vera, which helped sooth sunburns and sore skin. He explained that his family taught him about the environment and that he plans to share the same knowledge with his children—continuing the respect for the environment their community has created over thousands of years.

Living in harmony with the environment isn’t something we often think about here in Canada. In North America, we consume more energy per person and produce more CO₂ per person than anywhere else in the world. For many years, most of the globe has thought little about the damaging effects we have had on our environment—cutting down 7.3 million hectares of forests every year, causing the endangerment of more than a million species and releasing 23 billion tonnes of CO₂ in the atmosphere. We can sometimes be more focused on changing our environment than living in harmony with it, like the way I felt about the heavy snowfall this winter.

The next time you’re shovelling through the snow or simply walking past a park, think about all the amazing ways the environment around you has impacted your life and all the ways you can positively impact your environment.

Jon MacIndoe
International Trips Coordinator

Learn more about Free The Children projects in Kenya.

Find out how you can visit Kenya on an International Volunteer Trip with Leaders Today.

Free The Children is the largest network of children helping children through education in the world, with more than one million youth involved in our innovative education and development programs in 45 countries. Founded by international child rights activist Craig Kielburger, Free The Children has an established track-record of success, with three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize and partnerships with the United Nations and Oprah’s Angel Network.