the Hope!

Yesterday our Natural Resource/ agricultural tour of Togo, part of our training that is coming to an end, took us to a German NGO in Bassar, Togo. During this visit a number of key natural resource issues were touched on :

Nature’s capacity to act as a pharmacy :

Plants and trees can fulfill much of one’s medecine needs, one of the most promising medicinal plants is the Moringa tree, with its nutritous leaves that provide essential vitamins, protein, and other nutrients. The different uses of the Moringa are seemingly endless. Leaves and seeds can be made into powder and easily be sold, transported, and added to a family’s food. The tree is widely used in Senegal and Mali but has yet to become widely known in Togo. The success stories are numerous and sometimes seem miraculous, maybe this is why they call it « l’arbre de la vie » here or ‘the tree of life’. Moringa is a native tree of INDIA. I hope that my first months of service will allow me to spread the word and the seeds by radio and bike:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moringa_oleifera

The second extremely promising medicinal plant was the Artemisia anti-malarial plant. The possible benefits to the developing world are mind-boggling if it proves as effective as claimed :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/194160.stm

And so many more medicinal plants, from trees whose leaves can be used as natural fertilizer to seeds whose oil counter acts cataracts. Much of this was known by traditional healers but has been lost in the social upheaval, just like the 3rd century BC iron ore purifying ovens near Bassar, classified by UNESCO as a world heritage site, that the locals have little knowledge of.

Among other issues touched on was wood fuel consumption. One large bag of charcoal (5 ft high) necessitates the cutting down of 1 mature mango tree. When one realizes that much of the fuel used for cooking here is charcoal and that one tree can introduce as much as 740 litres of water per day into the air, having acted as a water bassin during rains, one can further understand the gravity of the deforestation situation. This is without mentioning all the other benefits of trees, from shade to fruit, nut, medecine, and natural pesticide production.

Myself and I think many of the other PC trainees came away from the session enthousiastic about getting started at village. I cannot speak for all of us but whether it be organizing aids awareness trainings, teaching folks how to build more fuel efficient stoves, or how to can tomatoes, we have the feeling that there are some concrete ways in which we will be able to aid our villages.