On May 31^st 2023, KEPSA Foundation Executive Director, Ms. Gloria Ndekei held a workshop session with the Embu County Senator Alexander Mundigi at KEPSA Offices. The aim of the workshop was to plan for the execution of the partnership between KEPSA and the County of Embu through the Senator’s Office towards establishment of Embu County Green Growth initiative.

The first phase of this initiative targets to work with youth groups in Makima Ward of Embu County to implement grassroots solutions to tackle the twin challenges of youth unemployment and adverse impact of climate change through climate action.

Senator Mundigi and Ms. Ndekei during the meeting agreed that KEPSA Foundation through the financial support from Dow Chemicals through ChildFund Kenya will support selected youth groups from Embu County. This support will be to establish tree nurseries and farming of wide variety of fruits, vegetables and herbs for the consumption of their families and sale to boost the economic status of the youth. Further, the youths will undergo trainings on appropriate agricultural and climate smart farming practices to boost the yields, enhance resilience, and value addition of the cultivated foods to promote their well and healthy being. Training and launch of this initiative is scheduled for June 2023.

This initiative is fully aligned to the KEPSA Foundation Focus areas on Climate Change & Sustainability, and Partnerships & Community Outreach, as well as the ChildFund Kenya focus areas on Emergency Humanitarian Assistance to vulnerable families affected by the impacts of Severe Drought Kenya.

The outcome of this initiative will pave way to further partnerships for scalability and enhanced climate change mitigation.