No ordinary Sunday: A presidential visit to the Amsterdam office

Sunday the 7th of May 2023 will go down in Justdiggit history. On this day, Her Excellency Mama Rachel Ruto, the First Lady of the Republic of Kenya, honoured us with a visit! What was it all about? You guessed it: making the planet greener, healthier and happier!

Double-checking the technology, a quick rearrangement of furniture, and even a last-minute crash course in Swahili to be able to give the proper greetings to Her Excellency. We have to admit: we were a little nervous during the preparation for the visit. Luckily, these nerves quickly disappeared when Mama Rachel Ruto entered our office. She immediately showed herself to be easygoing, amicable and – as a driver for positive change and the empowerment of all people – deeply interested in our land restoration projects!

Mama Doing Good

The First Lady was in the Netherlands to visit several preselected NGOs active in Kenya. It was part of advancing the collaborative efforts of Mama Doing Good: a non-profit organisation that she founded and is the most important patron for. Mama Doing Good catalyses socio-economic transformation in communities all over Kenya through spirituality, collective agency, voice and influence. 

Presenting our work

As our visions for creating positive change in Kenya overlap, we had the great honour to present our work to The First Lady. During a 30-ish minute presentation, we gave a quick but thorough introduction about Justdiggit, sharing our vision, mission, and above all the impact we’ve made in Kenya (and beyond!) with our land restoration programs. 

The main takeaway was how we can help secure climate-resilient farmland and create thriving communities by implementing simple, low-cost nature-based solutions. Returning vegetation locally (but on a large scale) gives nature a chance to recover, which benefits people, animals and the environment!

A Presidential Partnership

This special day concluded with some amazing news. Mama Rachel Ruto let us know that Mama Doing Good decided to partner up with Justdiggit to help scale up our mission in the future! We couldn’t be more grateful for this amazing opportunity to help spread the green in Kenya.