(Nearly) graduate student Martijn Mulder did his graduation project in Kuku, Kenya, on behalf of satellite company Vandersat. He researched the impact of our projects by using satellites and sensors. 

And guess what…! He saw great effects from the soil moisture sensors and the NDVI satellite images. Like: soil moisture contents inside the bunds at 40cm depth were twice as high compared to outside the bunds, even three months after the rain season! A great result, and currently, the sensors are still in the field to continue measurements.

Read more about this research in Martijn’s blog -> 

You might have read about the Kisiki Hai Tour with which we show our documentary in Tanzanian villages… Last month we have launched something alike: a Monitoring and Evaluation Marathon!

With a minibus we visit 27 villages in the 7 districts where we are active now. Our goal: gather data for a baseline research with which we can monitor and evaluate the re-greening over the years.

Justdiggit Lieke gives you an insight in one of her research days.->

What’s better than sharing your knowledge and experience with an enthusiastic and inquisitive group of people from different corners of the country?

Last week our colleague Lieke (who btw speaks almost fluently Swahili!) got the chance to hold such an event in Kongwa, one of our districts in Tanzania. Farmers, Maasai, village leaders and ecovillage project employees from different parts of Tanzania came to visit her and our colleagues from LEAD Foundation.

In Lieke’s blog you can read how she undoubtedly ‘sowed the first seeds’ outside the Dodoma region for a greener Tanzania! ->

As you might have read before, we will soon start digging in Tanzania and therefore Sander (Chief Technology officer, Justdiggit) and Francesco (from partner organization MetaMeta) started training farmers and further explored the area last week.

Read Sander’s blog to read about his visit!

How can you easily monitor the re-greening of degraded land? With this research question, our intern Lara and Eduardo from partner organization MetaMeta went to our project area in Tanzania: the Dodoma region. In this blog, Lara shares her first experiences!

Another short update from the field written by our hydrologist Merel. In the blog she tells you about the great meeting she had with the women of the grass seed bank at Moilo. “The idea was that we would help the Maasai women with the business case of the grass seed bank. We wanted to guide them step-by-step towards the conclusion that it would be very good for their income to expand the grass seed bank. But they were already so convinced by their first successes, that they were already planning to double the size of the grass seed bank on their own initiative!”

Read her full blog!

Lieke Hulshof (social geographer) is recently testing our research framework in Tanzania. In time to come, the framework will be used to give us a good understanding of the impact of our projects.

Check out more!

The chaos surrounding the Medina (old town) caught me by surprise whilst I disembarked the bus from the Marrakesh airport. A somewhat elderly man riding a cart and wagon was non-verbally communicating with a group of honking youngsters on their scooters which continued maneuvering agile between the mass of people in the narrow streets. I confirmed to myself that we made the right decision……. Read his full blog and learn more about our project in Morocco!