 to entrepreneurship Tuesday right here on Y in the morning at Y254 channel is so you can find us across all our social media handles at Michelle Ashira is so you can find me across all my social in this particular session to get into any interview that looks at green business ideas for the young people doesn't have necessarily be young people but you know it's a business idea and when it's Tuesday it's matters pertaining entrepreneurship and we are here for you to find ways we can make more income and finances that it is so in studio I am joined by Susan Mute who is the founder of Mazingira Na Amani and besides that Susan is a passionate environmentalist and a lawyer by profession happy Tuesday Susan how are you I'm actually doing very well thank you for you're very much welcome the only issue I have is the Nairobi weather it's so unpredictable you can just but imagine yes so telling us off yeah I would like to find that you run a Mazingira Na Amani organization so what is it all about take us through what Mazingira Na Amani is all about all right just from the name Mazingira Na Amani you can just know that it's all about environment in relation to peace the reason as to why I formed the organization is because we have a lot of environmental conflicts and you need to address such conflicts such that you find we have hunger crisis we have climate change we have people fighting over land due to limited sorry due to limited water space and and all that so that is why initiated me to form the organization to just tackle those environmental conflicts all right another like green business ideas that young people can just dive into and just run with this opportunity oh yes really you see a lot of young people don't know that we have a lot of opportunities in this green space such that we have the ways in which they can generate income through the recycled products that is glass and the plastic they can create something creative and then sell it to get income the other way is that these young people of course you know with this digital generation you can do a lot of things in regards to art poetry seeing write something about environment that is one of the ways actually that is one of the ways to to spread this gospel of environmental conservation the other way is young people can also engage in urban farming if they engage in urban farming of course they be the issue of food security and the other way they will be generating income through it okay so for someone who doesn't understand what is urban farming and maybe we could just explain that to us urban farming how do I do it okay let me use an analogy to explain okay you see they you can go to a certain community and you find some some people growing sucks some people growing sorry a spirit using such they can also use the tires and the plastic bag and then they put soil there and then they grow the seedlings of course because I've mentioned on the issue of urban farming we can also engage these people in growing tree nurseries so that they can sell the I've seen that I've seen that and also we have also guys who plant flowers and you know just end up selling them and for the part of decorating also so yes the different opportunities are there yeah exactly that is the way to go and if they engage in this you see even getting a certain practice to develop the culture of consultants so unless these young people engage in such activities they cannot know the essence of conservation now what was the main reason why though the organization was created in the first place my organization was inspired when I took a tour in Mathare and I saw a lot of conflicts there I saw the issue of garbage being mishandled and people they are getting a falling sick anyone is addressing such issues number one is number two is due to unavoidable circumstances which push people to live in such an environment so I saw the these these that's got people don't know a lot so that is why more one of my initiatives is actually to participate or to make these communities participate by me training them on the importance of conservation on the importance of having a clean environment so in this process of just enlightening them on how important it is to conserve the environment what are some of the how like the process of addressing these particular issues especially in the informal settlement like that like in Mathare so what are some of the ways apart from just teaching them just to ensure that it's that there's an effective implementation of what exactly you are teaching them I also engage them in certain practices like tree planting teaching them on how to to to practice urban farming and I teach them also on how to use the plastics to do something constructive out of it so if they are taught they say education is power and learning is a continuous process so if they learn they see the importance of it so what are some of the ways we can conserve our environment just to curb the problem and the issue of the hunger crisis all right talking about hunger crisis it is very important to know that we are talking about environmental conservation it begins in your house what do you do in your house how do you dispose of that waste and if you dispose that twist do you fall it up on how on where it is dumped actually so talking about hunger crisis and you have this climate change as you said earlier when you begin the interview it's very hard to know whether it's gonna rain in the morning whether it's gonna be sunny it's very hard so you can just imagine the the frustration that that the farmers are facing they don't know even the right time to plant the right time to have it because they are afraid if I plant right now floods might affect my crops if I plant right now we can have drought in my crop and my crops rather we dry so what will happen so that is why we are introducing the concept of urban farming with urban farming you can manage to beat up you can manage to beat this hunger crisis they be the issue of food security but as much as we're talking about food security it is important to also heal our climate we are in a crisis absolutely because it all goes back to the climate exactly climate is the leading factor in this okay okay okay Susan so one of the business ideas of green business ideas of giving us is the urban farming what else is there for us as young people alright you know Kenya Kenya basically depends on agriculture absolutely yes be it in the fishery business be it in the livestock keeping be it in the crop farming in all that so you see if at all we are not restoring our climate will be we'll actually be suffering but anyway apart from urban farming that is one of the areas in green business otherwise I as I mentioned earlier we have the issue of using plastics and glasses to recycle and creating these beautiful of course we love beauty creating these beautiful pieces in our home art pieces and you can also encourage young people to use their talents be it let them go out in the community let them sing let them sing about environmental conservation we have seen a lot of people singing and generating money with yes so and when you look at your organization and one of the programs is the community training so who is eligible to be part of the community training and what is community community training all about alright you see in the environmental space everyone is affected whether you are young or old it doesn't matter your age everyone is just affected by this by this environment so there's no limitation so long as the community at large know the importance of environmental conservation so all community trainings to go and teach them for for instance if you're planting trees the best trees to plant in a certain area how you can use how you can recycle these things how just basically just that and the kinds of rights that they have have environmental rights basically which are social rights so take us to some of the projects that you have conducted as an organization all right I am very happy that my organization is barely one month old and I've done a lot the first thing that I concentrate on very much is environmental history is community trainings considering the fact that I'm introducing the aspect of sustainability such that if I train someone that someone go and train someone and if I tell them this is the way to go they will actually go and spread the gospel that is not introducing the aspect of sustainability in this conservation industry I've done some tree plantation exercise and you will notice that even in my my images in the website we have young people there and I'm so touched with the young people because we are growing old we are going so what about these young people they need to know these things early enough because if they know these things early enough of course they will teach their kids and their kids and that is how the aspect of sustainability is brought so I mentioned earlier when you started this conversation on how the Nairobi weather is so unpredictable I don't know about you guys from wherever you are watching us from but Nairobi weather is so unpredictable so what causes this difference in the weather patterns that as you mentioned earlier on that also it affects the farmers because they don't know the time to till the land they don't know the time to just plant to harvest so it's so confusing so what causes them predictability of the weather the answer is very simple climate change we are experiencing that especially in Kenya cause for instance let me give you a scenario in January this year we experienced rains which was very weird yeah whose general is normally it's hot we know it was the dry month yes and sometime back especially remember during the 2005 2006 time you could have known that during the month of June and July you could have gone to buy the heavy jackets cause you knew the cold was coming but what about now it's very hard to predict very hard for instance today it was raining in the morning we are not even sure whether what the weather would be in the afternoon hours so a person might overdress for nothing which is what we are now addressing we are seriously experiencing climate change in Kenya right now speaking about overdressing this remember a day where I totally overdressed and it became so hot on that day anyway so what are some of the ways the state can actually prepare in terms of risk management when you when you talk about food security in the country number one I don't know whether people know this but we have very good environmental policies in Kenya what is remaining is now the implementation bit we need to implement this environmental policies and number two people need to be taught on the alternatives ways in which they can survive for instance no a new corona will emerge no one was even prepared about it look at the economical sabotage right now we are all facing it right so if we teach our people on the alternatives ways of farming that is now where why we are introducing the concept of urban farming because I know it will it is convenient it is cheap and it is affordable for people because you see climate change is we cannot say that it's a one-day thing of course it takes time and that is why now we are telling people plant more trees to absorb these carbon so that's our climate can heal and so that you can have no predictable pattern so that our farmers can now when is the best time to tell the land when is the best time to prepare when is the best time to harvest and all that so that you can now restore the issue of food security so then I understand that you're there the sole financial of your organization when an investor comes or approaches you and ask you how would you like me or us to come through in this particular organization what are some of the key projects that you have in mind and how can potential investors come in hand thank you for that question of course we need partners we need financiers and you need donors the reason why I'm saying this is this is not an easy space especially because it affects all of us we need to we need people who can invest in us so that we introduce this concept of urban farming because basically a deal with informal settlements and it is not one we have various informal settlements in Nairobi and yeah we need people who can finance us in that and secondly we need considering now approach the issue of of the green jobs basically no training training for you to train you need some equipments especially when you're talking about recycling because there's an organization in Madari which does this they want or they ban the the the plastic and they use that energy not to cook instead of using charcoal so so you see for them they are bringing the issue of tree conservation do not cut the trees just for the charcoal we have other alternatives and you see if they ban this plastic there's a way that's the of course you see we have we are also trying to consider the carbon emission if of course when you ban plastic we have the carbon being emitted so what are the ways in which they do of course they have considered that now you see it requires a lot of money for that another great business idea is that I was having a conversation along with the friend probably last week also after our entrepreneurship Tuesday so we were talking about the way we can just you know recycle plastic into fence like post fence and there's so many opportunities in this place of green business ideas and just having this conversation with you just makes it way broader and absolutely amazing for the young people to just dive into this so Susan also have a background in law how has that actually played a role when just starting this organization and also in the in the process of just being active while I did all right of course it helps considering the fact that we have environmental rights now environmental rights are social rights and they are collective rights you can say that these certain individual has their rights to a clean environment living out the rest it's a collective right so my legal background has really helped me in addressing these issues because I know this the rights that we have in the environmental space and if these rights are breached these are the alternative remedies that we have before they go to bloom so let's look at the financial lessons that you have learned when starting this organization you know I'm so sure of course finances are key key key aspect to study any form of an organization a company anything right so what a couple of financial lessons that you've learned of land it's really important to plan in advance you cannot just ambush yourself you know when register an organization like just like that because as for me I am very passionate about the aspect of sustainability I just don't want to start something and then it falls in the next year our angry mother has been being inspiration she started her organization way way back and it's still running even after her death sad to say we have sold rest in peace all right so let's look at few years down the line let's look at three three years down the road so the environment aspect of it my aspiration is to touch as many lives as possible and I quote Wangari mother she's my role model you'll hear me quoting her a lot of times she once said just like a human bird she will do the best that she can of course I want to do the best that I can in touching this between the informal settlements you really have no idea what they do what injustice they suffer the ecological injustice that they suffer of course if you teach them on this of course the most of them don't even know that they have environmental rights towards their space they even don't know that but can you just imagine if they you just enlighten them okay so you guys have these rights and you guys need to do this to conserve the environment and instead instead of you just staying there we also have alternative ways to generate income you have the urban farming have decent is you can just imagine how many lives you have touched and of course if they if they learn something they will go and tell other people and tell other people now that brings the aspect of sustainability and by the time you know it you'll see this informal settlements are becoming better places absolutely and lives being changed exactly so how can people reach out to you if they want to be part of my Zingirana money organization even if it's in on the community training program how can people reach out to you I have a website I have a website by www.mazingiranamoney.org and also they can reach me by a Facebook at Susan Mute Twitter Susan underscore Mute everything is Susan Mute Susan Mute yeah alright so that is on your screen and your blogs are amazing and young people can actually go through the blogs and get many many as many green business ideas as you can on that particular blog and that is at Mazingirana money right yes alright so guys that is Susan Mute thank you very much for creating time to be with us and taking us through different green business ideas that we can actually indulge in right okay you're welcome back again if you have new projects right and we would like to just have you over and take us through this you different ideas I have an incoming project and I will keep you posted oh I appreciate so guys that is Susan Mute the founder of Mazingirana money organization so guys make sure you don't add that down we'll be right back with another interview try to for channel is where you can find us across all our social media handles at Michelle Ashira is where you can find me across all my social be right back