CARBON FUNDS RELIEF – WOMEN AND YOUTH GROUPS IN ALAMACH AND LORUKO VILLAGES, ISIOLO COUNTY SHARE OUT KSHS 875,000
CARBON FUNDS RELIEF – WOMEN AND YOUTH GROUPS IN ALAMACH AND LORUKO VILLAGES, ISIOLO COUNTY SHARE OUT KSHS 875,000 KITTY FOR WOMEN AND YOUTH EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME COURTESY OF PROCEEDS FROM THE SALE OF CARBON CREDITS.
Women and Youth groups from Alamach and Loruko villages in Burat ward, Isiolo County now have a major reason to smile, following the disbursement of funds from the sale of carbon credits for the year 2025 by Nasuulu Community Conservancy to finance women and youth empowerment projects in the two villages.
According to the Conservancy manager Andrew Phitisa, members of public from the two villages allocated the funds during public participation forums meant to enable members of public to deliberate upon and prioritize various projects that ought to be financed from the carbon kitty each year. Those from Alamach village set aside Kshs 425,000 for Women and Youth Empowerment while their counterparts from Loruko village set aside Kshs 450,000 for the same purpose.
Phitisa said that only four groups will benefit from the kitty, (two from Alamach and two from Loruko), a huge reduction compared to the tens of groups from across the conservancy who shared out over Kshs 5 Million the previous year (carbon funds for year 2024).
He noted that it is the responsibility of members of public from all villages across the conservancy to decide what they do with the funds, and that the conservancy management only implements the wishes of the community members in line with regulations by the Northern Kenya Rangelands Carbon Project (NKRCP) who does carbon credit business on behalf of the community conservancies and remits the funds each year.
Community members often prioritize issuance of bursaries for a bigger share of the carbon funds as opposed to the women and youth empowerment programme.
According to the Turkana Council of Elders’ Chairperson Jeremiah Edung’ who also hails from Alamach village, the community members decided to allocate the funds to the women and youth groups to initiate businesses that will eventually generate more income and benefit the rest of the community, noting that the community will consider other groups in future disbursements.
Edung’ noted that the groups that have received the funding this year have been undertaking communal initiatives aimed at enhancing environmental conservation such as tree growing and fodder production, departing from the practice of tree felling for charcoal burning that some of them relied on earlier as a source of income to support the livelihood of their respective households.
Teresina Lesingiran from Loruko Village, whose group is one of those benefiting from the funds hailed the programme as one that will transform lives of members, enabling the women and youth to venture into income generating activities such as buying and selling of livestock and even establishment of shops within the villages to employ themselves, and shun from the practice of felling trees to produce charcoal like they did in yester years.
