The semi-arid Kibwezi region of Kenya faces a compounding set of environmental pressures: recurring drought, poor harvests, and increasing land degradation that makes it progressively harder for farming families to sustain themselves. As topsoil erodes and water sources become less reliable, the challenges facing one growing season tend to carry over into the next, creating a difficult cycle for local communities to break.
To help address these interconnected challenges, Maryknoll supports a Care of Creation initiative that combines reforestation, renewable energy, and broader environmental stewardship. Drought-resistant trees such as Mukau and Moringa are being planted throughout local parish communities, improving soil fertility, increasing water retention, and reducing erosion, while also providing families with nutritional and economic benefits through their fruit, leaves, and timber.
Directly inspired by Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’, this project embodies the Catholic Social Teaching principle of Care for God’s Creation, treating environmental restoration and human wellbeing as a single, integrated concern rather than competing priorities. It reflects Maryknoll’s long-standing charism of care for creation as an expression of the Gospel itself, recognizing the land not merely as a resource but as a gift entrusted to humanity’s stewardship.
Gifts to this project support reforestation, clean energy, and environmental stewardship efforts that protect the land, strengthen food security, and improve daily life for farming families confronting the growing effects of climate change.
