As stewards of God’s creation, and in response to both Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ and our strategic issue on environmental degradation (SI#7), the parish has taken concrete steps for environmental conservation:
- Tree Planting: We have an ongoing “Greening Muyeye” campaign. In 2024, with the help of the Justice & Peace group and the youth, we planted over 200 tree seedlings – fruit trees like mangoes and guavas in parishioners’ yards (to provide nutrition and income eventually), and shade trees like neem and acacia around the church and roadside. Each SCC took responsibility for planting and nurturing at least 10 trees. We intend to escalate this: a goal of 500 trees by 2026. Our nursery (small now) is growing seedlings to supply this annually. Notably, on World Environment Day (June 5) and during the Season of Creation (Sept 1 – Oct 4), we hold special tree-planting drives. Even the children in ATJS are given tiny plants to care for, teaching them early about caring for nature.
- Clean-ups and Anti-Pollution: The parish youth and other members regularly volunteer to clean the local public spaces – picking plastic litter on the roads around the church and at Mayungu beach. We’ve organized at least 3 community cleanup days in the past two years. In one instance, the effort drew the participation of our neighbors of other faiths, and the County officials supplied trash bags – a great communal effort. Also, within the parish we promote plastic reduction: we avoid single-use plastics at events (using washable cups/plates or banana leaves for serving food during feasts, etc.). We’ve placed dustbins around the compound to keep it litter-free and model that to the community.
- Soil and Water Conservation: We encourage those with shambas (farms) in rural edges of parish to practice terracing and agroforestry to prevent soil erosion. A few parishioners were trained on making briquettes (an eco-friendly charcoal alternative made from waste paper/biomass) in a diocesan workshop – now they’ve demonstrated it to some SCCs, hoping to reduce charcoal use if adopted widely. As for water, our area sometimes has shortages, so the parish installed a large water tank to harvest rainwater from the church roof. This supplies water for cleaning and gardening. We educate the faithful on not wasting water and how planting trees also helps local rainfall patterns in the long run.
- Energy Saving Stoves: Through a collaboration with an NGO, a dozen parish families got improved cookstoves that use less firewood. We displayed one at church one Sunday to show its benefits (less smoke, faster cooking). This goes hand-in-hand with advocacy to preserve mangrove forests and not cut trees for charcoal.
- Awareness Programs: Environmental care is regularly woven into homilies and catechesis. We held a seminar titled “Laudato Si’ and You” in 2023 explaining the Pope’s message that caring for the earth is part of our Christian duty. The youth dramatized it in a play on how pollution harms God’s creation. We want to instill pride in keeping Malindi clean and green, seeing it as respecting the Creator.
While our contributions may be small in the face of global climate issues, we believe every bit counts. Inspired by St. Francis of Assisi (patron of ecology and also patron of our outstation), we strive to “live simply so that others may simply live.” The parish will continue to pursue practical projects that improve our environment, which in turn improves public health and the future for our children.