REAP’s focus is on the rural poor, who have some land but many mouths to feed from a small plot. REAP develops practical teaching of what the rural poor can do from within their own resources, and particularly family labour. REAP has therefore developed a focus on practical technology that requires little or no cost.
REAP is a registered trust committed to distinctively Christian teaching that is developed specifically for the benefit of the rural poor in eastern Africa.
REAP works mainly with and through Christian churches and para-church organisations, by facilitating them to …
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During the Kisumu Show in 2009 REAP won the cup for the Best Stand in Environmental Management. This was awarded to us in part because of our display on ways of managing and using waste. Natural Medicines »
The REAP plot in Kajulu near KisumuOn 15 June 2010 REAP finally completed the purchase of a plot of land in Kajulu, just outside Kisumu in western Kenya. The final payment was made and the title deed is now in the name of REAP. The land will be used as a place where we can give practical teaching, showing practically many aspects of what we teach, as well as developing new ideas and as a source of planting materials.
The plot extends from just left of the big tree – the border is the sugar cane which is in the next plot – to the line that goes from the building on the right just in front of the bananas.
The back boundary is a path/dirt road that passes behind the house on the right and in front of the hedge in front of the house in the middle. The front boundary is a stream which passes just beyond the maize field in the foreground.
This land is sloping so is ideal for demonstrating the use of vetiver grass on the contours. It has a stream along the bottom and a pool just beside the tree so has good water for agricultural use. It is cleared land so we will soon convert it with hedges and other trees to become a very different sustainable piece of land.
Working Through Churches »
A Biblical Teaching to Motivate Farmers to Maintain a Living SoilIn REAP (Rural Extension with Africa’s Poor) our work is through local churches, emphasising an approach that we believe plays to the potential of the local church. While there is much potential that we see in the local church, we focus on four main factors in the area that we work, namely eastern Africa. These are the potential of the existing church structure, the use of the Bible to motivate people, the potential for extending teaching leading to behaviour change, and the potential for teaching that is relevant to the rural poor.
One of the greatest challenges in sustainable approaches to development is motivating people and in eastern Africa we have found the Bible to be a wonderful resource for motivating people to be responsible, and to make best use of the resources available. We use the Bible to both introduce and back up our technical teaching, and have found this particularly relevant to our Environmental and Sustainable Agriculture teaching. Once people have been stimulated through motivational teaching they are keen to learn about practical things they can do and we have linked the Biblical teaching with this practical. For the rural poor we promote teaching which as far as possible does not depend on purchased inputs, but which makes good use of available labour, a resource that is normally abundant for them as they seek to support many people on ever smaller pieces of land.
When talking about the soil, the starting point for our teaching is that God created the world, and everything in it, including the living soil!
Cultivating a Medicinal Garden
Celebrating at the end of a CWD workshop
Teaching Environmental Stewardship
