With environmental responsibility being an integral aspect of Daraja’s educational model, sustainability is incredibly important on campus! Daraja students are regularly learning and doing projects to improve environmental sustainability.

In July, two volunteers, Leigh and Amelia, did a water project on campus where they measured the amount of water that was being used daily, weekly, and monthly by students, volunteers, and staff on campus. They also surveyed the community about how much water they think they use. Collecting this data was important so that the Daraja community has an idea of how much more water can be conserved.

Although the girls consume more water than they had predicted, they had a lot of great ideas about how to conserve more. Some ideas were to wash clothes in groups to use less water, or to hold an awareness meeting a few times each term to keep conversations on the minds of students. Thanks to this water project, Daraja has established a new prefect position, the water prefect, who will be responsible for conservation and awareness of water use on campus.

“Conservation is completely dependent on education,” Amelia says, “the more people around the world learn about their water source, their consumption rates are guaranteed to go down.”

Last Sunday, August 4th, Daraja students learned about composting. With a food compost system running smoothly in the campus shamba (farm), the girls learned about a new composting technique to create nitrogen-rich soil. The project was spearheaded by co-founder, Jason and visiting board member, Mark. Students spent the afternoon building the compost pile, and we will see some new soil in the coming months thanks to this project!

Compost

During the day, solar panels generate electricity for the Internet connection and outlets in the Biology Lab and Administrative Office. Volunteers on campus have also donated solar lamps to be charged by day and used by night.

Daraja is committed to teaching and exemplifying environmental stewardship. “These methods that we’re teaching can be used at home, too,” Jason explained to the girls, “they can be very helpful in your communities.”