Moringa Day in Haiti

Written by Steve Carter – Trees for Life Board Member

In January of 2012, James Kishlar, the director of Agro-forest Regional Nursery (ARN), an organization whose aims are to plant trees, broaden crop diversity, and expand job opportunities in Haiti, contacted Trees For Life after reading about the Moringa tree on the Trees For Life web site.  We at Trees For Life were happy to share what we had learned about the Moringa tree and what we were doing to encourage the utilization of Moringa to fight malnutrition and assist individuals and organizations world-wide in achieving their economic, social, and environmental goals.  Since that time, James has made the Moringa tree one of the most important species he hopes to plant and establish in Haiti.

In a recent email, James reports on some of the efforts his organization is making to expand the use of Moringa in Haiti:  “Our Moringa Day was on June 5, 2013, a part of Environmental Day in Haiti. We were participating with the Haitian organization Programme National pour la culture et l’utilisation du Moringa- Benzolive : PLANDOLIV. Our part, which we financed,  took place at Digue Matheux and Barbancourt. The children were given Moringa trees free of charge to plant at their homes, with a guarantee from us that if their trees lived for one year they would be rewarded. We are scheduled to have a Moringa Planting Day, within 2 weeks where the same children will be planting 35,000 Moringa trees within ‘live fence’ sites.”

Students taking their Moringa trees home.

Young girls with their Moringa Trees

Presentation on Moringa at one of the schools

Young girl taking her Moringa trees home

According to James, over 900 students and teachers . . . from 3 different schools participated in the Moringa Day events, with some 2,500 Moringa trees distributed!  He used Trees For Life’s Moringa informational pocket brochure and is presently working on a Haitian Creole translation for the material.

Trees For Life is pleased to have been able to contribute to efforts at afforestation and bio-diversity in Haiti and we are proud of the success of Moringa Day.  We applaud the hard work and dedication of James Kishlar and ARN and hope that we may be of help in whatever way we can in the work of re-building Haiti and empowering Haitians as they create the future of their country.

Fabiano de Freitas – growing Moringa in Brazil

Fabiano with Moringa seedlings

Fabiano saw the Trees for Life website and read about the Moringa tree. He had already been growing this nutritious tree and donating saplings to local farmers and families. The Moringa tree leaves are nutritious and can be used as a supplement for people suffering from malnutrition.

He wanted a Moringa poster to help educate the community, but didn’t want us to spend money on sending it to him, so we sent him the graphic file. Here is what the poster looks like: Moringa poster.

Trees for Life also connected him with two people who worked

on the translation of the Moringa Book into Portuguese.

Fabiano is working in Rondonópolis, Brazil, the third-largest city in Mato Grosso. It is located around 215 km (134 mi) from Cuiabá the capital of the state. Population about 200,000. This link shows you where he is, deep in the interior of Brazil:

The following is from Fabiano:

“Ill try to explain my work with the moringa ok? But, sorry, because I don’t know English very well. Just my intentions are bigger with moringa than my English. LOL.

I’m very happy too because I’m having good results with moringa here in Rondonopolis – MT, Brazil. I’m cultivating it as you can see from the pictures that I’m sending. I put the seeds in the ground on December 27, 2011 and on December 31, 2011, they started to grow. I took the pictures with my twin brother on January 15, 2012. You can see they have grown more than 30 centimeters (12 inches) in just 15 days.

Measuring Moringa seedling

My twin brother and I made donations of seeds for farmers that I know (some friends, some friends of my friends…). See  the small plants in the picture below. I’m donating to a village of 100 local farmers. I will wait one year for moringa to grow and start flowers and new seeds. Then I can have enough for the city here where I’m living and maybe for other cities around.

Moringa saplings in containers

I’m the webmaster too. Here is my website: http://www.cidadaosolidario.org.br/Moringa.aspx to help explain Moringa to the people.

Now, I’m studying Psychology at school and I intend to help people with nutrition and psychology, too – helping other people and make a good world.

When I have more results, I promise that I will pass more information for you.

It’s very great to have friends like you, across the world.

Atenciosamente,

Fabiano de Freitas

Rondonopolis – Mato Grosso – Brazil

TREES FOR LIFE – 2011 MORINGA PROJECT

Sophie Oppenheimer, MS, MPH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sophie Oppenheimer will act as Moringa research collaborations coordinator for TFL in several developing Moringa projects. Sophie will coordinate the development of three Moringa projects: (1) the study of the links between Moringa leaves and type II diabetes mitigation, (2) the study of the biosorbent removal of effluents from ground water, (3) the use of bioactive Moringa seed cake extract in goat and goat milk production.

Sophie earned her dual Master’s degrees in Public Health (Epidemiology/Giostatistics) and Food Policy and Applied nutrition from Tufts University, and her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Colorado in Bolder. Sophie has worked with Trees for Life International since 2001. She also spent one year as a Behavior Interventionist for Inclusive Education and Community Partnership (IECP), has worked for two years as an intern with the Positive Deviance Initiative, and recently completed a program evaluation for a fuel-efficient cook stoves program in Kenya with the International and Small Group Tree Planting Program (TIST). She is interested in a variety of health issues, with particular focus on international nutrition interventions, food security, community-driven health initiatives , and behavior and social change models.

The work of Trees for Life is made possible by the generosity of individual donors. Please consider making a donation to support this important Moringa research.

Trees for Life – Africa Update

Kenya

Nanjinia Wamuswa reports in the 9 November issue of The Standard  that a  group of women in Ukambani have embarked on a project to turn hundreds of acres of scrubland into a treasure trove – akin to the tea plantations in Kericho.

The 300 members of the Solace Women Group from Mtito Andei have isolated a plant relatively unknown locally, moringa, whose leaves, fruits and roots will hopefully pull them out of poverty and stem some diseases in the villages.

Solace expects to train 3,000 farmers on moringa farming, develop 20 tree nurseries, establish a processing and packaging plant, create six collecting and curing centres, and open up six modern marketing outlets, in the next couple of years. Already some farmers have moringa plantations of about 50 acres on their individual farms.

The project has drawn the interest of Government agencies and non-governmental organisations. African Medical Research Foundation (Amref) and the Agricultural Sector Coordination Unit (ASCU), a facility that coordinates the agricultural sector towards the implementation of the ten-year Agricultural Sector Development Strategy, have assisted the women to pursue their dream. ASCU’s assistance was channeled through the Innovation Fund for Agriculture and Agri-Business.

Zambia

Imagine Rural Development Initiative reports in the November 2010 issue a plant 40,000 Moringa trees in the next 24 months. A test program has been started to test program to develop the best process for planting a germination of the Moringa seeds. A program of seed procurement has also been established to obtain additional seed pods for planting.

World Food Day

 

Trees for Life Salutes World Food Day

Trees for Life is recognizing World Food Day as we continue to support and promote the increasing impact of the moringa tree for nutritious and healing properties. In the last 25 years we at Trees for Life have been an active supporter of moringa in its world-wide growth. 

The moringa tree is very fast growing.  The leaves, seeds and flowers are edible and nutritious, and they can be used in a variety of forms including a wonderful tea. Amazing facts about moringa are that it contains 2 times the protein of yogurt, 7  times the vitamin C of oranges, 3 times the potassium of bananas, 4 times the vitamin A of carrots and 4 times the calcium of milk.

To learn more about the Moringa Tree and its amazing properties, join us at  Trees for Life.

As a note about World Food Day: WFD  is a worldwide event designed to increase awareness and understanding and to promote year-around action to alleviate hunger. The first WFD was held in 1981 and today in the United States the endeavor is sponsored by 450 national, private, and volunteer organizations.

Moringa Leaf with Beans and Meat

Fresh Moringa Leaf with Beans and Meat

This recipe comes courtesy of Jennifer Concepcion of the Philippines. Use this as a tasty side dish with any compatible entrée. With seafood entrees, use shrimp, with meat entrees use pork, beef or chicken for the meat portion of this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup of beans, mongo beans are used in the Philippines but you may substitute, baby limas, red beans or pintos.

2-3 cups of water

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 small onion

1 medium tomato

½ cup of shrimp, pork, chicken or beef

1 cup fresh Moringa leaves

1 Tbsp of fish sauce, or to taste

Salt and pepper to taste.

Boil the beans until tender. While the beans are boiling, sauté the onions, garlic and tomato. When beans are tender add the tomato, onion, garlic  to the beans. Strip the Moringa leaves from the stems, remove any excess stems from the leaves. Add fish sauce. Add fresh Moringa leaves. Salt and pepper to taste.

This is the preferred side dish for Adobo Chicken

LIMPOPO SOUTH AFRICA

PRODUCERS of the Moringa medical herbs in Limpopo are planning to distribute more than 5,000 plants in a bid to fight malnutrition in the country.

This comes after the producers won the national Female Farmer of the Year Award at the weekend during the annual awards ceremony held in Eastern Cape.Sedikong sa Lerato Community Transformation’s managing director, Mavis Mathabatha, said the project had gained support locally and internationally, with the United Nations also recognizing their products.

Hotel in Manila promotes Moringa

The Manila Times is joining the trend in the Philippines of sharing the many benefits of Moringa in terms of nutrition, medicine and health. An article published today refers to grandparents telling children about Moringa’s benefits, and that today people are discovering that those claims were right.

The article highlights the efforts of the Hotel Manila to promote Moringa (known as “malunggay” in the Philippines) through their “Malunggay Festival.” The president of the hotel, Atty. Jose Lina, is quoted as saying, “Malunggay leaves are very cheap, very easy to grow in our backyards, and yet so full of vitamins and minerals. The hotel would like to help educate more people about these health benefits and to bring the message across that malunggay can be used as a main ingredient in cooking a variety of great tasting dishes. Moreover, it is a good source of livelihood for small to medium enterprise.” (Read the full article)

Author Leony R. Garcia comments, “The Manila Times could only agree to that.”

Anyone interested in Moringa recipes can find several from India on the Trees for Life website: Moringa recipes from India.