Springs of Arid and Semiarid Lands
SASAL is a
a non-governmental organization that is working with the pastoral
communities in the Arid and semi-arid lands to build climate
resilience. To achieve climate resilience, we have developed several
programmes on awareness/knowledge creation, mitigation, and
adaptation.
The idea for
SASAL was born in the year 2015 but became a reality in 2019
September. It was initially named “smile of a pastoralist” but
then renamed. Our story stems from an interesting point of view from
our founder, who is also a meteorologist and from a pastoral
community. She couldn’t help but notice the continuous land
degradation, recurrent droughts and loss of livelihood in her home
area in Magadi, Kajiado county. Studying meteorology led her to
believe that the effects of droughts such as the loss of livelihoods
could be evaded by proper preparedness by following weather forecasts
issued by the Kenya Meteorological department. However, she realized
some of the barriers hindering the farmers from consuming the weather
forecasts and using it. That’s when the idea was born of forming an
organization that will be like a “spring” not only in Kajiado
county but all of the Arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya and help
people build climate resilience through creating awareness, adapting
to climate change and some mitigation actions. Hence the name Spring
of the ASAL’s.