With much focus now directed towards the prosperity of the Blue Economy programs, a group of  women in Kilifi County are ripping big from fruits of their conservation efforts within the Mida Creek.
There efforts have started to bear fruits after struggling for over a decade planting mangroves within the ecosystem that was under threat due to destruction.
Bidii Na Kazi Women group members started by setting up mangrove seedlings for sale to conservation organisations and government agencies to cover up the area destroyed by community..
Today the women majority of them illiterate are the proud owners of an Eco tourism restaurant at the tail end of the famous Mida Creek board walk.
Apart from running it on their own in shifts the women also own canoes canoes for excursion of tourists who visit their dhow house restaurant to enjoy the natural ecosystem full of unique birds species and go through the channels within the creek.
Their founder a renowned award winning conservationist Arafa Salim baya died two years ago but that did not pull them back as they have since moved on and are prospering thanks to massive support received from the National Museums of Kenya who came up with the maritime cultural heritage project.
Sidi Baya the vice chairperson of Bidii na Kazi Women Group said they started their group by planting vegetables in the farms at home and planting mangrove seedlings nursery.
We visited them to check on their progress and to our suprise found they have really developed and recruited a young star a local girl to manage their restaurant and ensure their accounts are properly done.
Mr Baya said savings from their restaurant business was used to offer loans to members to be paid back.
She said they were poor and going through tough times but despite being illiterate life is going on well.
Eunice Shariff a new member of Bidii na Kazi women group joined them so as to help them keep records of their project because they are illiterate.
She was asked by her mother to join the group since she is literate after completing high school as she plans to go to college.
Normally she keeps records of the sales at the restaurant , together with the other projects they are doing such as been keeping, vegetables, canoes, fish traps, mangrove seedlings.
The dhowhouse restaurant she said cooks traditions dishes which have good tastes .
She said one of the client confessed that her husband could easily divorce her because of the kinds of food they cook that are tasty.
Fish sold at the restaurant are fresh as they have their own fishtraps and fishermen who go fishing in addition to vegetable which comes directly from the their organic farm.
Gladys Kadii the secretary of Bidii na Kazi women group who aslso act as a cook at the hotel said she has benefitted alot from the group as she got a loan to pay schol fees for her child.
Her child’s fee was Sh. 7000 and she got a loan of Sh. 5000 which she added with personal savings and managed to take him to school.
She said after clearing the loan she took another loan to do farming and is now happy to have got a bumper harvest in her farm.
At the hotel she said they depend on bookings from cleitns and prepare what they order .
Kadii said they have specialised on sea foods such as Ugali and fish, coconut rice with fish stew.
Many guests she said like fish stew which is so nice .
National Museums of Kenya have been conducting a case study at the Mida creek on cultural heritage and are instrumental in supporting the comunity initiatives with a view to transform lives.
Ceaser Bita an underwater archaologist from the National Museum of Kenya said their aim is to help develop cultural heritage .
Bita said they got support and funding from UK Rising from the Depth project that funds projects across the Oceans in Eastern Africa.
The Underwater Archaeologosts said they came with many ideas including bee keeping, Eco tourism where they came up with a research component to document what sorts of cultural heritage exist within the Mida Creek.
He said the project also came as a result of research project after finding out that Kirepwe Island that is a national monument must have had alot of international connections.
From historical research he said they estabished that Arabuko Sokoke forest was also a source of timber for makingboats.
Bita said they also set up information centre from the reeaearch done and documented the findings which were set up as an exhibition in the restaurant.
Others are organic farming and traditional fishing methods where they made basket fishing traps.
he said women are able to pay school fees , pay medical costs for their families and are planning to come up with livestock farming project.
So far he said they have managed to restore over 10 acres of mangrove reforestation and with support from Kefri raised over Sh. 800,000 for the local groups.
To him the project being one of the blue economy projects being undertaken in the country its one of the sucess stories they can be proud of as an institution.
Further the comunities now he said are understanding the value of conserving maritime Cultural heritage which is a new project, a new idea.
Kingi Karisa a tour guide in Mida creek said they normally give tourists information on what they do and do canoe rides, restaurant for youth, and the other one for the women dhow house.
Karisa said they benefitted from the women project because they are the ones who built the restaurant and now working for them .
With such intiatives the comunity are embracing it and their lives are transofrming for the better and at the same time they have become aware of conserving the ecosystem and the maritime cultural heritage.
