Nairobi News

Hustle

Conserving nature with pencils made from old newspapers – VIDEO


What do you do with your old newspapers?

Well, last week I was at Kongoni Primary School in Nairobi’s South C area where I was invited for a tree planting session by my friends.

They have partnered with the school’s environment club to keep the school green.

The school has about 45 pupils who are in love with nature, green, and a clean environment around them.

Before the tree planting there was the mentorship session then a little fun before we proceeded to the far end of the school compound to plant trees.

Most of the kids who participated in the tree planting were class eight candidates and so my friends had some goodies for them to prepare for their final exam.

ECO-FRIENDLY 

They presented pencils to the pupils and its here that I learnt that the pencils were made from old newspapers.

MOMO pencils recycle old newspapers into beautiful, fun and high quality writing pencils. The eco-friendly pencils help save trees.

The journey to MOMO pencils started three years ago when three friends came together.

Mahamed Fadhil, Mahamud Omari and Rashid Omari knew they wanted to leave a positive impact in the world but it took some soul searching to settle for the pencils.

“Sometimes you need to get to the end of the road to start your journey, that’s where we found ourselves after chasing every dream there was to chase,” said Omari

“Coming to the realization that our new journey had to have a purpose that was much bigger than the three of us gave us the inspiration to set up a business that would not only sustain us but that would be a timeless inheritance, a footprint that says I was here,” added Fadhil.

Samples of MOMO pencils which are made of recycled old newspapers. PHOTO | AMINA WAKO
Samples of MOMO pencils which are made of recycled old newspapers. PHOTO | AMINA WAKO

TREE PLANTING

After trying different ideas they settled for the simplest but powerful idea, to start a journey, they decided to make pencil from old newspaper.

To the three, the pencil was symbolic. It was a new start, new life, new hope, education, empowerment and freedom.

The three are on a journey to make sure that every school going child gets the pencil.

With a pencil comes a seed, which the pupils are meant to plant and take care of.

“Everyone who gets our pencil gets a tree to plant. We make sure they plant the seed before using the pencil,” said Rashid.

MOMO is partnering with schools across the country to plant trees for the future generation.

More trees means newspaper will continue to be produced and they will in turn be able to recycle the newspaper for more eco-friendly pencils in the market.

MOMO pencils co-founders (from left to right) Rashid Omari, Mahamed Fadhil, Baldwin Oluoch and Mahamud Omari during a tree planting exercise at Kongoni Primary School in Nairobi's South C area. PHOTO | AMINA WAKO
MOMO pencils co-founders (from left to right) Rashid Omari, Mahamed Fadhil, Baldwin Oluoch and Mahamud Omari during a tree planting exercise at Kongoni Primary School in Nairobi’s South C area. PHOTO | AMINA WAKO