General Information
Meru Herbs, an agricultural organic and fair trade co-operative, was born from a water supply project, implemented by the Italian co-operation and delivered to the community over 20 years ago.
This project is located in Meru area and the visit will allow you to know how it is working and to meet the families involved and affected by the project. You will learn how our products are organically cultivated and will relax while eating healthy organic food, but overall you will become for sure friends of ours.
You will also have the opportunity to share the work in the farm or in the fields and to discover the wonderful Meru culture through traditional dance.
Should you need further information, please do not hesitate to write to
meruherbs@gmail.com or to nairobi@meruherbs.com
or to phone us: +254 20 434 9163 / +254 733 339885 (mobile)
Activities
During your stay, you could participate in the following activities:
- Visiting one of the fields of the organic-certified families. Guided tour and explanation are provided by our agricultural office. This will also give you an idea of the social situation of these families and how it improved through the project
- Visiting the production structure (tea factory and jam factory), along with explanation of the project history, its difficulties and production process
- A dawn visit to the “snake hill”, which oversees the whole project area. In a clear day, admiring Mount Kenya (the second highest in Africa, right after Kilimanjaro) could be possible
- Visiting the weir which started the project and the close falls. You will understand how the simple but detailed technology is allowing the weir to have worked for over 20 years
- Sharing the factory work and each other’s habits of life through talking during the work (the chance and the production process in which it could be done will depend on the production situation at that moment)
- Meeting and explanation of how our saving group (Meru Herbs Sacco – Saving and Credit Co-operative) works, replacing banks, since there are no other financial institutions in this rural area
- Meeting the project manager, who will satisfy each of your questions. Discussing about organic certificates, fair trade and related difficulties, challenges to compete at the international level, climate change-related problems will be possible both with the project manager himself and with the workers
- Participating in the traditional dances and music of Meru province
- Those who wish will be able to collaborate and help with the preparation and cooking of African food
The inclusive price for room, boarding and visits is 30 euros per person per day. We recommend to stay at least two nights.
How to reach Meru Herbs (to/from)
You can reach MH with public means, catching a Nairobi-Meru matatu (typical Kenyan bus) which will drop you at NKUBU crossroad. From there, we will send a matatu to pick you up (2 euros per person). ( see also file “route map to MH)
If you don’t have your own vehicle during your stay in Meru, we rent a matatu for half a day (2 euros per person), in order to be able to visit the “snake hill”, the river intake and irrigation farms.
If you are a group and wish to rent a vehicle directly from Nairobi, arrangement can be made from our office at 200 euros per day, driver included.
Otherwise, if you have your own vehicle, you could also go and visit Meru National Park, which is not far away (about 60 km) and is very beautiful, since it is not a typical touristic destination like other well-known parks.
