Grow Trees Grow Hope

Republic of Change aren't the only ones who are working to leverage the power of trees. UK-based Tree Aid is a charity entirely devoted to using tree planting as a tool for poverty alleviation and community empowerment. Their Grow Hope appeal is looking to raise funds to help 32,000 people get the skills they need to grow trees, regenerate their natural environment and provide much needed food security for the people of the drylands of Africa.

Here's how Tree Aid describes the ask:

"In the drylands “weather extremes” such as drought and flooding make harvests unpredictable and there are few opportunities to earn extra income for the family. Native tree species are perfectly adapted to these extremes and carry on producing food, even when other crops fail.

Jamila Mustafa, mother of six from Northern Ghana says: “There are days that I cannot eat at all, because I want to be able to give my children something. I work hard but I can’t ever be sure of having enough food to feed my children. I am keen to learn new skills, make money and save so that I will have something to fall back on next time the hungry months come.”

Of course, as we all know, trees carry an added bonus: reforesting our degraded lands could go a long way toward mitigating and eventually reversing the manmade climate change that has made life in the drylands so challenging.

From Ethiopia regreening its hillsides to India planting 2 billion trees, there are hopeful signs that reforestation and forest protection are finally getting the attention they deserve.

Campaigns like Grow Hope and Republic of Change are one way that all of us can get in on this positive effort on the ground level.

Every 2 minutes a child dies from hunger in the drylands of Africa. But there is hope. You can help villagers grow trees, and grow hope of a better future.

Hunger and malnutrition kill more people every year than AIDS, TB and malaria combined – and in the drylands of Africa, they take hundreds of lives every day.

Children are especially vulnerable. If they can survive until they are five, their life chances rise rapidly. But without the proper food and nutrition in those early years, children are at risk of illness and stunting, and may never develop as they should. Many die.

Living proof: Life for Jamila

Jamila and her husband worked hard to coax a living from the dry, dusty soil, but could never grow enough to keep their children fed and healthy. The worst times were the ‘hungry months’, when their food stocks had gone, and they had just one meal a day.

But something remarkable is happening. On a TREE AID project, villagers are growing trees that produce life-giving fruit for all the family, and a host of tree products that can be sold at market. As the trees grow, the children grow stronger and the whole family can look to the future at last.