Earth Day: Celebrating Food Trees
12-year-old Cynthia and her big brother Daniel Bwire run through their father's Forest Garden in Busia, Uganda
On this Earth Day, it's more important than ever to focus on helping the environment and people in rural areas, both part of Yogo's mission. Today we'd like to celebrate the ways Yogo is doing both through our Food Trees program! Across Africa, farmers are learning to create long-term self sustaining tree gardens ("permafarming") for self-reinforcing food, wellness, cash flow and empowerment, through our incredible implementation partner Trees for the Future ("Trees").
In the last 10 years, Trees has:
Restored almost 100,000 acres
Planted about 370 million trees
Had almost a half-million program participants
Talk about massive impact! And we love how the program is specifically structured to empower families over the long term, including 44% women, to create self-sustaining cash flows and environmental restoration.
Let's zoom in on one family's personal story:
In the photo at the top, 12-year-old Cynthia and her big brother Daniel Bwire run through their father's forest garden in Busia, Uganda. Their dad, Charles Omondi, has been farming his land for 40 years. But he was often unable to make ends meet and regularly worried about how he would feed his family. That changed when he joined Trees. Through the forest garden approach, Trees-trained farmers learn to use climate-smart methods and crop diversification to support the land and better withstand challenges like drought or pests.
“Permagardening has been my game changer,” Charles says.
Charles (left) discusses garden planning with a local Ugandan Trees representative.
Through the program, Charles learned to plant permagarden beds throughout his plot so that he has multiple crops growing at any given time, along with trees that provide shade and other services. Steadily, Charles improved his plot until it was able to produce ample food and necessities for his 12-person household, as well as increasing income.
His increased income covers school fees for Cynthia and Daniel too. When they aren’t in school, the kids are helping their dad in the forest garden… or playing under the shade of the trees they helped plant.
Thank you for supporting this wonderful work through your purchases. For more beautiful photos from the field, check out our latest Instagram post! And be sure to check in Friday, for an Earth Day Giveaway!