If you recall, back in December we introduced you to a wonderful organization called Greenpop whose main mission is to plant trees in Africa. Here is an update from them on what they have been up to since then:
Trees for Zambia Update
We’re in full Zambia-mode and making good progress on different levels! On our recent planning trip to Livingstone, we met with the Prime Minister of Mukuni Village and he endorsed the project, which we’re very happy about. We also met with the Town Clerk, the African Wildlife Foundation, the Zambian Wildlife Authority, National Heritage, and so many more. We’re swamped with enquiries from people around the world who’d like to join us as volunteers, which is very exciting! Join us – email zambia@greenpop.org. From a fundraising point of view there have been some exciting developments too; we are talking to several companies about corporate sponsorship (video proposal here), we are selling tree rings, and we’ve just launched a campaign onIndieGoGo, a crowdfunding website. Have a look, help us spread the message, and gift a tree – or two or three!
How to raise trees?
How do you raise funds for 5000 trees in less than 6 months? You get creative! We’ve started all sorts of tree raising campaigns, and one of the most exciting is our Ambassador Program. Because not everyone can come with us to volunteer, the opportunities to support the project needed to be varied, hence the Trees For Zambia Ambassador Program. It’s a competition which will see the person who sells the most trees come with us to Zambia for free, alongside 8 other fantastic prizes sponsored by awesome companies. Huge thanks to everyone who has sponsored prizes… and if anyone feels like adding to the list, please email charlotte@greenpop.org! Our first 25 ambassadors from all over the world have already surprised us with their creativity and motivation, not to mention their success: in just 4 weeks they have already sold 224 trees which is ZAR26,880 altogether!
Healthy Trees from 2010
The Greenpop monitoring team visited Ithemba preschool in Capricorn Park on last weeks monitoring trip. We planted at Ithemba on 1 September 2010 – one of our first planting days ever! Jeremy from Greenpop who was out monitoring last week said: “It was absolutely the highlight of my day! Every tree that we have planted at this beneficiary is alive and well. I spent time chatting with Colin (their groundsman who at the end of last year received environmental training through our partnership with Kirstenbosch Education) about watering, pruning and just how on earth their trees are growing so well!”. Our monitoring team doesn’t always have days like this – planting trees in the Cape Flats is not an easy business. We have good relationships with all of our beneficiaries and are continuously working on improving conditions and on best practice methods. This however, is not fool proof and our team has to work hard with the ground staff to continuously educate and come up with solutions. At the moment our tree survival rate is above 80% and we’re working hard to keep it high.
SOA 2012
This coming May in Cape Town a group of dynamic and inspirational African business leaders, entrepreneurs, politicians and artists, who are driving change across the continent, will be joined at Sustain Our Africa by an outstanding group of their international peers. Read more here
We at CKi would like to congratulate Greenpop on all their success and look forward to hearing more about what they are doing to benefit Africa. Keep up the great work!
CKi - Challenged Kids International 