Jean Damascene Uwizeyimana’s story of trees, community, and the meaning of work as continuity.
Last year, Dr, Jean Damascene Uwizeyimana shared a quiet morning walk through Rwanda’s Rulindo District.
He describes the familiar sights and scents of home: red earth and citron leaves, a pig’s grunt awakening the day, and the thousands of trees his community had planted just one year before.
“Their roots now hold firm. They catch the rain, shade the crops, breathe new life into the warming hills. The land breathes differently. So do we.”
There’s an old proverb: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.”
The saying has endured because it captures something bigger than trees. Some of the most meaningful acts of care ask us to invest in a future we may never fully see. We plant because someone else will enjoy the shade, the harvest, or the healthier world that follows.
Jean’s words remind us that climate action begins with people noticing the land around them and choosing to care for it together.
That belief has guided Jean and the Rwanda Women and Youth Development Organization (RWAYDAVO) for years.
After successfully planting more than 40,000 trees, RWAYDAVO is launching the next phase of its community-led reforestation efforts by planting and caring for another 50,000 trees across six rural communities in northern Rwanda.
In a country where deforestation has contributed to soil erosion, landslides, and declining biodiversity, these trees represent far more than seedlings. Together, students, teachers, local leaders, and families are restoring hillsides, protecting farmland, strengthening local ecosystems, and planting fruit trees that will provide food and income for years to come.
Jean sees a different future every time he works alongside young people in his community.
As Jean writes later in his journal entry, they aren’t just restoring the land, they’re remembering their place within it.
“This land used to forget us,” one said.
“Now it feeds us.”
This means enjoying it, celebrating it, and continuously tending to it over generations.
“As the sun slipped behind the hills,
I paused to listen;
Birds. Laughter. Ishimwe.
And beneath it all,
the quiet, certain sound
of something growing.”
This project was our July 2026 Project of the Month Club recipient, a rotating monthly giving circle that supports a different grassroots organization each month as they continue building on the work already underway in their communities.
Members of GlobalGiving’s Project of the Month Club are helping RWAYDAVO plant the next 50,000 trees, ensuring that the forests taking root today will continue benefiting generations to come.
That growth can be seen not only in forests, but in young people becoming environmental stewards, families strengthening their livelihoods, and communities shaping their own future.
Featured Photo: Plant 50,000 Trees In Northern Rwanda by RWANDAN YOUTH DEVELOPMENT AND VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATION
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