Reforest native trees, empower women healers

Hello there,

I hope this letter finds you, wherever you may be, happy and well. I don’t know if you’ve seen the news lately, but in the realm of the health of the planet and its peoples, there has been a slew of devastating news. 

It started with the Southern African floods that swept across Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe–taking with it thousands of homes and hectares of crops, in a region that already suffers from chronic food insecurity. Soon following came the mega flooding that just hit the midwestern states of the US, impacting corn, soybean and wheat farmers especially hard. For those of us that have been combating climate change with sustainable solutions for awhile now, these news headlines tugged at our heart strings in empathy for those impacted, but they didn’t necessarily surprise us. 

We’ve been well aware of climate change predictions, and how it will impact not only the environment, but humans on this planet. And more specifically, how those most vulnerable to climate change’s effects are the very people who continue to maintain a strong relationship with the earth: farmers. 

While recent news of these floodings, and the millions of people they have impacted, have left us saddened by the state of the world, it has only bolstered our drive to continue doing the important work we are doing: equipping farmers with the tools they need to make their families, their livelihoods, and their croplands more resilient in the face of these erratic weather patterns. 

Our impact in 2018 was our biggest yet: in all of our programming throughout northern Uganda, we were able to plant over 120,000 trees with small-scale farmers and refugees alike. We trained 409 farmers in Ugandan communities in climate change resiliency. And we don’t plan on stopping. 

We’re just three months into the year, and our team on the ground in Uganda is already working with local government officials in multiple sub-counties to sign villages up for this year’s climate change resiliency programming. Our seedling nurseries are filled with seedlings, waiting patiently to get their roots into the soil of farmers’ lands. Our team is working hard to ensure that even in the face of too much rainfall, or not enough, crops are protected, food continues to be harvested, and the earth is taken care of. All while mitigating the future effects of climate change. 

We ask you to join us. Help us keep doing this important work to empower farmers and ensure the longevity of this planet we call home. 

From Northern Uganda to you,

Georgia

Meet Peter. Peter is from a village about a 45 minute drive from Gulu, the largest town in Northern Uganda. Generation after generation, his family has cultivated a wide array of crops–from millet and maize to peanuts and sesame–to provide for the family and live an abundant, albeit hard, life. Peter’s family depends on regular rain patterns to be able to support their livelihood; without a stable climate and dependable rains, Peter doesn’t know when to plant his seeds that will grow into healthy food crops. 

Peter’s parents speak candidly about this fact–how for much of their lives rain was consistent and so too were the harvests of their many, diverse food crops. These days though, his parents speak of erratic weather–long droughts, flash floods, and general uncertainty. “Without rain, we have no food,” they comment. This statement is simple, yes, but its impact profound. 

We are doing something about this. Through your help, the Native Seeds Project works directly with farmers to train them on climate change adaptation: educating farmers on the causes and onset of climate change, and perhaps more importantly, what they can do directly to mitigate its effect, and in turn, ensure that their food harvests are abundant enough to provide for their families. 

How do we do this? Well, simply put, we plant trees. More complexly put, we work directly with farmers to survey their land and their needs to identify agroforestry systems that will restore soil hydrology, diversify farming systems, and reduce disaster risk in response to increasingly-volatile weather patterns. 

This year, Peter planted fifty new trees on his family’s land, and attended three day-long trainings that equipped him with the knowledge he needs to confront the environmental issues facing him, his family, and his wider community. The result? a farmer who no longer feels helpless in the face of climate change, but rather a farmer who understands what is happening with the environment, and has a new toolkit on what he can do to work with his environment to ensure stability and success of his crops, his livelihood, and his community’s well-being. 

This year, the Native Seeds Project trained 409 farmers just like Peter in climate change adaptation, and planted over 20,000 tree seedlings with them. Our team visits Peter and our other partner farmers on a regular basis throughout the year, ensuring the cementation of the knowledge they received during trainings, and ensuring the survival of the tree seedlings they’ve planted. This ongoing followup has formed a large network of climate change adaptation warriors: a vast community of farmers throughout Northern Uganda joining forces, joining hands, and joining a movement to create landscapes and communities more resilient. 

As 2018 comes to a close, know that you are a part of Peter’s movement: without your support, farmers like Peter are unable to get the training and resources they need to combat climate change. So, from the bottom of Peter’s heart, and ours, thank you for being a Climate Change Adaptation Warrior. We hope you will continue to be warrior, alongside us. 

From Northern Uganda to you,

Georgia