Reforest The Future - Help Support a Truck & Learning Centre!
From time to time, we like to highlight good causes that we support, especially if a friend of Rockaway is involved, as in this case, with Reforest the Future Gambia - a Land regeneration, tree planting and agroforestry project based in Njau village, in the Central River region of The Gambia.
A women’s-led project, Reforest the Future addresses the negative human impacts on the environment, such as deforestation, bush burning, plastic contamination, over grazing and climate change, which causes land degradation. They also teach women and young people about agroforestry, permaculture and land regeneration methods to repair the land.
The project’s main focus has been establishing a 40m x 40m tree nursery and agroforestry site in Njau, planting over 8,000 trees and shrubs on the land and growing up to 15,000 saplings per year from seeds and transplants.
These trees are a broad mixture of edible and income-generating fruit and nuts, and indigenous threatened species, such as mahogany, cotton tree, teak and baobab. Each year, the project partners with 10 - 15 schools and 10 - 15 communities delivering tree planting activities, donating thousands of trees and sensitising people to the importance of planting trees for building climate resilience and food security.
Founded in 2019, the project has been entirely funded by donations from a crowdfunding campaign, fundraising events and support from a handful of sponsors, which includes individuals and small independent businesses.
The Reforest the Future team are currently trying to raise funds to purchase a truck for upscaling the impact of the project to transport workers, volunteers, tools, fencing materials and thousands of tree saplings to rural villages. Due to the high costs of vehicles, which are mostly in bad condition in The Gambia, plus the high costs of shipping, the team have decided it's most cost effective to source a good quality vehicle in Europe and drive it to The Gambia.
Before it heads off, the truck will be filled with donations of materials from throughout Europe, especially from the travelling and squat communities, which will help build a new learning centre.
Construction of the learning centre will begin in February 2025 utilising the traditional mudbrick roundhouse design. Once complete, it will host workshops, school groups, farmers, visiting educational land workers and conservationists to deliver training.
If you can help Reforest The Future reach their goal by making a donation, however small, that would be amazing, and help bring about real change to make life better for so many people.
For all the info about Reforest the Future and to make a donation, please click below. There's only two months before the fundraiser closes, so a huge thank you for anything you can do to help the project continue to thrive - we really appreciate it!
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