TREES MEAN LIFE TREES MEAN LIFE TREES MEAN LIFE...Habiba's story Habiba’s family live in Tamale in...

2013

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TREES MEAN LIFE TREES MEAN LIFE TREES MEAN LIFE

Tree Aid Update Spring 2013.indd 1 11/04/2013 16:02

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TREE AID Freepost (BS 8866), Bristol, BS2 8ZZ | Tel: 0117 909 6363 Email: [email protected] | website: www.treeaid.org.uk | Twitter: @TreeAid @philipTreeAid | Registered Charity No. 1135156 | Company No. 03779545

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NEW SHOOTS, NEW LIVESWriting from Mali at a diffi cult time in the country’s history (see opposite), it is heartening to be introducing this issue of Update – an issue that focuses on the signifi cant social impact our projects have in communities.

Whilst it is Spring in the UK, and a time to celebrate the new shoots appearing in your gardens, the seasons here aren’t so kind to the communities or their land.

As droughts and fl oods wipe out months of hard work, future food supplies and life opportunities, people become physically and emotionally drained by the struggle of day to day life.

Yet, as the seedlings we provide grow into trees – so too do the dreams and aspirations of the communities we work with. Every day I see that glimmer of hope in the eyes of a person for whom the realisation that a new future is possible has just dawned.

For me, it is this restoration of the human spirit that makes working for TREE AID so meaningful.

For a father, to generate an income and become an active member of a community cooperative means long

forgotten pride and dignity restored.

For a mother with a small enterprise of her own selling soap, honey or other produce, the transformation can be even greater. The additional income might allow her to send her children to school.

This issue will illustrate how TREE AID’s work is educating a new generation of children with a positive vision of the future – and the means to make that vision a reality.

As we come to the end of our 25th year working in Africa, let me join the rest of the organisation, and the many people we have supported, in saying a huge thank you to you, our supporters, for helping grow something very special across the continent.

Maurice Koné

Manager, TREE AID Mali

Front cover image: The eyes of hope: A child whose mother is taking part in TREE AID’s Women’s Forest Livelihoods project that supports women develop enterprise opportunities and gain offi cial recognition for their role protecting trees.


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A much needed move into Niger

The new year kicked off with a fi eld trip to Niger to deepen our knowledge of local community needs prior to starting work there later in the year. The trip was funded by The Big Lottery and will help us ensure the success of our programmes there. Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world. Almost 85% of the population lives in rural areas, where much of the farmland is giving way to desert.

Infl uencing the Burkina Faso government

The government of Burkina Faso has recently introduced a National Coordination Unit to manage the decentralisation of the forestry sector in the country. The aim of the unit is to put decision making powers about the use of trees fi rmly in the hands of local communities.

This is a signifi cant step – TREE AID has been instrumental in achieving it and will be the offi cial government partner going forward.

.. and in the UK

Did you see us on the Great Comic Relief Bakeoff? Or hear us on Radio 4’s Food Programme? This is great exposure that has encouraged new support for our work. You can watch and listen to both again on our website.

MALI UPDATE:

TREE AID’s programme in Mali currently focuses on supporting poor communities in the southern regions of Ségou and Mopti. As fi ghting in the country moves further south, TREE AID has suspended work on the Mopti project, whilst continuing work in Ségou where it is still considered safe to operate.

We continue to monitor the situation closely and very much hope that the security situation in Mali improves in the near future and that work in Mopti can resume. We can never compromise the safety of our staff and partners, which is always paramount. However, the need in Mali and the impact TREE AID can have will now be greater than ever so we will continue to work there is we can do so safely.

NEWS AND VIEWSReaching even more people in Africa ...


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New shoots: KEEPING FAMILIES TOGETHER

For generations, families across the Sahel have depended on rain-fed agriculture for their livelihoods. It has always been a harsh environment in which to survive and thrive. But communities did.

Today, the resources that those same communities relied upon are lacking. There are few trees and almost no wild animals. Rains are unpredictable. Land is sapped of nutrients and farmers need to cultivate larger and larger areas to harvest the same amount of produce.

As the full impact of climate change takes its toll, opportunities for generating food and income are disappearing. In desperation, women and young people are leaving the villages to fi nd alternative, and often dangerous, forms of employment.

In this context, our work is vital in providing on-farm opportunities that provide people with solid life choices, and communities with renewed opportunities to thrive.

As a mother, it is my responsibility to provide the three basic necessities which are food, clothing and shelter. I don’t have a job. More importantly, there is nothing in this village that my daughter can lay her

hands on to get money. So how then do I cater for her?

– A mother from Wungu, Burkina Faso, whose daughter migrated to Ouagadougou at the age of 10.

Child migration in northern Ghana

For a mother, an inability to feed and care for her family often means incredibly diffi cult decisions.

Does she leave her family to earn a pitiful wage doing menial jobs, begging or worse on the streets of the city? Does she send her eldest girl child to do the same? Or does she urge her sons to undertake dangerous, unregulated work on building sites or in mines?

According to the International Organisation for Migration*, almost one in every fi ve people born in northern Ghana is now living in southern Ghana, so few are the opportunities available within rural communities.

Interestingly, children in Ghana often make the decision to work in the city off their own back. Desperate for an education and a brighter future, many see this as their only route out of poverty.

Habiba's storyHabiba’s family live in Tamale in Northern Ghana. Habiba left home to work in the capital, Accra, when she was just 13.

“I developed the desire to come to Accra after observing those who returned to my village from the city. They have nice clothes, permed hair, lots of utensils and sewing machines.

“I realised that those who go to Accra also have money, so I decided to go too so that I could also get hold of these things.”

Barsalogo, Burkina Faso. Now their mother is generating an income harvesting, processing and selling Baobab products, life choices for the whole

family have improved.


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New shoots: KEEPING FAMILIES TOGETHER

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CASE STUDY: Ending migration with tree enterprise“TREE AID has helped bring our village back together,” Chief of Dasabligo, Northern Ghana.

In the hungry months when all the food from the last harvest has been eaten and before the new harvest is ready, the women of Dasabligo in Northern Ghana had to leave the village with their children in order to fi nd some means of earning money. Some would travel over the border into neighbouring Togo. Others would go to big towns many kilometres away. It meant children were out of school, families were separated, and women were vulnerable to exploitation in the big city, where they risked contracting diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

Over the last three years, TREE AID has helped the women of Dasabligo to develop successful micro enterprises to make their own income from shea nuts and other tree enterprises. We have helped with the planting of new trees and training in beekeeping as well as building the women’s ability to access credit to support future shea butter production. This has resulted in a community now alive with activity and purpose and the women of the village no longer have to leave during the hungry months because they have an income which can buy food for their families.

Thanks to our work girls like Habiba have more opportunities to work in their own villages

There is now less migration because we have trees and know how to market the produce. We are now self-suffi cient. By diversifying our income we are able to support our families and no longer need to take on a life of begging in the city. We now have control.

Member of TREE AID Village Tree Enterprise Programme, Dasabligo, Northern Ghana

Habiba’s rationale is not uncommon. There are benefi ts, but with opportunity comes risks: Health implications associated with living in an environment without decent food or shelter; Employers that exploit human rights with long working hours and poor conditions; And other dangers associated with being a young child alone on the streets of a strange city.

* Extracts from “Independent North-South Child Migration in Ghana – The Decision Making Process” a report by the Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty.


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New shoots: Providing an educationA recent Education for All Global Monitoring report highlights that in sub-Saharan Africa, the number of out-of-school children of primary school age climbed from 29 million in 2008 to 31 million in 2010. This fi gure continues to rise.

Burkina Faso has one of the highest drop-out rates in the region, with only 29% of children fi nishing primary school. This is a stark statistic in itself, but it hides and even bleaker reality for rural communities, and for girls in particular.

Only 22% of rural girls attend primary school in Burkina Faso compared to 72% of urban girls or 82% of urban boys.

Although primary school education is free in the country, the supplies aren’t. This often puts education out of reach for rural families who can barely afford the pens, books and other resources required for their children to attend.

TREE AID’s work provides families with a vital income that can pay for these resources. It also provides parents that missed the chance of a formal education with opportunities to experience an alternative education, gaining forestry and business skills.

Aminata's storyAminata Pafadnam is 11 and lives in Nagraogo in Burkina Faso.

Trees are very important to me. The house I live in is constructed with poles from trees. Kapok and baobab sauce is used to fl avour my meals – and I love eating fruit.

The trees are also helping me get to school. This is really important.

I really enjoy learning how to read and write and when I grow up I want to be a teacher. But the school is half a kilometre from the house, so I need good shoes for walking there and back, as well as pens and books.

TREE AID has helped my mother learn how to make soap from shea butter, which she sells. This money is helping pay for these things and secure my education.


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New shoots: Providing an educationTREE AID's business graduates

Mango Orchard in Burkina Faso

An integral part of TREE AID’s work is the training it provides to the people it is working with. For many our training programmes are often the only form of education they ever receive.

In addition to training in forestry and natural resource management we also provide training in Market Analysis and Development. This provides often illiterate people with the ability to develop business plans for generating income from their trees.

Illiterate but visionaryParticipants have to be very committed and forward thinking to complete the course. Firstly, they have to dedicate signifi cant time to the course which is precious time away from domestic duties and working on their land. Secondly, many participants don’t know how to read and write, so have to remember everything they’ve been taught. Thirdly, they need to believe that this precious investment will change their future

circumstances and improve their chances of surviving.

But lack of an education does not mean lack of insight. Many participants embrace the knowledge they are gaining and are excited by the prospect of being able to work towards a more positive future.

Rather than the course being a burden on time and resources, we have seen hopelessness replaced with a much-needed sense of purpose for those taking part. They ‘graduate’ from our training programmes with life-changing skills.

At the end of this process, villagers’ will become entrepreneurs. We will be generating an income. We will be self-reliant. We will be managing enterprises that in turn improve our environment. Furthermore, with business plans we can access credit which will contribute to further improving our living conditions.

– Diarra Saberé, 42, Bambara, Mali


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New shoots: CHANGING THE FACE OF POVERTY

Although women make up half of the world’s population they also represent a staggering 70% of the world’s poor. It is essential that our programmes refl ect this bias.

There’s a careful balance to be made when introducing programmes specifi cally designed for women. Such programmes need to respect local culture and be sensitive to traditional family roles. But this is something TREE AID has done successfully many times.

Traditionally a woman is responsible for gathering what is required for the family – primarily food, fi rewood and a small income for household essentials. It is not, however, traditional for women to own land. Our programmes therefore build on the traditional whilst sensitizing communities to the need for change.

In 2009, Obiageli Ezekwesili of the World Bank said that in Africa, “poverty has a female face”. At our project sites, that face is changing.

The entrepreneurI am 27 years old and a beekeeper. My life was once very diffi cult. There were few sources of food and income. Now things have changed. The sale of honey means I have been able to pay my daughter Afi shetu’s school fees. The way I think about trees has changed. I am now able to produce something of value for my girl.

– Juliana Barnabas, Siisi Village, Ghana.

The forest fi ghterI am a 42 year old mother of fi ve. I am on the Village Forest Management Committee and have played a role working with other villages to decide the rules required to manage the Baogogo forest. Through this work we have defi ned which areas of the forest are protected for regeneration, which are left for animal grazing and when and how tree produce can be collected,

– Agnes Zoungrana, Latod, Burkina Faso.

Agnes Zoungrana holding the mobile phone she uses to share information on forest management with women in neighbouring village.

Women involved in a mango orchard funded by TREE AID.


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New shoots: CHANGING THE FACE OF POVERTYThe environmental trailblazer

This year, TREE AID’s Women’s Forest Livelihoods Project will enter a new and exciting phase. It will continue to help women generate income through forest products such as shea butter and honey, whilst boosting this income through Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES).

PES payments are a form of carbon credit which are designed to benefit the poor communities that contribute to protecting the environment. It is linked to protection of trees, and will see a leap forward in traditional systems for managing forest resources. The women involved are likely to be trailblazers in their community.

A recent evaluation by BioClimate, a specialist consultancy that works with

communities to identify suitable eco-services, looked at ways to ensure women are properly involved in forest management. Its report gives us insight as to what a woman involved in the project might look like in three years time.

I am 35 years old, and a mother of four. Trees helped my mother provide everything when I was a child – food, money, medicine, firewood for cooking and more. So as the trees disappeared, life for women got hard.

“This is changing. I am one of six women, now a member of the 12 strong village development committee. I am a member of a women’s group that owns a plot of mixed use land that supports both community enterprise and household needs. And I am part of an inter-village committee that protects the surrounding forest.

“The income we generate through our tree food co-operative is boosted by income generated nurturing and protecting trees in the community and beyond. We can now save and invest. This, in turn, protects our future.

Women extracting oil from balanites seeds. Being able to invest in technology, such as this press, removes the need for hours of hard labour, and increases the productivity of their enterprise.

The face of African poverty is female. She is 18 years old. She lives in a rural area. She has dropped out of school. She is single, but is about to be married to a man approximately twice her age. She will be the mother of six or seven kids in another 20 years. The global economic crisis has drastically reduced her individual income and therefore the household budget. This has particularly damaging consequences for girls.

World Bank publication, Africa Development Indicators (ADI), 2009


We are delighted to report that the freezing Winter (and Spring!) has not stopped some of our brilliant supporters from throwing themselves into fundraising for TREE AID over the past few months.

The TREE AID logo was out in force in the Reading Half Marathon on 17th March. 7 runners braved the rain to raise funds for our work. Special congratulations go to Oliver Machell and David Peck who both fi nished in under 1 hour, 38 minutes. Thank you also to Angharad Shaw who has achieved almost triple her original fundraising target. Fantastic efforts from Team TREE AID!

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FUNDRAISING...

Huge congratulations also go to Jonathan and Rachel Darby, who got married on 23rd December. To mark the big day, they chose to raise money for TREE AID’s Community Self-Reliance project in northern Ghana. They easily exceeded their original target of £1000. They said:

“We hope that watching the project’s development will be a pleasant, and lasting, reminder of the generosity of our friends and families.”

Some of the most enthusiastic fundraisers for Jonathan and Rachel have been the pupils at Ely College, the school where Rachel teaches. They have held various imaginative fundraising events including football and rugby tournaments, a sponsored silence and a stall selling One Direction biscuits! One form group also raised over £100 selling raffl e tickets for a chocolate hamper, and one very brave teacher had his head shaved during the end of year assembly.

Oliver Machell and David Peck

Alex Pappin and Angharad Shaw


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SPRUCE UP YOUR GARDENS

We are delighted at TREE AID to welcome new support from Challenge Fencing. Selling wooden garden supplies and furniture,

Challenge have six sites across the South East and are donating 5% of sales from a selected range of products throughout the coming year. We hope the spring sunshine will inspire their customers to get out in their gardens! www.challengefencing.com

TREES ARE FOR LIFE NOT JUST FOR CHRISTMAS!

Thank you to the Christmas Forest which has helped villagers across the drylands to plant over 100,000 trees! Over the last six years, each tree sold by the Christmas Forest from their pop up sites around London generates a donation to plant a young tree in Africa. Director Kelty Caston says: “I have been delighted to support Tree Aid’s work for the past six years. I particularly like their projects because they fulfi l the twin functions of sustainability and helping people in real need.” www.christmasforest.co.uk

The pupils have had a lot of fun raising money for TREE AID. They have worked hard to raise £357.62 to date, and more events are planned for next term.

If you would like to take part in a sponsored event or even have a go at organising your own, please get in touch with Tom at [email protected], or look at our website, www.treeaid.org.uk.


TREES MEAN LIFE TREES MEAN LIFEDesigned and printed by Wells Printing on paper from a sustainable source using vegetable based inks, alcohol free.

THE POWER OF TREES:THE TAMARINDNative to tropical Africa, the tamarind is a beautiful tree with very diverse uses. This is perhaps why many communities in the Sahel see the tamarind as a spiritual tree, and women wanting to have a baby may pray to it.baby may pray to it.

The fruits are edible and very rich in vitamins B and C. The pulp can be eaten fresh or dried and pressed into balls for use throughout the year.

The fruit can also be made into a refreshing and nutritious drink.

The leaves are also edible: they can be dried and made into a condiment.

Sustainably sourced tamarind wood is very durable. It is used to make tools and utensils like the pestle and mortar.


TREES MEAN LIFE TREES MEAN LIFE TREES MEAN LIFE...Habiba's story Habiba’s family live in Tamale in...

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