Can agricultural waste revitalize a forest? A pair of ecologists worked with a fruit-juice company in the late 1990s to try just that. The Costa Rica-based business signed away “degraded” land in Guanacaste, Costa Rica to allocate to the adjacent national park. The deal was the company could dump orange peels and pulp (without pesticides or insecticides) on a portion of the land. Researchers returned 15 years later and found massive transformations in that specific area of the forest, including improvement in biodiversity, soil richness and tree mass.
An environmental activist and a resident of Jalalabad City in Eastern Afghanistan, Shamsuddin Amin, is also interested in helping people through helping the earth. The initiative, Plant A Tree For A Green Nangarhar, will promote a culture of sustainable development and plant trees across Jalalabad City and its suburbs.
Thamara Michel received a grant from The Pollination Project to focus on the pine forests of Gros-Morne, Haiti. The Reforestation Campaign in Gros-Morne aims to include young people in the process of restoring the local pine forest ecosystem. Thamara recognizes not only the importance of restoring forests for ecological reasons, but also for benefiting the people who live there.
Although not all of our grantees focus on the environmental cause, they remain changemakers who experiment—like the researchers whose unusual idea improved the ecology of barren land in Costa Rica. Here are 12 recently funded projects improving the world.
Rajendran Reddy’s project in India, Nalantha Organic Farming Production And Training Center Through Bio Pesticide & Fertilizer Unit, aims to train small and marginalized farmers in ecologically friendly and sustainable agriculture practices without chemical pesticides, fertilizers or growth hormones.
The Amani Yoga Project in Eshiakula, Kenya is part of The Amani Educational Center, which has become a gathering place where local children and group members practice yoga for holistic health.
Project Re-Sistance-Cycle in Bogotá, Colombia employs documentary and movie screenings, public space art, and upcycling workshops to turn a marginalized hotspot into a cultural hub. They strengthen the local resilience, resistance, and recycling as key elements of their identity.
Dickson’s Hold a Girl’s Hand Initiative is a school-based project in Siaya County, Kenya, aiming to holistically meet the needs of high school girls by providing guidance and counseling and giving menstrual hygiene products.
Melanie Jacobs’ project, Rooster Redemption, is a micro sanctuary in Center City, Minnesota rescues male chickens from a variety of situations from cockfighting rings to school classroom hatching projects to being dumped on the streets once they start crowing.
Aikande Robert Nkya launched Rise Up Girl and Wake Up Your Dreams in Moshi, Tanzania to provide trainings and education about menstruation and body hygiene as well as re-usable pads and menstrual cups.
Matagi, led by Veronicah Wanjiku, is a local project in Mwiki, Kenya that provides women with access to plastic cylindrical tanks for water storage. The water can then be used for house chores or household gardening.
The Projects with Under-Served Communities (PUC) program at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) allows students to apply their education towards the physical implementation of a project in a underserved community. For the past year, Sebastian Fakas’ group has worked to implement a solar energy system to be installed at a children’s malnutrition clinic in San Agustín Acasaguastlán, El Progreso, Guatemala.
Brown Mtekela Mkandawire received a grant for The Rural Education Support and Rehabilitation Unit to support primary school aged girls in Blantyre, Malawi in understanding how to manage menstruation. A changing room will be constructed for use during menstruation and the community will be engaged to provide the girls with sanitary pads.
Displaced people in South Sudan have resorted to creating farmlands in forest reserves and burning charcoal to sell and earn a living. Onek Paul’s project in South Sudan protects the forest and preserves the rare species of animals in natural habitats through mobilization, advocacy and sensitization of displaced people.
Organic Smart Farming, led by Prescilla Awino Onyango in Kisumu, Kenya, aims to transform community farming habits with sustainable, organic methods.
Kauz and Karen McCarthy started YES, Youth Empowerment Services, to assist youth in developing the skills needed to be successful in life after graduation. YES, located in Anaconda, Montana, addresses life skills, social skills and work skills in creative and fun formats.
The strange idea of two researchers helped a forest. Do you have an idea to help people and/or the environment? We encourage you to apply for a grant. Unusual or not, we are always looking to support projects that are making the world a better place.