Reforestation and Women Empowerment in Uganda
Donation protected
The T.R.E.E.S. Initiative
(Teaching Reforestation & Entrepreneurial Empowerment @ Saint Bakhita’s)
Located in the rural township of Kalongo, Uganda, St. Bakhita’s Vocational Training Center’s (SBVTC) mission is to be a school which provides a comprehensive education that empowers women to design and implement creative solutions to challenges faced by their community. To achieve this, SBVTC creates hands-on curricula that teach students the skills needed to become change agents in their home communities as they tackle Uganda’s most pressing issues.
One of these issues is deforestation. In the last 25 years, 63% of forests in Uganda have been destroyed due to rapid urbanization, increased energy demands, and civil war. This has left the country in a dire situation, one that we aim to help correct by introducing the TREES Initiative.
By March 2021, we plan to launch a 50-acre reforestation program at SBVTC, composed of soil-friendly fruit and coppicable, sustainable charcoal trees. Through the tree farm, SBVTC will teach students the practical skills and value of agroforestry and environmental preservation, while equipping them with the entrepreneurial knowledge needed to develop a sense of empowerment, selling harvests from the tree farm.
GOALS
Environmental Preservation
Plant over 20,000 fruit and carbon-efficient, charcoal trees across 50 acres of land by 2021 for sustainable harvesting and carbon capture
Introduce a variety of soil-safe fruit trees for increased biodiversity in the region
Manufacture and sell carbon-efficient and -neutral charcoal for widespread use in households to reduce their carbon output
Entrepreneurial Empowerment
Teach students the essentials of agroforestry by providing access to the reforestation farm for hands-on learning and application of classroom lessons
Teach students about entrepreneurship through practice selling the harvested produce in markets using value addition techniques such as fruit drying
Teach students about the environmental deforestation crisis and how to advocate for positive change in their home communities through classroom lessons
Provide an opportunity for students to cover their tuition from fruit sales
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Leave a comment during the donation process if you’d like to GIFT a tree to someone!
Provide us with their email and we’ll let them know of your awesome gift!
$5 will help us purchase one sapling
$25 will help us purchase five saplings
$100 will help us purchase twenty saplings
$200 will cover tool and local leadership costs for the project for a month
$1,000 will help us plant an entire acre of trees
MORE ABOUT THE DEFORESTATION CRISIS
Uganda is in the midst of a deforestation crisis that, without intervention, will result in the loss of all of its forests by 2060.
In the last 25 years, 63% of forests in Uganda have been destroyed due to rapid urbanization, increased energy demands, and civil war. This has left the country in a dire situation, one that we aim to help correct.
Today, charcoal is still the main source of fuel for the country, especially within households for cooking and heating. This dependency has resulted in explosive planting of quick-growing, non-native trees to meet the ever-increasing demand. While introducing cleaner energy sources, such as solar power, is the ideal solution, due to financial constraints, charcoal is still the most affordable and prevalent option. Thus, to meet the Ugandan people where they are at, the first step we will take in reversing the trend of rapid deforestation for energy is to make the harvesting and use of charcoal as efficient as possible.
PROGRAM SPECIFICS - REFORESTATION
Partnering with Gulu-based, sustainable reforestation experts, Kijani Forestry, we plan to plant over 20,000 trees across 50 acres.
^Photo of a portion of the land dedicated for the trees
The tree types planted include local-variety avocados, mangoes, papayas, oranges, and energy-efficient charcoal trees. Each species of tree is non-invasive, and by allocating a variety of tree types across our land, we will maintain biodiversity and soil integrity.
Concerning charcoal trees, they will be of local species which will not harm soil health. To promote sustainable farming practices, we will be utilizing a coppicing technique to plant charcoal trees. Coppicing is a forestry method in which the trees that are planted are those that will sprout from their stumps once cut down, creating a continuous wood source without frequently disturbing the soil.
The charcoal we plan on producing will be created using carbon-efficient practices, producing similarly carbon-efficient charcoal. Therefore, as students practice their sales skills, they will introduce environmentally-safer charcoal into communities to reduce the rate of carbon emission from household cooking.
Beyond selling the fruit or charcoal harvested from the trees, the school will be able to develop a seed bank from which seeds can be sold to other farmers in the area, providing an opportunity for the students to witness how one item can have multiple methods to generate income.
MORE ABOUT SBVTC
At the peak of the Lord’s Resistance Army civil war, thousands of children were abducted, many of them girls who were forced into servitude. At the end of the war, these young girls returned home, having missed their childhood, formal education, and many of them with young children in tow. In response, SBVTC was founded in 2007 to support and educate the child mothers and girls who had been kidnapped during this dark, two-decade war, providing them with the knowledge and support needed to persevere and rise above their circumstances.
At SBVTC we are committed to educating and empowering individuals across the Acholi region to propel Northern Uganda, and the country as a whole, forward with modern innovation. Through our strong curriculum, practical training, and connections in the community, we provide students with skills needed to excel in their jobs, start their own businesses, and make a lasting impact on their community.
SBVTC aims to make education available to all students by breaking down barriers to education. With tuition costs often preventing students from attending school, we hope to alleviate that concern by being one of the few vocational schools in the country to offer tuition support. This will come in the form of completing work at the school and offering other forms of direct scholarships. We also offer childcare support for those students that need to attend school with young children.
PROGRAM SPECIFICS - FEMALE EMPOWERMENT THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Through classroom teaching followed by hands-on experience, the students of SBVTC will gain valuable entrepreneurship skills which they will be able to utilize in their lives far beyond their time in school.
Traditional gender roles in Uganda often lead to women being limited to domestic jobs in households. This initiative will empower the female students of SBVTC to take control of their own futures through practical lessons in planting crops and taking their products to market to earn a living.
Specifically, the students will learn from experienced teachers how to plant, tend to, and harvest from a variety of trees in a sustainable manner. They will then be taught valuable marketing and sales techniques to sell their products locally and abroad. Upon the completion of this training, the students will be able to individually support profitable, sustainable agroforestry endeavors, thus empowering them to be future change makers in their communities, sharing with community leaders and members the knowledge they learned at SBVTC and serving as an inspirational role-model for younger girls.
Furthermore, throughout the program, students will learn about Uganda’s deforestation crisis and understand how their work at SBVTC contributes to a greener future for the country. By witnessing and participating in the TREES Initiative, SBVTC students will transform into fluent advocates for environmental preservation.
TIMELINE
Present: Our team is consulting a diverse group of experienced experts at successful NGOs to design a curriculum which educates students about entrepreneurship. While based on agroforestry products, we hope to create a curriculum that can be applied to a variety of industries based on our students’ home community needs.
September - November 2020: Soil assessment will be conducted to confirm viability of selected tree species and land will be cleared and prepared for our reforestation program.
November 2020 - February 2021: Program Managers from SBVTC will travel to the urban center of Gulu for formal training with our expert partner, Kijani Forestry. There, they will learn the essentials of agroforestry, tree nursery operations, carbon-efficient charcoal production, and, most importantly, how to properly transfer this knowledge to students maintaining the saplings and trees.
March 2021: Saplings from Kijani Forestry will be delivered to SBVTC. Students will have received prior classroom instruction on topics such as how to properly space and plant the trees, allowing them to apply this knowledge during the actual transplanting process with guidance from Program Managers and Kijani.
Afterward: As the trees mature, students will harvest the fruit. Students will then use the produce to learn about value-adding processes and practice entrepreneurial skills such as marketing and sales. Additionally, the profit the students earn will help them pay for their tuition while at SBVTC.
(Teaching Reforestation & Entrepreneurial Empowerment @ Saint Bakhita’s)
Located in the rural township of Kalongo, Uganda, St. Bakhita’s Vocational Training Center’s (SBVTC) mission is to be a school which provides a comprehensive education that empowers women to design and implement creative solutions to challenges faced by their community. To achieve this, SBVTC creates hands-on curricula that teach students the skills needed to become change agents in their home communities as they tackle Uganda’s most pressing issues.
One of these issues is deforestation. In the last 25 years, 63% of forests in Uganda have been destroyed due to rapid urbanization, increased energy demands, and civil war. This has left the country in a dire situation, one that we aim to help correct by introducing the TREES Initiative.
By March 2021, we plan to launch a 50-acre reforestation program at SBVTC, composed of soil-friendly fruit and coppicable, sustainable charcoal trees. Through the tree farm, SBVTC will teach students the practical skills and value of agroforestry and environmental preservation, while equipping them with the entrepreneurial knowledge needed to develop a sense of empowerment, selling harvests from the tree farm.
GOALS
Environmental Preservation
Plant over 20,000 fruit and carbon-efficient, charcoal trees across 50 acres of land by 2021 for sustainable harvesting and carbon capture
Introduce a variety of soil-safe fruit trees for increased biodiversity in the region
Manufacture and sell carbon-efficient and -neutral charcoal for widespread use in households to reduce their carbon output
Entrepreneurial Empowerment
Teach students the essentials of agroforestry by providing access to the reforestation farm for hands-on learning and application of classroom lessons
Teach students about entrepreneurship through practice selling the harvested produce in markets using value addition techniques such as fruit drying
Teach students about the environmental deforestation crisis and how to advocate for positive change in their home communities through classroom lessons
Provide an opportunity for students to cover their tuition from fruit sales
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Leave a comment during the donation process if you’d like to GIFT a tree to someone!
Provide us with their email and we’ll let them know of your awesome gift!
$5 will help us purchase one sapling
$25 will help us purchase five saplings
$100 will help us purchase twenty saplings
$200 will cover tool and local leadership costs for the project for a month
$1,000 will help us plant an entire acre of trees
MORE ABOUT THE DEFORESTATION CRISIS
Uganda is in the midst of a deforestation crisis that, without intervention, will result in the loss of all of its forests by 2060.
In the last 25 years, 63% of forests in Uganda have been destroyed due to rapid urbanization, increased energy demands, and civil war. This has left the country in a dire situation, one that we aim to help correct.
Today, charcoal is still the main source of fuel for the country, especially within households for cooking and heating. This dependency has resulted in explosive planting of quick-growing, non-native trees to meet the ever-increasing demand. While introducing cleaner energy sources, such as solar power, is the ideal solution, due to financial constraints, charcoal is still the most affordable and prevalent option. Thus, to meet the Ugandan people where they are at, the first step we will take in reversing the trend of rapid deforestation for energy is to make the harvesting and use of charcoal as efficient as possible.
PROGRAM SPECIFICS - REFORESTATION
Partnering with Gulu-based, sustainable reforestation experts, Kijani Forestry, we plan to plant over 20,000 trees across 50 acres.
^Photo of a portion of the land dedicated for the treesThe tree types planted include local-variety avocados, mangoes, papayas, oranges, and energy-efficient charcoal trees. Each species of tree is non-invasive, and by allocating a variety of tree types across our land, we will maintain biodiversity and soil integrity.
Concerning charcoal trees, they will be of local species which will not harm soil health. To promote sustainable farming practices, we will be utilizing a coppicing technique to plant charcoal trees. Coppicing is a forestry method in which the trees that are planted are those that will sprout from their stumps once cut down, creating a continuous wood source without frequently disturbing the soil.
The charcoal we plan on producing will be created using carbon-efficient practices, producing similarly carbon-efficient charcoal. Therefore, as students practice their sales skills, they will introduce environmentally-safer charcoal into communities to reduce the rate of carbon emission from household cooking.
Beyond selling the fruit or charcoal harvested from the trees, the school will be able to develop a seed bank from which seeds can be sold to other farmers in the area, providing an opportunity for the students to witness how one item can have multiple methods to generate income.
MORE ABOUT SBVTC
At the peak of the Lord’s Resistance Army civil war, thousands of children were abducted, many of them girls who were forced into servitude. At the end of the war, these young girls returned home, having missed their childhood, formal education, and many of them with young children in tow. In response, SBVTC was founded in 2007 to support and educate the child mothers and girls who had been kidnapped during this dark, two-decade war, providing them with the knowledge and support needed to persevere and rise above their circumstances.
At SBVTC we are committed to educating and empowering individuals across the Acholi region to propel Northern Uganda, and the country as a whole, forward with modern innovation. Through our strong curriculum, practical training, and connections in the community, we provide students with skills needed to excel in their jobs, start their own businesses, and make a lasting impact on their community.
SBVTC aims to make education available to all students by breaking down barriers to education. With tuition costs often preventing students from attending school, we hope to alleviate that concern by being one of the few vocational schools in the country to offer tuition support. This will come in the form of completing work at the school and offering other forms of direct scholarships. We also offer childcare support for those students that need to attend school with young children.
PROGRAM SPECIFICS - FEMALE EMPOWERMENT THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Through classroom teaching followed by hands-on experience, the students of SBVTC will gain valuable entrepreneurship skills which they will be able to utilize in their lives far beyond their time in school.
Traditional gender roles in Uganda often lead to women being limited to domestic jobs in households. This initiative will empower the female students of SBVTC to take control of their own futures through practical lessons in planting crops and taking their products to market to earn a living.
Specifically, the students will learn from experienced teachers how to plant, tend to, and harvest from a variety of trees in a sustainable manner. They will then be taught valuable marketing and sales techniques to sell their products locally and abroad. Upon the completion of this training, the students will be able to individually support profitable, sustainable agroforestry endeavors, thus empowering them to be future change makers in their communities, sharing with community leaders and members the knowledge they learned at SBVTC and serving as an inspirational role-model for younger girls.
Furthermore, throughout the program, students will learn about Uganda’s deforestation crisis and understand how their work at SBVTC contributes to a greener future for the country. By witnessing and participating in the TREES Initiative, SBVTC students will transform into fluent advocates for environmental preservation.
TIMELINE
Present: Our team is consulting a diverse group of experienced experts at successful NGOs to design a curriculum which educates students about entrepreneurship. While based on agroforestry products, we hope to create a curriculum that can be applied to a variety of industries based on our students’ home community needs.
September - November 2020: Soil assessment will be conducted to confirm viability of selected tree species and land will be cleared and prepared for our reforestation program.
November 2020 - February 2021: Program Managers from SBVTC will travel to the urban center of Gulu for formal training with our expert partner, Kijani Forestry. There, they will learn the essentials of agroforestry, tree nursery operations, carbon-efficient charcoal production, and, most importantly, how to properly transfer this knowledge to students maintaining the saplings and trees.
March 2021: Saplings from Kijani Forestry will be delivered to SBVTC. Students will have received prior classroom instruction on topics such as how to properly space and plant the trees, allowing them to apply this knowledge during the actual transplanting process with guidance from Program Managers and Kijani.
Afterward: As the trees mature, students will harvest the fruit. Students will then use the produce to learn about value-adding processes and practice entrepreneurial skills such as marketing and sales. Additionally, the profit the students earn will help them pay for their tuition while at SBVTC.
Fundraising team: Notre Dame-SBVTC Advisory Board (3)
Bruce Morris
Organizer
Notre Dame, IN
Wendy Angst
Beneficiary
Alice Bruemmer
Team member
