Individual Ideas Influence Widespread Aspirations

by | Oct 2, 2019 | Seeds: Our Blog

All of our individual life experiences bring special insight and perspectives for how we see the world, and how we add towards collective expansion. The solutions and ideas that TPP grantees bring to their communities are endless and their unique experiences allow for boundless ingenuity.

There is not a one-size-fits-all resolution to the dilemmas occurring around the globe. Fortunately, TPP grantees see first-hand what is missing in their communities and how to fill those voids while establishing new frameworks for long-lasting triumphs. Read about the latest grantee projects and how they represent their communities near and far!

Emerge- The Art of Leadership is an initiative in Charlotte, North Carolina whereby youth are developed into confident, mindful, and compassionate leaders of the future. Their focus is to teach students self-defense, both in life and on the training floor, by giving them the tools needed to prepare for the challenges they will face in their schools and community.
Through martial arts instruction, meditation, and project-based leadership training events, Emerge will work with the community to provide youth programming that is dynamic and engaging and uplifts that challenges our marginalized young citizens.

Musinguzi, Mbakania – The African Cherry Orchard

The African Cherry Orchard project was started by Francis Musinguzi with the intent of establishing a conservation site for the Prunus Africana Tree (African Cherry) in Fort Portal, Uganda by planting an orchard. This project is twofold in that it will raise awareness on the priceless value of Prunus Africana as a miracle, anti-prostate cancer medicinal plant. Globally, prostate cancer is the second most commonly occurring cancer in men with 1.3 million new cases in 2018. Additionally this project will reduce the tree’s fateful dwindling of its wild population caused by unsustainable harvest. Prunus Africana is currently protected under appendix II of CITES, meaning that trade in this species is only permitted if an appropriate export permit and certificate of origin from a given country is held.

The statistics and the narrative tells it all, and as such, Francis was inspired to begin an initiative that addresses the above challenges in a small but deliberate way; to reverse the tide of prostate cancer in men, increase the population stand of Prunus Africana and ensure its sustainable harvest in the future. In the project, Francis Musinguzi and his project partner, Joshua Mbakania, are going to establish a Prunus Africana orchard at a conservation site and raise a nursery to facilitate supply of planting materials to other to farmers, foresters, landscapers. We believe that planting an orchard is the first step to ensuring the safety of the orchard habitat.

SustainEd Farms

SustainEd Farms creates and delivers sustainability and nutrition curriculum centered around experiences on school farms and gardens to position students as leaders of a more food-secure community. The USDA estimates that over 23.5 million people live in food deserts across the country. These areas with limited access to supermarkets are often disproportionately home to low-income and minority populations. Denver has 45 census tracts classified as food deserts affecting over 189,471 residents, including students.
Through The Pollination Project grant, SustainEd Farms is able to pilot our curriculum through fun activities that teach Denver students how to grow a community grounded in sustainable food security.

Nicole Arciello, Patrick Battuello – Horseracing Wrongs Educational Website To End Horseracing

Horseracing Wrongs is a non-profit organization working to end horse racing in the United States through education and grassroots advocacy. Through his seminal FOIA reporting, founder and president, Patrick Battuello, has documented over 5,000 confirmed kills on U.S. tracks just since 2014; and estimates that over 2,000 horses are killed racing or training across America every year.

Horse Racing is inherently cruel from the start. Horses used for racing are isolated and confined to small stalls over 23 hours a day, whipped to perform, drugged without consent to mask painful injuries, are bought and sold passing from owner to owner, and if they survive racing, they are shipped to Mexico and Canada to be slaughtered for their meat as it is consumed by individuals in Europe and Asia. Horseracing Wrongs provides materials at no-cost to activists organizing protests at racetracks across the United States. Horseracingwrongs dot com is the number one educational source of the animal cruelty and racehorse deaths in the U.S.

Ardenti Global Service Learning, Inc. – Bucket Farming For Belize

Bucket Farming for Belize is a project that is based in the Colett district of Belize City, Belize. Students at Unity Presbyterian School will engage in progressing literacy skills while learning how to farm in buckets. This project eliminates the need for nutrient rich soil in the community since it was built on mangroves and marsh and does not promote sustainable food growth. Students learning how to bucket farm can use the seeds of the new fruits and vegetables to sustain growth indefinitely and can use the vegetable or fruit that he or she is growing to co-op within the community.

While learning how to bucket farm, this school that has a high non-reader rate will also learn how to read what supplies are needed as well as how to spell the ingredients and progress writing skills by journaling the progress of the project.

We were inspired to start this project to alleviate two things: Food insecurity and literacy. These grant funds will allow us to purchase the supplies needed for the children to be able to start the project and watch it succeed!

Jaya Manjunath + Seniors With Skills Team – Seniors With Skills Expansion Project

Seniors With Skills is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization determined to create a movement to end social isolation of seniors in the United States. The organization was founded by long-term retirement home volunteer, Jaya Manjunath, when she started teaching seniors how to use the computers and knit for causes. From here, two main programs emerged that are still used today throughout America. Wanting to encourage seniors to get involved from the retirement residence, we started the “Cards and Knitting Program” where volunteers show seniors how to make cards and knit caps and blankets for pediatric hospital and hospice patients. Without stepping out of the residence, seniors can now make an impactful change in the lives of many hospital patients.

The second program is a “Computer Training Program” where seniors learn how to use technology to connect with their family and friends. While the organization originally started as a small group in Olean, New York, there are currently over 100 Seniors With Skills volunteers from Boston, New York, Rochester, Olean, Virginia, Michigan and more states running one of our programs. These seniors we have impacted are no longer in retirement residences waiting to be entertained; they have become active while improving their cognitive function and overall quality of life.

Oluwafunmilayo Oni, Esther Edward – Liberate Women

In 2018, Nigeria became the poverty capital of the world, estimating that 7 out of 10 individuals living in poverty are women.
Oluwafunmilayo Oni is the visionary behind Iranwo Foundation, an organization that seeks to bridge the poverty gap by providing access to vocational skills, business skills, and micro loans to unemployed and poor women.

Jaff Francis A and John DeMarco – Promoting Irrigation Farming Through Solar Water Pump

The development of affordable solar pumps for small-scale irrigation is a revolutionary technology that has the potential to create thousands of jobs and increase incomes of small farmers in rural areas of Cameroon. The cost of the pumps are affordable, giving farmers the opportunity to purchase or hire these pumps using their own revenues, thus not having to depend on external financing. The highest need is to demonstrate the technology to more farmers, and make the pumps available commercially in areas with high potential for small-scale irrigation.

The Promoting Irrigation Farming Through Solar Water Pump project will introduce this pumping technology to Noun Division, one of the agricultural hot-spots of Cameroon, and make the pumps available to farmers to purchase or hire through commercial partners. This work will allow a farmer to have constant running water from a pipe throughout the day, as long as the sun is shining.

Aaron Kapesa, Marko Chiumia – Potable Water For The Hopeless

Potable Water for the Hopeless is a WASH initiative championed by Young Leaders Rise, a non profit organization founded by Aaron Kapesa with a mission of striving to improve the well-being of rural communities through provision of sustainable potable water in Malawi. Despite the fact that water is life, rural communities continue to experience problems of accessing clean and potable water. Women, young adult girls and school going children walk very long distances to access water from swamps, unprotected wells and streams. The water boards only provide their services in urban and peri-urban communities, giving no hope for clean potable piped water to rural communities by the boards. With our project Potable Water for the Hopeless, we seek to address such challenges through provision of clean potable water from underground by constructing hand pump shallow wells within the users’ vicinity.

“We believe our work will among others reduce risks associated with the use of unsafe water by promoting hygiene, reduce drudgery for women, young adult girls and school going children who are tasked with collecting water, save time which can be spent on more productive uses such as studying and allow women participation in social and economic activities which will make them feel empowered.”

The grant funds will assist in purchasing water point construction materials for Mpamba villages in Nkhata – Bay.

Rev. Baluku Jozeti, Masika Pamela, Wilson – Tree Planting For Environmental Conservation

Taking place in the southwest district of Kasese, Uganda, Tree Planting for Environmental Conservation helps prepare nursery beds for tree and fruit seedlings to the Nyakabingo Corridor. This area slopes the Rwenzori Mountains, covering the hilly areas of Rukoki, Mahango, Muhokya, Kilembe, and Nyakabingo sub-counties. Additionally, the work aims at sensitizing the community about the importance of planting trees since the hills in this community have become bare resulting to soil erosion, leading to soil exhaustion and landslides that have destroyed property and claimed the lives of more than ten people every rainy season since 2010.

The project aims at restoring the lost beauty of the green environment in the foothills of Rwenzori’s. Reverend Baluku Jozeti was motivated to do this project when he visited Rubirizi District and found out the people there had done a lot by ensuring that all their hills are covered with trees. The environment there is green and cool and does not experience serious landslides, floods, and soil erosion. From learning from his neighbors, he hopes to make impactful and sustainable change. The grant funds will assist to setting up the nursery bed that targets to have 20,000 tree seedlings supplied to the community.

The Builders School

The Builders School seeks to build on the continuous training, seminars, and workshops we organize for local builders to improve and sharpen their skills in technology. The participants are trained on site planning, architectural drawings, and interpretations, including how to set up and lay out of foundations, mix designs, the causes of building defects and how to avoid them, government regulations in the construction industry, and site safety procedures. This grant from The Pollination Project will have a long-term impact of improving the skills and competencies in the construction field and make home ownership affordable for citizens.

 Tiawana Bullock, Step Back Advisory Team – Step Back

Step Back is a suicide prevention program for teens and young adults. Located in the beautiful city of Grand Junction, Colorado, Step Back offers a place of comfort and hope. The youth can drop-in, hang out or receive services such as mentoring, life-skills training, workshops and referrals. In 2011, the community experienced the tragic loss of two teenage brothers to suicide. It was at that time they learned that their county was the highest in the nation for teen suicide. Step Back’s goal is to reduce the rates of teen suicide in the community. They want to give our youth a voice while building social and emotional skills to be leaders in their communities and around the world.

Vianna McGugan, Peter Senfuka, Ochan Moses – Teammates For Life – Sporting Community Outreach Project

Resurfacing the Nyaravur basketball court in Northern Uganda will restore hope and continue to nurture opportunities for boys and girls to identify their talents in a location where most go unnoticed. Together, Vianna McGugan, president of Teammates for Life USA, and Ochan Moses, coordinator of start-up basketball teams in Northern Uganda, oversee the importance of reconditioning this community outreach project. In 2016, Teammates for Life started sponsoring a fundamental basketball instruction program on the Nyaravur court for young children during after school hours and on the weekends. This program has produced educational scholarships for 10 girls now studying in the Teammates for Life program in Arua and put forward 2 girls currently playing on the Uganda, Under 16 National Basketball Team. Restoring the court will continue to keep young people involved in healthy activities, not participating in negative social behaviors such as drugs, alcohol, and early pregnancy.

Ancestral School Of Arts For Chagres – Ancestral School Of Arts

The Ancestral School of Arts project aims to rescue and strengthen the cultural and ancestral values of our African-Colombian community by the efforts of La Casa Sobre La Roca Foundation, and specifically by acquiring musical instruments and typical dance costumes for the project beneficiaries. Its community leaders, Martha Rojas, Ruby Cortes, and Katherine Rojas, among others, are helping people in need to improve their quality of life by projects and activities related to culture, recreation, health, and housing, among the elderly, the childhood, single mothers, and the disabled.

“We mostly have action in our local community in our hometown of Jamundí County, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. We believe that our purposes and efforts will make a better community, and will provide a bridge for community members to succeed in their life projects. The granted funds will give us the starting point of improving the whole ancestral dance, and music performance not only locally within our community, but also throughout the region.”

Instagram

"Sowing Change: Conversations about Seed Grant Impact," is designed to shed light on the transformative work of our grantees, made possible through the support of TPP's seed grants. 

In our first episode, our Natasha Reilly-Moynihan meets Tracy Glover of @sweetpeepsmicrosanctuary, a haven for chickens rescued from animal agriculture. Tracy shares the transformative journey of these sentient beings from being seen as mere food to recognized as unique individuals with their own stories. 

This series aims to showcase the ripple effect of TPP's seed grants through powerful narratives of change and compassion. Tune in to be inspired and to see the world from a new, hopeful perspective.

Watch it now and let us know iff you like it 🧡👇
Please, meet Maida Šabeta-Lemajić , our Heartivist of the Week!

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a landmark document from 1948, marked a pivotal moment for humanity by acknowledging inherent rights for all individuals, regardless of origin or circumstance. However, while humans have seen progress in safeguarding their rights, the same cannot be said for other inhabitants of the planet. Maida Šabeta-Lemajić, a passionate advocate for animal welfare, is tirelessly working alongside the Global Animal Law GAL Association to extend universal protection to all sentient beings.

Born and raised in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Maida's journey into animal advocacy began during her college years when she discovered the pervasive issue of animal cruelty. Since then, she has been instrumental in shaping animal protection laws in her country, leading to significant reforms such as banning animals in circuses and curtailing animal experimentation.

Maida's dedication to animal welfare has taken her to various organizations, including PETA Germany and Cruelty Free International. However, it is her involvement with the Global Animal Law GAL Association that has allowed her to pursue her dream of enacting global animal protection laws. Under the leadership of figures like Dr. h.c. Antoine F. Goetschel, the association is working towards establishing the United Nations Convention on Animal Health and Protection (UNCAHP), a monumental initiative aimed at legally safeguarding animals worldwide. 

Maida and her team are spearheading efforts to raise awareness and garner support for the UNCAHP through initiatives like video production and outreach campaigns. With support from organizations like The Pollination Project, they aim to amplify their message and build a global coalition for animal rights. 

Read the interview on our website [https://thepollinationproject.org] 

@global_animal_law_gal
#Animalrights #animalprotection #animallaw #animalactivism #animalwelfare #AnimalHealth #HumanHealth #EnvironmentalHealth #OneHealth
🌱 Introducing the Healthy Hands Initiative (HHI) 🌱

Born from fieldwork in Jharkhand, #India, the HHI saw a need for sustainable water solutions. With a $1,000 grant from the Pollination Project, HHI is installing Afridev hand pumps in Siyaljori village, ensuring year-round access to clean water. Through community feedback surveys and long-term maintenance plans, HHI aims to break the cycle of poverty and disease, one drop at a time. 

@hhinitiative
#WorldWaterDay #waterforall #humanrights