TPP grantees continuously demonstrate that life struggles can transform into ongoing progression when we utilize the healing powers of our planet, provide people with sustainable hygienic resources, and bring communities back to nature.
From community gardens to environmentally-focused educational platforms, TPP grantees equip groups and individuals with the knowledge and tools to gain economic stability, restore creative thinking, and to connect with the planet every step of the way.
Vicony’s Global Success World – Construction Of A Pit Latrine In Village Primary Schools
For school going children in Cameroon, a basic necessity that is often not available in many rural primary schools is access to a toilet and clean water supply. Out of this need, the Construction of a Pit Latrine in Village Primary Schools project was born.
With a grant from The Pollination Project, schools and students will have access to hygienic and sanitized facilities in schools, creating a safe and supportive school environment. As a result, it is expected that children’s school attendance will be improved. Lastly, this program will incorporate hygiene and sanitation awareness workshops.
Simon Muia – Recycled Car Tires To Make Furniture
Recycled Car Tires to Make Furniture is located in Githurai, Kiambu County, Kenya. This work, being led by Simon Muia, came out of the immediate need to address environmental degradation. Most car tires are disposed carelessly, resulting in clogged sewers which become a breeding home for Malaria carrying mosquitoes. Simon’s work empowers young men and women to be financially independent while expressing their creativity.
By securing a grant from The Pollination Project, Simon will be able to purchase machines that will make his work easier and efficient, alongside with securing a space to recruit and engage more local changemakers.
Julie Tilling Niemann And Emma Blessing – Adriatic Cup
UWC Adriatic Alumnae Emma Blessing from the United States and Julie Tilling Nieman from Denmark are working on the project, Adriatic Cup. Together they will be working with girls aged 12 to 18 year in rural parts of the Limpopo region of South Africa, facilitating workshops in schools focused on women’s empowerment.
They were inspired to do this project from their own work with menstrual cups in their school, able to see first hand the empowering effect on their peers. Many girls must miss school because they are not financially able to buy the needed menstrual products. Each girl that attends a workshop will be provided with a menstrual cup, ensuring a safe, economical, and environmentally friendly menstruation for the next 10 years.
Eden Hall – Boone River Community Sculpture Project
The Boone River Community Sculpture Project is about connecting a community to its river through the interactive, creative powers of art. This year-long project was designed by environmental artist, Eden Hall, and will culminate in a bronze sculpture installed in a park on the Boone river in the state of Iowa in the US. The sculpture will contain textures, forms, and ideas generated by river clean-up volunteers, as well as elementary and high school students who live near the Boone river. Iowa’s waterways are unique and powerful remnants of a wilderness lost to agricultural use of land. They are a reflection of the people who manage and live in the watershed.
This project strives to find a positive and proactive vision of our relationships to the river by collaborating on a shared awe and concern for the river. It is also about bringing the art process directly into the hands of people: volunteers will make intuitive sculptures based on what they find in the river and Eden Hall will translate and combine these sculptures into the final bronze via mold making and lost wax casting. The grant from The Pollination Project will help purchase art materials.
Graybayne Film/Media – Shouting Into The Wind
Shouting Into The Wind is a short documentary about the rise and fall of the California WaterFix, the most expensive and disputed project in California’s history. The documentary investigates the underlying politics behind the push for the project and the personal stories of the residents and environmentalists who spoke out against it. This film was inspired by the board meeting on September 26, 2017 in which the California WaterFix was heatedly debated by residents, environmentalists, labor unions and contractors, with each side giving equally impassioned testimonies.
The short documentary will inspire audiences to become more civically engaged in the environmental issues impacting their own communities. The seed grant from the Pollination Project will allow the grantees to coordinate interviews with residents, labor unions, and politicians to begin documenting different perspectives on the issue.
Kondwani Khonje – Improved Organic Fertilizer For Vegetables Production
Improved Organic Fertilizer for Vegetable Production is working with 10 women village savings and loan groups whom are willing to invest in vegetable and improved organic fertilizer for income generation. Kondwani Khonje and his team expect to work with 50 – 100 women in the initial phase. The project will be implemented in areas surrounding Mzuzu City, including Dunduzu and Choma, in Malawi. The project will build the capacity of women in organic vegetable production using organic fertilizer made from maize bran/crop waste, ashes, and soil fertility improving plants, such as Gliricidia sepium, pigeon peas, and tephrosia vogelii. The women will also be trained in business management, marketing, and financial literacy by expert volunteers.
The project will enhance the capacities of women to generate their own income for economic empowerment, thus contributing to poverty reduction. Women and men experience poverty differently and as a result, have differing levels of vulnerability. Women are more commonly involved in low-paid, casual agricultural wage labor, and under-represented in non-agricultural wage labor and self-employment. The project has been initiated to break the disparities through economic empowerment of women through provision of skills and knowledge to utilize locally available materials to create wealth. Kondwani’s role will be to train them and link them to collective markets for both improved organic fertilizer and vegetable products.
The grant from The Pollination Project will be used to acquire high value vegetable seeds, soil fertility improvement plants, seeds, and seedlings, organic fertilizer, and capacity building tools, establishing demonstration gardens as learning centers for women. The groups will also receive small seed money to initiate the savings and loan scheme to invest in vegetable businesses. Lastly, training sessions in business management, marketing, and financial management will be facilitated with the support of volunteers.
Committee Of East Allegheny Council – East Commons Community Garden At Allegheny Commons Park
The mission of the East Commons Community Garden at Allegheny Commons Park (ECCGACP) is to provide accessible gardening opportunities to socially and economically diverse Northside, North Shore and other City of Pittsburgh residents, businesses, and organizational contributors, while returning a chronically underused parcel to an appealing and active use.
Located at 240 Stockton Avenue in Pittsburgh’s historic Northside, the East Commons Community Garden at Allegheny Commons Park aims to increase community health and access to fresh, healthy foods; strengthen community relations; increase ecological sustainability; and exercise thoughtful community development practices. Hoping to restore an abandoned lot to a vibrant gathering space where community members can build and strengthen relationships, the Community Garden was a grassroots vision sponsored by the East Allegheny Council. The results of a neighborhood interest survey for the community garden indicate that 90% of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with reuse of the tennis courts as community garden.
We are thrilled to report that the Community Garden committee broke ground in June of 2019, and have successfully built 17 raised garden beds for allotment and communal growing. With support from The Pollination Project and Grow Pittsburgh as a selected New Garden Support candidate, the East Commons Community Garden at Allegheny Commons Park will continue to grow over the next 2-years as we build an additional 19 beds to serve a greater number of community partners.
