The desire to generate change can not be completed without the boundless trust in others and most importantly, the trust within yourself.
TPP grantees hold confidence in their vision and travel through the process of discovery one step at a time. In a world where people point fingers at one another and criticize the actions of change makers and leaders, TPP grantees hold steady in their dreams and remain confident in their ‘why.’
Ideas and beliefs frame the way people live their lives. TPP grantees are planting new ideas in communities that have never existed and allowing people to reimagine what could be. These powerful concepts reflect the mighty internal courage TPP changemakers hold within themselves. Read the individual projects below to ignite the courage that lives inside of you!
Denis Farangi And Rosie Malachi – The Brink – Voices Exploring Borders, Migration And Freedom
The Brink is a dynamic, fiercely independent, not-for-profit media platform dedicated to sharing real stories about migration, borders, and freedom. Founders and reporters Rosie Malachi and Denis Farangi are currently on the move, cycling through Central America, collecting personal stories of migration as well as (extra)ordinary folk’s ideas about how we can re-imagine our collective approach to the movement of people.
In an age of rampant disinformation and sensationalist reporting, particularly around the topic of migration, The Brink aims to bring us all back down to earth and elevate the voices of those most often excluded from the conversation, the very people who are most affected by borders and migration. Keep your eyes peeled as The Brink continue their aspirationally carbon neutral journeys collecting stories and radical ideas for change from around the world.
Aggelina Kanellopoulou – The Bee Camp
The Bee Camp is not just another conservation project. Our vision is a future with cities in which people and nature coexist in harmony. Our mission is to inspire and empower communities to make cities a better place for pollinators through education, awareness raising, and a holistic approach on social change. This starts with two challenges: people living in the cities are disconnected from nature and the population of native pollinators is dramatically decreasing. According to IUCN Red List, “Nearly one in ten wild bee species face extinction in Europe.”
The Bee Camp is the only initiative working on pollinator conservation in Greece and one of the very few in the Balkans. Firstly, we focus on the future by providing hands-on workshops for children. Secondly, we create room in our cities for the pollinators through a practical, creative and cost-effective idea: “The Bee Spots”, city havens consisting of bee-friendly flowers and insect-hotels providing safe habitat for pollinators.
Through our team’s grassroots actions, we have engaged approximately 3,000 individuals, collaborated with 4 Environmental NGOs in Greece, planned more than 23 events and workshops, and established 10 Bee Spots in Athens in the past year. We are now about to launch the “Athens Bee Path”; a safe pathway for the protection of urban pollinators.
The financial resources of the TPP will enable us to implement the Path through the launch of an awareness campaign, the installation of a series of Bee Spots connecting the green spaces of Athens, and the implementation of educational outreach events. The grant will stimulate and accelerate our current momentum for applied impact in the present. Through this, I hope that our team’s work and passion will be highlighted in an international level. This will enhance my worldwide network and our capacity to receive support as an upcoming conservationist in order to fulfill our commitment to bee conservation and to making Greece a more sustainable place.
Annie S., Lily B., Ari G., And Rosa S. – Sanctuary Stories
Sanctuary Stories: A Multimedia Exploration of Sanctuary in Colorado, takes place in cities and towns across the state where Araceli Velasquez, Ingrid Latorre, Rosa Sabido, and Sandra Lopez have taken sanctuary from deportation. The project was envisioned by these four women and their supporters, Ari Goodman, Annie Seder, and Lily Bisantz as part of their fight for immigrant rights and justice.
The goal of Sanctuary Stories is to bring bilingual educational experiences to Coloradans and people across the country in which the realities of immigration are addressed and the authentic, honest stories of the four undocumented women who have taken Sanctuary in Colorado are told. The project creates individual opportunities for learning through bilingual podcasts and exhibits, and community connection and action during associated events as the exhibit travels.
This work addresses the desperate need for immigration reform in this country. By engaging in consciousness-raising around immigrant justice and building support for Sanctuary, Sanctuary Stories helps undocumented leaders survive in their communities and gives the public the information they need to advocate for reform.
Her Voice Group AGYW @ CRC South Africa – Supporting Menstrual Hygiene Rights Of Poor Girls And Women
Supporting Menstrual Hygiene Rights of Poor Girls and Women is a project located on the southern and wild coast areas of South Africa. A number of committed young women including Zinhle, Nolwazi, Zoliswa, Andiswa, Nthando, and Ayanda provide their time and energy to achieve the projects goals – including providing reusable and biodegradable sanitary health products to poor out-of-school girls and unemployed women.
These clients are hard-pressed to afford top line, commercial profit-oriented products, which are necessary to guarantee their basic hygiene and dignity. These products are however unavoidable for most females, and many of our clients depend on others to provide these items. Reducing the cost is one way of ensuring that the products are affordable.
Having experienced the hassles and sometimes exploitation faced by close friends when the need for these items arise, and following participation in advocacy activities of Coastal Resources Centre, this group of women have decided to seek support to provide these items at prices not targeted for profit.
The seed grant from The Pollination Project will enable them to obtain the initial batch of products for distribution, hold a small induction for volunteers, and provide them with marketing items.
Fonkem Brenda, Obasi Marinus – Training On Tools For Less Privileged Youths
Training on ICT Tools for Less-Privileged Youths is a vocational training initiative, which is the brainwork of FAPS Development, a non-governmental organization in Buea, Southwest, Cameroon. Led by the Executive Director, Fonkem Brenda, the project aims at addressing the limitation that the less-privileged youths have in ICT and the difficulty they face in enrolling into the University, and in carrying out independent research work due to lack of computer knowledge. This project will give many of these less-privileged youths the opportunity to have low-cost and affordable ICT training that will make their University experience stress-free.
This project was inspired by the personal experiences of Fonkem Brenda and other team members, as well as other students’ experiences in the University. Many students, especially the less-privileged, have had to narrate their ordeals at various forums where the team leaders were present. These experiences all point to one thing: the need for affordable ICT training. With funding from this grant, Fonkem Brenda and her team will be able to set-up and run a small-scale training facility for the target beneficiaries and so put smiles on their faces as they engage in university studies.
Creation Care Concept – The Renaissance Show 2019
Jonathan Kofi Dugbartey and Janice Adukwei Allotey are the founders of Creation Care Concept, a dynamic organization in Accra, Ghana raising awareness on environmental sustainability by crafting accessories from plastic waste. The Renaissance Show is their annual event to showcase avant-garde and functional products made of up-cycled HDPE sachets and PET bottles.
This year’s edition is a fashion show framed within a drama entitled “The Cost of Plastics.” Indeed, all of creation pays the price for mismanaged plastics. The event is aimed at provoking a paradigm shift, especially in children, so that plastic waste is seen as a resource that ought to be managed effectively within the context of a circular economy.
Vedaste Uzabakiriho – Positive Future Orientation
Positive Future Orientation, abbreviated as PFO, was founded by Vedaste Uzabakiriho in Kamonyi District, Rwanda. PFO was established with the purpose to eradicate poverty amongst youth through training them in the art of shaving human hairs.
Vedaste believes that by instilling in them the basic materials to undertake a small salon will lead them to start a new life and integrate into productive, responsible citizens with a modern spirit. Vedaste is motivated to do this work because he was in poverty and it was difficult for him to integrate in the community due to the lack of what he could do. He attended a training of shaving human hairs in Kamonyi Technical and Vocational Education and Training School and afterward decided to undertake this project to support and help youth that are still vulnerable in the community.
Baladi – Rooted Resistance
Baladi – Rooted Resistance is a series of stories of Palestinians resisting Israeli colonization and occupation with seeds, wild foraged plants, and homegrown vegetables. These are Palestinians who believe in the food politics and food sovereignty intersect with the struggle for self-determination and freedom. This multimedia project is the work of a multidisciplinary team who believe in an intersectional approach to activism, including writer Sandra Guimarães (Brazil) and photojournalists Anne Paq (France), Craig Redmond (UK) and Ahmad Al-Bazz (Palestine).
The funding from this grant will support the development of our website, allowing us to share the agro-resistance stories with a global audience in a variety of multimedia and text-based ways.
ESARDEF – Literate Community Kids
Literate Community Kids is a literacy project located in the forest community of Mokindi, Cameroon. It is coordinated and led by Education for Sustainable and Rural Development Foundation, ESARDEF. The goal of this initiative is to empower underprivileged youth with the required textbooks and didactic materials on core subjects like English, French, mathematics, and other core subjects to help solve the various problems faced by these marginalized youths in CAHECAM Primary School. The project is needed to address the poor reading, writing, and numeracy skills of these pupils, preparing them for a vibrant post primary schooling and education. It is important for them to acquire such skills, which are needed for a successful career. Etang Samuel Manyi Mbeng, the project’s lead, is inspired by his youth and the poor skills he once had.
With a grant from TPP, ESARDEF will be able to buy all the much needed literacy resources; textbooks, didactic materials, and bookshelves needed to make the project a reality. As a result, teachers will have access to these materials and will be able to teach lessons in class while pupils will have the workbooks and learning aids to effectively learn reading, writing, and possibly solve some learning problems at their range.
Sarah Massaquoi – Trees For Prosperity
Trees For Prosperity aims to help bring back the tree cover to the Bo, Sierra Leone community, which will serve as windbreakers for homes, many of which were destroyed during the past storm due to heavy winds. According to the United Nation Environment report, we have 12-years to bring in solutions to limit global warming. One way to do this is to plant more trees that absorb the carbon dioxide emitted in the air. Moreover, it has been confirmed by environmental researchers that if 1 trillion trees are planted globally, that the CO2 levels can be offset by a decade.
Adolescent Hub Project Team – Adolescent Hub Project Of The Gender Mobile Initiative
Omowumi Ogunrotimi’s experience of sexual abuse at the age of 14 became her definition of childhood in Nigeria until she accessed support through channels that helped her speak out. Coupled with loosing her best friend at the age of 12 to unsafe abortion from a rape incident inspired her to set the agenda for the Gender Mobile Initiative. The Adolescent Hub Project of the Gender Mobile Initiative provides information and builds the knowledge and skills of adolescents on the prevention and response to Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV).
Available data according to UNICEF reveals that 6 out of every 10 children experience emotional, sexual, or physical abuse before age 1, thereby confirming that this as a real problem capable of limiting their educational outcomes and impairing their agency. Omowumi’s work will build the knowledge of adolescents, provide safe spaces to speak out, and access services through a helpline and safe drop-box.
To achieve this shift, The Pollination Project will help build the capacity of the project facilitators who will deliver the module, produce several copies of the module, develop a documentary content suitable for all platforms, and train community volunteers who will take ownership of the project for sustainability.
Jessica Turtle – Natural Heritage Project
Heritage is that which is inherited from past generations, maintained in the present, and endowed to future generations. Natural heritage refers to the sum total of the elements of biodiversity, including flora and fauna, ecosystems and geological structures. The Natural Heritage Project (NHP), established in 2016 by artist Jessica Turtle, was founded with the purpose of advocating for wildlife and habitat restoration, a generalized statement that translates into exciting exhibitions and public engagement opportunities that inspire people to see and share their lives with nature in unexpected ways.
Through the crux connection of art and nature, individuals will engage with environmental and ecological concerns and consider their own involvement and ethical responsibility to act to improve compromised statuses and perpetuating effects to the environment, ecosystems and humans.
Seteiye Integrated Services
Seteiye Integrated Services is committed to replacing kerosene lamps with solar-powered LED lanterns, helping to better the health of the community and environment. They introduce an everyday consumer product, lanterns, and integrate solar technology to help those who live in rural, off-the-grid villages in Essien Udim, Nigeria. The model that is used establishes Village Solar Groups, VSGs, a village run, self-help, micro-enterprise, which serves as the nucleus of the project. These groups will distribute solar-powered LED lanterns at prices comparable to or less than the cost of powering a kerosene lamp in rural villages.
By leveraging the vast network and influence of community based organizations, as well as traditional and religious institutions, Seteiye Integrated Services sets up a multi-stakeholder approach to deliver solar products and education across various target groups and enlighten consumers on the key features of solar lighting products. The team will also engage in massive market activation through road shows and product presentations in churches and village hall meetings.
Idopise Essien, founder of Seteiye Integrated Services, fell in love with solar lanterns after reading an article about a commission by BBC and the British Museum – “A History of the World in 100 Objects” by Neil MacGregor. The solar lantern was listed as number 100. He began to study and research about rural solar distribution with the goal and committed passion to tackle energy poverty by bringing solar technology and products to people who need it most.
J. Justus Kamalam & K. Thanalashmi – Fruits And Shades For Schools Project (FSS)
Students at Eriodu Government Secondary School in Dindigul, Tamilnadu, India lack the knowledge on the importance of trees and due to the expansion of cities, industries, and roads, most of the trees and plants were destroyed. It was out of this that the Fruits and Shades for Schools Project (FSS) was born. This initiative aims to provide awareness and educational opportunities to students on the importance of fruit bearing trees and the positive impact this has on the environment and the effort to stop global warming.
