Be the difference today,Support the FFAM Movement

Dear Friends and Adventure Afrika family,

We hope 2024 is a healthy and happy year for you and your family.

It has certainly been an eventful begining on a new year 2024 in Uganda! As you may know, in addition to running my eco-tourism company, Adventure Afrika, I lead an eco-awareness initiative in my home community/country in Uganda and now scalling across the Virunga Landscape called Food Forests Africa Movement.

Kindly see details in the link here: https://www.adventure-afrika.com/new-page-3

This initiative works to ensure long-term food security and income generation opportunities for the community, while encouraging the restoration of ecosystems in Western Uganda.

Some of our achievements this year included:

• Facilitating ongoing trainings and demonstrations for 10 community groups and 4 secondary schools students in wildlife Clubs to attain better gardening practices, moneysaving skills, and better land use practices.

• Formation of Virunga Landscape a restoration chapter that unites the 3 countries of Uganda,DR Congo and Rwanda in our drive to reach out to 100,000 food forest creators and Ambassadors by 2030.

• Growing and scaling the IMBUTO seed saving and sharing program. This program is building a growers’ community by providing quick and easy access to seeds and seedlings.

• Training in Building solar drying stations with participants to learn how to save excess produce by using drying techniques to ensure longer shelf life of their food forest harvests.

These skills and practices help the community sustainably feed their growing families while also protecting the neighboring Katonga Wildlife Reserve and other fragile biodiversity ecosystems of the greater Virunga landscapes among others.

Since 2018, we have been fortunate to run community training and demonstration sessions on a plot of land in my home community in Kamwenge, Uganda. Unfortunately, the owner of this property fell on difficult times and is forced to sell the property immediately. This either presents a huge threat to our effort, potentially forcing us to stop this critical work, OR a big opportunity to purchase the land and use it as training grounds to scale our efforts. While daily operations for this initiative are sponsored through small profits and donations from my eco-tourism business, with the disruption of the pandemic on the tourism industry, it has been difficult to sustain this work, let alone to attempt to acquire this land at $20,000. This far exceeds our financial ability.

I’m writing now to ask you, my fellow eco-warriors, for your urgent support to help save Food Forests Uganda and enable us to continue to train more young people and their communities to practice regenerative agriculture through climate-smart gardens to ensure long-term food security. No matter where you are in the world, there’s no question that sustaining our environment and ensuring food security – even in the most distant corners of the world – makes an impact on you today and on the next generation to come. Please consider making a gift to help us retain this land and continue this important work. Donations of any size go a long way!

Thank you for being by my side as we combat climate change together. I’m grateful to have a global community of friends who share my passion for our planet. I hope to hear from you soon. In the meantime, wishing you all a fruitful end of 2022!

Best,

Gerald

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What are Food Forests and why are they important?

A food forest is a food production system that focuses on diverse dietary needs of humans, while also protecting our land and earth. They provide food security, health, and nutrition. A well designed and maintained food production system protects and regenerates our soil, enhances natural landscapes and act as carbon sinks, thereby helping to mitigate climate change. In addition, the food forests create a safer habitat for domestic animals and insects as well as a safer environment for wildlife and are critical for healthy macro environments. In a nutshell, this natural approach to agriculture produces an abundance of food and supplies while regenerating a healthy ecosystem.

As much of our planet, including rural Uganda, becomes less food secure, it is critical that local communities and young people attain the skills and knowledge necessary to understand and practice food production in environmentally conscious ways that do not further damage already depleted soils or endanger species in the region.

About Food Forests Uganda

Food Forests UG was founded by Gerald Nkusi, an eco-warrior and ambassador for climate change. Gerald is on a mission to transform Uganda’s wasted spaces and degraded land into food forests, planting indigenous trees and practicing climate-smart gardening. This initiative started in 2018 with a pilot in Kamwenge, a Southwestern district of Uganda, our hope is to scale this model to impact 100,000 youth across five regions in Western and Eastern Uganda in the next five years using a cost-effective trainer of trainers model.

How is Food Forests UG Solving this challenge?

Food Forest Uganda trains youth and their communities to practice regenerative agriculture through climate-smart gardens to ensure long-term food security. This hands-on training is designed to shift the minds and practices of young people in rural Uganda by introducing them to new, sustainable eco-friendly farming practices, and improve nutrition for communities and schools while helping them to see and use food forests as a practical means for income generation.

Your support matters!

To continue these critical efforts, we must have land to use as demonstration sites for community training. Please consider a gift to Food Forest Uganda today!