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Trees 4 Children is a cooperative charitable effort between the Make A Mark Foundation and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, in which forestry principles are utilized to provide an investible model for economic growth through land development.
The organization is the brainchild of American entrepreneur and philanthropist John M. Noel. In 2006, Noel’s Make A Mark Foundation partnered with the UWSP College of Natural Resources in an attempt to apply business solutions to sustainability and subsistence problems in Kenya.
Since its inception, the non-profit organization has been focused on growing and processing trees for lumber to help contribute to the financial self-sustainability of the Nyumbani Village in Kitui, Kenya, a village which supports more than 1,000 HIV/AIDS-affected children and elders. Noel worked in conjunction with local officials to persuade the Kenyan government to donate land to the village in which to plant. Trees 4 Children works with villagers and students and faculty from the UWSP College of Natural Resources to produce innovative crop planning and planting strategies. The students and teachers analyze each year’s results and can then suggest changes to the crop selection, planting frequency, and planting and harvesting techniques for maximum yield.
In Nyumbani, Trees 4 Children has helped the villagers plant more than 50,000 trees on the village’s 700 acres. The goal is to plant 600 trees per acre, with 75 percent of the trees being melia, a fast-growing relative of mahogany. Senna, leucaena, and several species of acacia are planted for timber, nitrogen fixation and fuel, while sapota, java plum, tamarind, and guava are planted for fruit.
In 2012 and 2013 UWSP students worked with villagers on the development of food forests. In the food forest, manure and daily irrigation are utilized to grow vegetables and encourage tree growth, while the partial shade and windbreak provided by the trees boosts yields of kale, carrots, onions, cilantro, peppers, pumpkins, passionfruit, and papayas.
Food and wood not used by the village can be sold, and the proceeds used for village improvements.
Each year, Trees 4 Children plants 30,000 new Melia trees at Nyumbani. Once mature, these trees will generate an annual profit of over $700,000 (based on current monetary value) through harvesting and selling the lumber, which will exceed the operating costs of village. The first crop of trees was planted in 2008, and will be ready for harvest in 2018. Until then, villagers will sell the seedlings of the trees to neighboring villages to raise money and awareness for the project.
With the initial harvest of Melia trees several years away, Trees 4 Children is also working in Nyumbani on the Sunflower Project. Sunflowers are being grown for cooking oil to eliminate villagers’ dependence on purchased oil, and to generate revenue from sales of excess oil.
For the next phase of the project, Trees 4 Children will help villagers teach residents of surrounding areas how to replicate the agroforestry initiative. Long-term goals are to standardize processes and techniques and to expand the initiative across Africa and Asia.