15,000 trees to combat desertification in Ethiopia

Weresech is 32 years old, has 7 children and is one of the women directly benefiting from our work in the Seret village in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Weresech and her husband Gebreegziabhare own 0.5 ha of land, which is not sufficient to produce enough grain to feed their entire family throughout the year. To provide for their children and to be able to send their 3 eldest children to school, both of them must work outside of their farm.

Their farm is adjacent to a WeForest intervention site. Since 2017, Weresech has a regular job with WeForest, contributing to site preparation, planting, weeding and watering new seedlings.

Between July 2017 and January 2018 she earned about 1200 ETB from the project, which is enough to pay for school and part of the family’s health expenses. She proudly said: “I have directly planted and cared for over 250 new trees last year.” She will be working on planting activities again during the upcoming season, between July and January.

Weresech is also going to join our new beekeeping program for farmers. She said: “I am lucky to have been chosen for this program and sell the honey our beehives produce at a good price through our cooperative.” Last but not least, she and other villagers involved are starting to see the benefits of forest restoration itself. After protecting ‘exclosures’ from grazing and illegal logging, they can harvest grass and the soils are better protected from erosion and landslides when it rains.

Thanks to your support, we can continue engaging members of the local community like Weresech and keep adding to nearly 40 thousand trees we have already planted in Ethiopia Tigray. These trees directly restore more than 50 hectares of forest, which is expected to positively impact 700 hectares of land, bringing benefits to people, ecosystems and climate.