If we are asking women to make any changes in their lives, then those changes need to be meaningful and personally relevant. One way of doing that is through the networking that will enable women to directly encourage and support each other. Another is through building relationships with those in the developed world who we are directly supporting. If we are taking action ‘here’, we need to be able to see and feel its direct impact ‘there’.

TreeSisters is a vision of a huge grass roots movement based upon the values of humility, unity, love, gratitude and generosity (which underpin the five choices), five human qualities that we see as fundamental to the creation of any future world that we would chose to co-create. Our current three beneficiary projects are reflections of these same core values which manifest as unique, replicable social strategies that have a degree of international recognition and support, but deserve more.

If we can find the keys to reach and engage millions of women, and successfully inspirethem to lead in the normalisation of monthly payments towards reforestation, we could channel millions per month to projects where that money can make a huge difference for all of us. This would support immediate tree planting, tree protection and intelligent, respectful support for the beneficiary populations, but it would also serve to shine a brighter spotlight on projects that deserve increased recognition.

Project GreenHands has successfully crossed the barriers of caste in Southern India to bring the population of a whole state together to reforest their lands to reverse the desertification that is threatening their very existence. They have planted over 10 million trees on a shoestring budget in five years by bringing every sector of society together from the military to single Mothers, farmers and school children to grow, plant and tend saplings. Their social strategy is the inspiration and foundation of the TreeSisters campaign. Imagine if this model of shared ecological responsibility and action became common place around the world?

The Green Belt Movement in Kenya is another exemplary, logical and moving example ofgrit and determination to do what is needed despite huge opposition. Hundreds of thousands of rural Kenyan women have now planted over 30million trees to raise their green cover and take a stand for their human rights. Kenya is currently suffering horrendous drought alongside Sudan and its other neighbours, and its 1.7% green cover is a massive contributor. PGH in India is aiming to raise their green cover back up to 33% as the lowest acceptable level to stabilize their ground water. Kenya is aiming for just 10%, but needs so much more.

The Pachamama Alliance and its foundation in Ecuador are another utterly unique organisation working with the indigenous tribes to safeguard their Amazonian rainforest from oil exploration. The Achuar are a dream based culture who sent out a dream based ‘call’ to the west for help, which was ‘picked up’ and acted upon by Soul of Money Institute founder Lynn Twist. Lynn and group of close friends initiated what has now become a landmark collaboration between westerners and indigenous peoples to raise awareness about the need for a shift of consciousness in the world, and the great need to protect and preserve our most precious eco-systems.

I will write a separate blog about each project. Between them, they shine the light uponmany vital ingredients for a balanced world: collaboration, shared responsibility for ecological health, the empowerment of women (which is happening in each project, most dramatically in Kenya) respect for all peoples and cultures, personal ownership and empowerment rather than dictatorship or ‘taking over’ to ‘fix’, and most importantly the understanding of trees as nature’s own mechanisms for balancing her climate, water, soil and the health of local people (reforestation, avoided deforestation and agro-forestry).

TreeSisters UK will aim to raise money initially for these three initiatives, and expand to include others as we grow. Should we inspire women’s groups elsewhere around the world to kick start TreeSisters USA or Iceland or Germany, then ultimately they could adopt their own socially unique reforestation projects to spread our shared reach even further. This way, the impact that TreeSisters make through fundraising can be measured on the ground through increased tree cover and through the social benefits that are generated as a result. Also, by working with specific targeted projects we will be able to do much more to help build relationships between the women of such vastly different cultures.

Photo credits (from top): United Nations Photo, Project GreenHands, Project Greenhands, Greenbelt Movement, Pachamama Alliance, dw_globalideas, dragonpreneur.