This program is for children in Kinesi Village (near Musoma across Lake Victoria). Seventy-five families caring for orphans are currently enrolled. They receive food supplies, school fees, clothes, mattresses and basic healthcare.

Since 2010, half of these families have been participating in a GRA funded permaculture project in Kinesi. Families contribute to a 9 acre community plot on the shore of Lake Victoria, and are also supported to grow their own family permaculture gardens. The goal of this program is to empower these families to cultivate their own food supply in a way that is sustainable and affordable.

The following year, GRA organized a successful two-week Permaculture Design Course with Geoff in Musoma, Tanzania. After the training, several of the local permaculture graduates began collaborating with GRA to develop more permaculture gardens and further promote the principles of permaculture to address the problems of food scarcity, poor housing, deforestation and other environmental issues in the area.

In 2009, Ireland's Freedom from Hunger Council (Gorta), awarded GRA-Tanzania a generous grant to develop a third plot to bring food security to the 75 families caring for orphans in rural Kinesi Village. With the help of visiting permaculture experts from Zimbabwe, Australia and the United States, a 2.5 acre plot on the shore of Lake Victoria is being developed by GRA personnel and some 30 villagers. As the garden matures, fruits, veggies and grains from the garden will provide a self-sustainable replacement for participants' vital monthly rations of beans, maize and cassava. A small pond has been created on the site to raise tilapia, a local fish, and provide a habitat for ducks to produce eggs and organic fertilizer.

We now have three active permaculture demonstration plots in Tanzania. The first demonstration permaculture plot is a half-acre on our office compound in Musoma. The garden provides vegetables and fruits to prepare the meals for staff and volunteers. Musoma orphans meet here in the shade of our pavilion to collect sundries and participate in fun weekly activities like art, singing, drama and sports.

Our third plot is our largest yet on 9 acres donated by the local government in 2010. This plot is currently providing staples like maize, beans and cassava to the families caring for orphans in Kinesi Village. The site also demonstrates dry growing methods including water harvesting and be the site of a reforestation project with trees for food, fuel, medicinal herbs, timber, shade, soil regeneration, climate control and animal habitat. When funding becomes available, additional compressed earth block homes will be constructed here. We have planted a living fence to keep livestock out and beginning construction of dams, swales and other water harvesting systems.

GRA received a generous grant from The Ferguson Foundation in 2010 to assist 30 of the families involved in the other Kinesi plots to design and develop permaculture gardens on their own land.

The project has provided expert permaculture advice, seeds, fencing materials and tools. About 30 of the families have already been awarded supplies and are implementing permaculture design on their farms.

Trees are one of nature’s greatest gifts. They prevent soil erosion, moderate climate, generate oxygen, sequester carbon dioxide, provide wildlife habitat and a host of valuable nutritional, medicinal and building products. Since 2011, GRA has partnered with Belgian NGO, WeForest, government schools and local communities in the rural Tanzanian districts of Rorya and Tarime to plant over 500,000 trees. Our current plan is to double that number before the end of 2017.

All trees have been provided free of charge since the program’s inception in 2011. First, prospective recipients receive training from our experienced staff. Our methods of distribution are basically two - individuals come to the nursery to pick up seedlings for their plots, or, for large orders, we distribute seedlings with GRA’s truck to schools or other organizations, after training and preparation of holes.

These seeds are planted in our nurseries in Kinesi Village, run by two tree planting trainers and supported by a staff of foster family guardians taking care of orphans in the village. Our trainers provide education about how to prepare the holes, add manure and take care of the trees before they are distributed. Afterwards, all trees are monitored by GRA staff to ensure that they are receiving proper care. An independent auditor calculates the survival rates for trees we have distributed in the months and years to come. Beneficiaries are required to maintain a survival rate or 80% or better to qualify for additional trees in the future.

We continue distribution in the Rorya and Tarime districts of Tanzania, one of the poorest regions in the country where a majority of residents live below the poverty line. The population of Rorya District is about 265,000 and Tarime District has about 340,000 residents. There are over 200 primary schools and 50 secondary schools in the two districts combined. Most of them don’t have access to clean water, unless they have a borehole nearby (by June 2016, GRA has completed 21 boreholes at schools), or they are near the lake or other source of surface water. Alternatively, children bring water every day to school for their own needs and to water the trees. Some schools allocate one or more trees to each child to water and take care of. Other schools prefer all students to take responsibility for the care of the whole yard to avoid some trees drying if children responsible for them are absent.