11/09/2025
You cannot tell people to plant trees when they do not have food at home! You cannot tell people to plant trees when they do not have water to drink!
Green Gold Social Zambia, I rarely talk about climate change when I talk to villagers about our work.
Because seriously what is climate change to a villager?
Do you remember the story of the blind people who where asked to describe an elepant by touching it? The person who tuched the belly said it was like a wall, the erson who touched the trunk said it was like a snake and the person who touched the leg said it was like a tree.
That is what climate change is to alot of people - It is different things.
My belief and the hill I am willing to die on is that you cannot fight climate change without tackling poverty.
Which is why at Green Gold Social, our goal is the betterment of people's lives so that they can take care of the environment, something we happen to be passionate about.
And for us fighting poverty starts with providing water. We drill boreholes so that villagers can have access to clean water to drink and for their homes and then this borehole site acts as a tree nursery where they can also water tree seedlings.
Fighting poverty also involves paying villagers fairly for collecting seeds. This provides a sustainable and predictable income that will ensure they have food on the table.
Even as we prepare to plant 20,000 native trees in January, everything we do is secondary to people live decent lives.