2022 Mission Update from our Reforestation Project in Ghana

Quite a lot of people, it turns out. In fact, the number of companies and private individuals who actively support us on a regular basis is constantly increasing. Of course, that also means that a lot has happened in our reforestation projects.

Read here what we have achieved with our business partners, what new updates there are from Ghana, and what goals we have for 2023.

Project Introduction: Ghana

The Country

Ghana, a country in western Africa on the Atlantic coast. Approx. 31.73 million inhabitants (136.6 inhabitants per km2), UN Human Development Index rank 133 (Germany: rank 9; UN Report 2020)

The Place

Eastern Ghana, Oti Region, near Kyinderi; 8°12’11.2″N, 0°07’14.9″W

The Mission

Our mission is to create long-term, full-time jobs, and sustainable food security for local farmers; at the same time training young people in the entrepreneurial school on site.

Planting Method

Syntropic reforestation (reforestation in line with nature combined with sustainable, organic agriculture).

Workforce

Full-time workers, both for planting, tending, and harvesting of the trees. Use and sale of the harvests by the local population.

Planting time

April to September; from October to March, new trees are grown in the local tree nurseries.

Plant Species

i.a. Moringa, baobab (Adansonia digitate), teak (Tectona grandis), acacia (Acacia pycnantha), shea (Vitellaria paradoxa), neem (Azadirachta indica), mahogany (Meliaceae).

Special Feature of the Project / The Superpower

In addition to the sustainable creation of full-time jobs, we also support an entrepreneur school in Ghana. Here, unemployed young people learn how to create a better future for themselves. No worries, we’ll also get into the success stories of the entrepreneur school a bit later.

We have put together detailed information about Ghana, the entrepreneur school, the reforestation project, and the special reforestation method here on Click A Tree – planting trees in Ghana.

Previous Project Successes of Click A Tree

Click A Tree has been planting trees in Ghana since 2019. Thanks to the great support of numerous partners, the following has already been achieved:

Important: “Newly created working hours” only takes into account all additional working hours created in this month. Even with small numbers (e.g. 0 in Q4 2020), all existing jobs will be retained. At such times, for example, the tree nursery is expanded, the field is prepared, planned, etc.

A Video Update from Clement

If you want to see what all these numbers mean in reality: take 4 minutes and let our project manager Clement take you to Ghana.

In a really meaningful reforestation project, not only the number of trees planted is extremely important, but also the diversity of the different tree species.

That is why we have continued to diversify in 2022 and have planted a total of 64 different tree species so far.

You may also be interested in: How everyone benefits from a partnership with Click A Tree

The Big News: The Expansion of Our Entrepreneur School

Due to the constant growth of our partners, not only are significantly more trees growing than before, but the “superpower projects” are also thriving.

The superpower in Ghana is the entrepreneur school. So far, up to 20 young people a year have been able to be trained in the basics of entrepreneurship here in a building near the reforestation project in Zongo Macheri: They learned how to write a business plan, why accounting is important (and how it works) and why a solid marketing strategy is essential.

Thanks to the strong support of all our existing and many new partners, we have now been able to expand the entrepreneur school. It may be euphemistic to speak of a new “campus” – but at least there is now a second entrepreneur school in Tamale, the regional capital of the “Northern Region”!

The proud community at the inauguration of the new business school

Why Tamale?

Establishing an entrepreneur school in a big city instead of a rural area offers a lot of advantages. Here are the main ones:

Attractiveness to students
Young people, the potential entrepreneurship students, would like to live in a city where they can go out, shop, and meet many other young people. All of this is much easier in Tamale than in Zongo Macheri.

Attractiveness to teachers
Motivating good teachers to teach in a remote rural area is much more difficult than attracting them to a job in Tamale.

Infrastructure
As the regional capital and third largest city in Ghana, Tamale offers a much better infrastructure than Zongo Macheri. With approx. 370,000 inhabitants, there is not only more going on here, but it is also much easier to obtain work materials that students need for the practical part of their training.

Direct access to one of the largest markets in Ghana
Tamale offers one of the largest markets in Ghana. This allows students to test their business idea directly during their studies and find paying customers – and improve the business model if necessary.

The new school still in progress:

Almost finished…

And done:

Would you also like to be part of our mission with your business?

Success Stories from Ghana

“Watching a tree grow is extremely exciting.” – Said no one ever.

And it’s true: the trees we plant need time to develop. But what’s great is that thanks to the entrepreneur school, we can see our achievements every year.

In the following, we would like to share three of the success stories from the entrepreneur school in Ghana with you.

Collins the Pearl Whisperer

Collins was one of the first students in the entrepreneur school. In November 2019 he successfully completed his training.

The young man on the left, standing, with his arm raised – this is Collins at his 2019 graduation.

Then came corona, the crisis, and inflation.

And yet Collins made his dream come true: this year he opened the Ndenwure Beading Training Center. A school where he teaches other young people the art of beadwork.

Key ring, necklace, flip flops, handbag, or even a backpack?No problem. Collins can create anything.

Not only does Collins now have a job that really fulfills him thanks to his education – but he also supports other young people to further their education and later open their own companies!

Also very important: they’re having fun doing it!

If you want to support Collins: Give his Facebook page a like. And maybe leave a short, motivating comment.

It’s these small gestures that ensure Collins won’t give up.

Baby John the Photographer

John – whom everyone just calls “Baby John” – wanted to be a photographer. His dream: to travel the world and take photos of the most amazing places and the most famous people.

Part 1 of the dream has already come true. After graduating from entrepreneur school at the end of 2019, we were able to provide him with his own professional photography equipment thanks to the generous support of Stephanie Kubik from SK Hotels & Venues.

Since then, John has been earning his own money as a photographer, which he is currently using to finance further training.

We are certain: with the stamina that John has shown so far, he will one day actually travel the world and be booked by the most famous personalities.

You go, John!

Would you like to be part of these success stories with your company? Then become a Click A Tree partner!

Mary the Tractor Healer

When Chris met Mary, she was still making arts and crafts for a living. And she was really good at it – he spontaneously bought a fancy necklace from her.

But actually, Mary wanted to fix tractors. A rather unusual wish from a young person in the heart of Ghana. But of course not impossible.

Mary also went through the training at our entrepreneur school – and completed it with flying colors. Thanks to the agricultural equipment in our syntropic reforestation project, she was also able to gain practical experience in repairing tractors.

One day she wants to start her own business. For now, she is gaining more practical experience as an employee – and is living her dream.

Self-help in Reforestation and School

The idea behind Click A Tree is not only to give people new job opportunities but also to empower them to make their dreams come true. And it is precisely this value that the graduates of our entrepreneur school share: help for self-help.

We want to help them find their own way – and we’re overjoyed when we see it working.

We take exactly the same approach with our reforestation projects. We don’t plant trees that depend on our support forever. We create diversified, self-sufficient ecosystems that can function completely without us in the future.

Just like nature would do.

One could say: help for self-help for nature. However, that would be wrong, since nature doesn’t need us, we need it.

Nature has enough time. Only we humans are running out of time. So here the help for self-help runs for purely selfish reasons.

And we would all do well to think egoistically here and create more forests together.

Our Mission for 2023

Our mission for the coming year is ambitious. But only those who think big can achieve great things. Therefore, for 2023 we aim to:

Want to Support this Mission With Your Company?

Then write us an e-mail today with a short sentence that you are interested in a business partnership. We would be happy to make an appointment for a non-binding telephone call.

If you want to start right away, you can also start planting trees directly by creating an account on our Universal Impact Platform. The platform allows you to track your engagement and share it with your stakeholders. Your account could look like this: