Plant With Purpose
Discover real-world stories of communities overcoming poverty and deforestation! Plant With Purpose, a Christian non-profit, shares examples of environmental sustainability and stewardship from all around the world. These stories show us how faith, resilience, and sustainable practices transform people’s lives as well as their environment. As rural families overcome poverty and heal the planet, embrace empowerment, renewal, and hope.
Burundi, Living Sustainably
Keza, Burundi: "I was able to harvest twice as much."
“My name is Keza. I joined the Purpose Group very recently.” For Keza, life with five young children was full of responsibility and challenge. In her community in Burundi, farming is the foundation of survival; however, years of difficult harvests meant that food and income were often uncertain. When Plant With Purpose arrived in her […]
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About Our Work, DR Congo, Tanzania, Thailand
Local Innovations Build Resilience: How Plant With Purpose Supports Communities to Thrive
Outside aid arriving to “fix” a community’s problems can often do more harm in the long run. Lasting change doesn’t come from handouts. It comes when barriers are removed and communities are empowered to build resilience and create their own solutions. At Plant With Purpose, our model is not designed to just offer help. It […]
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About Our Work, Environmental Restoration
Change Belongs in Local Hands
At Plant With Purpose, we believe the future belongs to local communities. That’s why we don’t see people as projects, but as partners. Every Purpose Group writes its own bylaws. Every leader is elected by the members, who are also their neighbors. Every farmer is both a student and a teacher. Because when change is […]
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Thailand
Susan, Thailand: " I see creation is full of beauty and essential to our lives."
“Before joining a Purpose Group, my biggest concern was that my family depended on farming for a living. We planted maize and tended to a small fruit farm. But farming is unstable. Our income depended on the market price of crops. Some years, prices were so low that we lost money, and all the effort […]
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Mexico
Leobardo, Mexico: "Everything has a purpose"
“When I first heard about the program, it didn’t really catch my attention.” Leobardo’s honesty is disarming. As a pastor, he wasn’t looking for another commitment. “I thought the Purpose Group meetings would take too much of my time. At the beginning, everything felt complicated. Roll call, share purchases, keeping records, handling other people’s money. […]
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Burundi
Niyonkuru: "I am no longer waiting for help."
"There was a time when I was full of despair. Poverty had overwhelmed us,” Niyonkuru begins, his voice steady but heavy with memory. “We couldn’t even keep our child in school. And when he dropped out, things only got worse.” 42 year old Niyonkuru lives in Burundi with his wife and two grown children. Before […]
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Dominican Republic
José, Dominican Republic: "I know we are moving forward"
José looked around his home in the countryside, and saw something that troubled him deeply. "I had to buy all the produce for my family to eat,” he recalls. “Almost everyone else in my community was producing the food their families needed from their own plots. But I wasn’t, he said. “That’s what moved me […]
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About Our Work
Three Ways Plant With Purpose Practices Partners Not Projects
At Plant With Purpose, one of our most important commitments is to treat the communities we work alongside not as projects to be fixed, but as partners in transformation. We call this approach Partners Not Projects. This principle is not just a slogan. It is a foundational practice that shapes the way we restore watersheds, […]
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Haiti
Stanley, Haiti: "I know we are changing the future”
“My name is Stanley. I’m 75 years old. I’m a farmer, and my wife and I have raised seven children. Our youngest is 25 now, and our oldest is 42,” he begins, speaking with wisdom and experience. Though Stanley has always worked hard, the challenges of poverty and climate change loomed large in his life […]
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Tanzania
Faith, Tanzania: "It’s through this land that my life changed.”
“My name is Faith. I’m a wife, a mother of seven, and a farmer. I live in the Msuu watershed, and I belong to a Purpose Group called Baraka.” Just a few years ago, Faith never imagined she would describe herself this way. She never imagined she’d be running a business, much less two. She […]
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Tanzania
Shamsa, Tanzania: "My age is not a burden"
My name is Shamsa. I’m 60 years old, a widow, and a mother of five grown children. I live in Hai District in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. I keep livestock and do small-scale farming in a garden near my house. When my husband passed away twelve years ago, he left me with the responsibility […]
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Climate Solutions
Why Faith-Based Environmental Action is the Future of Climate Justice
For decades, the climate movement and environmental action has largely been shaped by technical, policy-driven, or economic responses. And while these are vital, they often overlook the role of worldview, spiritual belief, and community values, especially in regions where faith is central to daily life. Nowhere is this more true than in the Global South, […]
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DR Congo, Sustainability
Feza, DR Congo: "Feza did what she could to survive."
At just 28 years old, Feza had already faced more than her share of hardship. Newly married and raising a young child in the Sange Watershed of the Democratic Republic of Congo, she and her husband struggled to stay afloat. The lack of income threatened not only their financial stability but the foundation of their […]
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About Our Work, Burundi, DR Congo, Haiti
Abundance is more than wealth
In the world of international development, economic indicators often dominate the conversation. How much has household income increased? How many small businesses were launched? These metrics are important, but they’re only part of the story. What about trust between neighbors? Spiritual renewal? The return of birds and pollinators to a once-barren field? Or a parent […]
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Burundi
Vyizigiro, Burundi: “What I’ve learned, I want to pass on"
"Before I joined Plant With Purpose Burundi, life felt like I was trying to carry water in a broken jar,” says Vyizigiro, a farmer and father of four living in Rutana Province. "I was always trying to get ahead, to save just enough to start a small business. But every time I tried, the money […]
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