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.
Environmental Restoration, Haiti, Living Sustainably
We are able to persist: Sustainable agriculture in Haiti keeps parents resilient
In recent years, few countries have reached the level of instability seen by Haiti. The collapse of its central government and authority structures have created an atmosphere of lawlessness, in which street-level violence has escalated. The constant threat of harm and kidnappings has disrupted everyday life for most Haitians, particularly around larger population centers. Many […]
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Thailand
Nakon, Thailand: "My mission is to make the soil more fertile"
Education is a widespread concern of parents all over the world. This includes Northern Thailand, where many Plant With Purpose members are challenged by insufficient agricultural practices and tenuous rights to land. Plant With Purpose works with parents like Nakon to improve the crop yields of the Thailand farmer and the health of their land. […]
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Malawi
Plant With Purpose opens in Malawi with a big celebration
Plant With Purpose's newest country program has officially opened! Last month, our newest partnering country program, Floresta in Malawi, launched with a program inauguration ceremony in Nkhata Bay. The links between environmental health and sustainable livelihoods in Malawi are so strong that working in the country's rural communities was an ideal fit for Plant With […]
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Burundi
Josias, Burundi: "My mission is to make the soil more fertile"
My name is Josias. I am 53 years old and a member of a Purpose Group where we are all famers in Burundi. Before I joined the Purpose Group, I lived with many financial struggles. I used to be a trader in the Bujumbura Central Market, and I had a better life. Unfortunately, there was […]
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Mexico
Shining a Light of Opportunity: The Indigenous Women’s Struggle for Education in Rural Mexico
In Southern Mexico, rural Indigenous women remain at the bottom of the educational ladder. While progress has been made in recent years with education in rural Mexico, a gap persists, casting long shadows over their lives and perpetuating a cycle of poverty that ripples through generations. The roots of this educational disparity run deep, intertwined […]
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Tanzania
Catherine, Tanzania: I used to be so poor, but things have changed for the better
Catherine lives in the Sanya watershed of Tanzania. She describes her life before Plant With Purpose as normal, though what was normal in Sanya is what many of us would consider extremely difficult. The burdens of poverty made it difficult for her to provide the life she desired for her children. “I am 44, and […]
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Climate Solutions, Our Response
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Navigating Complexity: Why the easy way isn’t always the best way
One of the most important parts of Plant With Purpose’s work is measuring its efficacy. This is also one of the most difficult parts. As we apply our model of Community Designed Restoration© (CDR) to rural watersheds across the globe, we want to ensure that our work is having its intended impact. As trees are […]
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Dominican Republic
Benjamín, DR: Leadership is knowing how to serve people, knowing the problems of your community
Benjamín has been a member of Plant With Purpose's program as a Dominican Republic farmer for four years. In that time he has applied his new knowledge and practices and seen his life improve alongside his community's. We had a chance to ask Benjamín a few questions about his experience and outlook. What challenges did […]
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About Our Work, Academic, Living Sustainably
Sustainability Glossary for a Greener Planet
Your guide to environmental buzzwords and important ideas to help restore our world We have created a sustainability glossary for you! In the world of sustainability, there is no shortage of buzzwords. Even the term sustainability is often overused and misunderstood. When terms become extremely popular, it's a good indicator that there is enthusiasm for […]
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DR Congo, Updates
Revisiting the Congo: A year after opening for oil drilling
With significant climate implications. The Congo Basin Rainforest is the second largest rainforest in the world and hosts about 70% of Africa’s tree cover. With a large portion of the rainforest made of peatlands, it serves as a powerful carbon sink. Disrupting it would be a significant loss in our efforts to maintain a livable […]
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Thailand
Nala Jakor: "Working with tree seedlings helps me build intimacy with God"
"I believe that everything has its own time and that life has seasons of high and low," begins Nala Jakor. Farmers who work closely with the land are perhaps the most familiar with the seasonality of life. Nala Jakor and her husband Nakorn have endured several drastic ups and downs. The two of them are […]
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Tanzania
Filomena: "I believed that God would help me."
Before Filomena partnered with Plant With Purpose, she was living an unhappy life. “I was living very unhappy because I had to stay with my in-laws, underneath the same roof. I was unhappy because I was not comfortable doing anything that I wanted. I wanted to have my own house so that I could move […]
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blog, Dominican Republic, Haiti
The environmental connection between Haiti and the Dominican Republic
In May of 2004, an extraordinary rain drenched the mountains of Haiti, in a place I had never heard of before, called Fonds Verrettes. We are used to the hurricanes: Georges, Ivan, Gustave, Ike, Sandy, Matthew; but the storm that brought this rain didn’t even have a name. Over the course of a week, almost […]
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blog, Dominican Republic
Teresa: “I always knew God can do everything."
Teresa talks about the transformation of her life, before and after partnering with Plant With Purpose. “Before, my life was a real challenge. I worked a lot but the money was never enough because I didn't know how to manage myself,” she told us. “I wasted money on things that did not improve my living […]
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Burundi
Espoir: In the years to come, I will not have problems teaching my children.
Espoir and Kaneza live in the Nyengwe watershed of Burundi. While Burundi is one of the countries most afflicted by poverty, Espoir and Kaneza demonstrate a way out. "Before we joined Plant With Purpose Burundi, I was not able to feed my children sufficiently. Our production was very low due to the lack of agricultural […]
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