GEPAT

This is GEPAT, a Community Based Organization (CBO) in Karagwe in Northern Tanzania aiming to combat climate change and fight poverty. The Green Education for Poverty alleviation Trust was started in 2008 to improve access to renewable energy technology, improve local support and raise awareness of girls education, and improve the sustainability of the landscape upon which the communities depend. We encourage communities to plant trees and maintain them which reduces the carbon dioxide in the air and also improve their livelihood. The trees they plant help the world fight climate change which in turn bring rain and end the on-going erosion of the wasted soil, and gives the people there an economic base from the wood and firewood they get from them.

In 2008 GEPAT was established focusing on women participation in their own development. The founders that women need to come out plant trees in order to protect water sources from draught perceived it. This is because in Karara (Kituntu Village) all trees have been cut down and desertification is underway. GEPAT's approach is empowering the Green movement through the provision of incentives that empower the society away from poverty. The incentives aim to motivate farmers to plant trees in their own land for the purpose of combating climate change needs to go tandem with planting timber, fruits bearing , oil seed and other beneficial trees.

The Green Education and Poverty Alleviation Trust (GEPAT) started in 2008 in Karagwe, Tanzania. GEPAT emerged from a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project at Mzumbe University which is still ongoing to analyse the governance of natural resources available among the grass communities of the Karagwe district in Tanzania. Through this PAR/outreach research, the Green for Education and Poverty Alleviation Trust was founded.

Watch this video by Kees Riphagen show you what we do.

WakK Foundation Promotional film from Kees Riphagen on Vimeo.