(Image: The view of the sunrise from a hill over the planted forests)

The following are a few of the active projects run by GEPAT.

• Tree planting for the communities and at Magdalene Forest

  
  

  Thanks to Wakk Foundation and Green Choice of the Netherlands. The motive was to get women on board and make them plant trees in order to help themselves from climatic change problem which are currently affecting them. As the trees are cut, the firewood get scarce and water wells are get dry. Girls and their mothers are more affected. The challenges have been on how to make them be confident and participate fully. Hence, the women plant trees and weed them, but since the land belongs to their men all trees belong to their husbands. Since the majority is Roman Catholic organized in prayers groups, it has been always that the women are part of the men’s rib. The women who own the trees are those who are single (unmarried).

• Building and maintaining a Girls' education center

  
  

  Teaching at the center by the volunteers from Mzumbe University and other internationa partner-universities.

  "Anybody who donates a book does more than a person who donates money in Africa" – Prof. Aurelia Ngwira Kamuzora

• Entrepreneurship development for women.

  
  

  Women being trained on entrepreneurship and planting trees at the center. The women actively planting trees are provided carbon credit. Carbon credits are earned by increasing removal of CO2 from the air and storing it in plant material. Farmers create carbon credits by planting trees on their land, converting cropland to grassland, and/ or reducing tillage operations. Therefore, to encourage afforestation activities among smallholder farmers carbon credit are provided as incentives to increase afforestation activities at the local level for regulating climate change.

• Hosting the ACE Summerschool and mapping active nurseries.

  
  

  In 2017 GEPAT worked with the ACE Summer School: Prof. Yongjun Zhao, Prof.Pieter Boele Van Hensbroek to map the area of influence of the project where the trees are planted and actively maintained. The following is a Map of the impact area of GEPAT project with location of the nurceries that supply trees to several thousands of farms distributed in the area of Karagwe and Kyerwa districts of Kagera region (south-west of Lake Victoria)

  The following is the resulting map:

  The project was so successful as it has promoted the international association GEPAT has with universities.