Trees for Life (United States)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Trees for Life is an international nonprofit organization, based in Wichita, Kansas, USA, that works for the empowerment of villagers in developing countries.
The work usually begins with helping villagers grow and care for fruit trees. Each recipient of seeds, seedlings, and/or training pledges to pass on planting materials and teach two others what they have learned. When villagers are empowered, they often start other projects that benefit their communities. Trees for Life provides support in the areas of education, health and environment.
Trees for Life was founded in 1984 by Balbir Mathur, an India-born American businessman. While working as an international business consultant, Mathur had several life-changing experiences, and went through an illness that left him unable to walk for two years. After his illness he started helping people in India plant fruit trees. He left his former business interests and started doing this work fulltime. When others wanted to help on a fulltime basis, Mathur realized that the vision was larger than himself.
Trees for Life has had projects in India, Guatemala, Haiti, Brazil, Nepal, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Nicaragua and Cambodia. According to the organization, more than two million people have participated in its programs and tens of millions of fruit trees have been planted.
In the Global Circle of Knowledge project, volunteers are developing free software for creating educational lessons on any subject and in any language and learning style. These lessons can then be shared through the internet, providing free educational resources for anyone, including those in developing areas.
In 2006 a new initiative was launched: the Trees for Life Journal. The journal is an online forum on beneficial trees and plants. It is an open-access journal, meaning that works published by the journal are freely available to reproduce and share in any medium, provided that the original work and author are properly cited. The mission of the journal is to bring traditional knowledge to the attention of the scientific community, to encourage scientific study of traditional claims, and to "translate" scientifically verified information for people at the grassroots level.
