Green Ghana

I recently started a project with Volunteer Partnerships for West Africa (VPWA) and Green Ghana Volunteers to reclaim degraded lands previously used for mining minerals in a village near Accra. The plan is to start 3000 Moringa oleifera from seed and by late April we will have them available to transplant onto the degraded land which we will repair with the addition of new soil. We will plant the trees in their permanent site on Earth Day as a celebration of The Earth Day Network's "Billion Acts of Green".


Once the trees are planted, they will enrich the soil and provide a new fertile patch of land for the village to farm as well as contributing directly to the sustained livelihood of the community by sale of their seeds, which are used in the production of Bio-Diesel, food and medicine. They will also provide funds for development of the village through sale of carbon offset credits since the Moringa oleifera tree's leaves are highly absorbent of carbon.

Myself, along with another girl from UG were the first people to get involved with the project and therefore, Hayford Siaw, the director of VPWA, put us in charge of recruiting further volunteers. I wrangled some up and today we went out to the Green Ghana Project site in the Eastern Region to plant some seeds. 


Our first challenge was creating the bags to hold the seedlings and their soil. We took used water sachets, which had been collected from their previous state as litter, and cut open the top to fill with soil. Then we placed seeds in and watered them. Over the course of the day, less than a dozen of us managed to plant 1000 seeds.

1000 baby trees

We took a mid day break for lunch and afterword we partook in some of the fruit growing on the site. First we ate this berry which is small, red and oblong in shape... some may know it as the "miracle berry" others may not know it at all. It increases the perceived sweetness of foods by altering your taste buds. After that we ate some fresh oranges and well, it was amazing. Just plain euphoric.

Miracle Berries

All in all it was a great and productive day. I'll be going back with some constituents this tuesday to continue planting as we prepare for earth day and the revitalization of degraded lands.

2 month old Moringa Oleifera saplings
(how old our transplanted trees will be on earthday)

The view from the Green Ghana Site

If you want to learn more go to: http://www.greenghanavolunteers.org/earth-day-2011
or simply: http://www.greenghanavolunteers.org/


If you feel compelled to donate to VPWA I commend your generosity and you may do so by visiting here. But don't feel pressured to do so, if I was in your shoes I would likely not donate... ('cause I generally don't do that sort of thing... but it is indeed a good cause.)

Ghana Independence Day is tomorrow! I get to experience two of those this year... I'll post my thoughts on the occasion.