Charity Partnership

Ashwood Associates and Farm Africa

Ashwood Associates has decided to support the charity FARM-Africa from July 2010 for the next two years by raising funds through every recruitment placed and donating the money raised to FARM-Africa’s Forest project in Tanzania.

We hope all staff will get involved in one way or another and to that end will organise some work fundraising challenges – watch this space! We would love staff to also make suggestions about what we can do to raise money for such a worthwhile cause and hope everyone will feel involved and a part of this partnership.

With the money we raise FARM-Africa can do the following things:

£15 could help to train a farmer in Tanzania to harvest honey from forest bees, allowing them to make enough money to feed and clothe their family
£100 pays for 28 families to be equipped with essential farming tools, enabling them to make the most of the land and livestock that they have.
£1000 could help set up a tree nursery, providing jobs for the poorest people and protecting the forest for future generations.

“Ashwood Associates wanted to work with a small charity that makes a direct impact on the lives of those who need it most. We chose FARM-Africa for its innovative and effective approach to improving the lives of farmers and their families in eastern Africa. We are delighted to be able to support their work in Tanzania through this unique partnership.”
Steve Marley, CEO Ashwood Associates

“This partnership draws on the strong synergies between Ashwood Associates expertise in FMCG business and our charity’s own work to help communities to grow more food to build sustainable livelihoods. It is exciting to be embarking on this project with a company that wants to give something back to communities, to build better futures.”
Susi Owusu, Corporate Partnerships Manager at FARM-Africa

Introduction to FARM-Africa

FARM-Africa is a small innovative charity that unlocks the potential of rural African farmers, helping them to produce more food for their families so that they can feed themselves now and in the future.

They have been working since 1985 transforming the lives of rural farmers and herders in eastern Africa. With over 20 years of experience and a depth of expertise, our strategy is to improve people’s long-term opportunities to increase their income, nutrition and access to food and animal health care while at the same time protecting the local environment.

In 2009 FARM-Africa touched the lives of 4 million people.

Introduction to the Nou Forest project

Thousands of people in Tanzania’s Babati and Mbulu districts are reliant on the forests around them to survive. As a result, the forests are slowly being destroyed. Deforestation is common as people seek to cut down trees in order to create land for grazing livestock and to sell firewood and charcoal at local markets.

FARM-Africa’s work with forest communities helps to significantly reduce deforestation by working with families to find other ways to earn money. We work with communities to find out the best ways for them to turn traditional activities such as raffia weaving and honey production into profit - making enterprises. Only when communities are no longer reliant on selling timber products to survive are they able to conserve the forest for future generations.

We are working with 10 villages to develop more sustainable livelihoods and environmentally protective practices. We are also training government so that they can replicate our work in a further 10 villages. This will benefit to around 90,000 people.

Case Studies

Kopa Ama

Paulina Hotay

Kopa Ama

Kopa Ama is the Chairman of Madunga Beekeeping Group, in Madunga village, Babati district, Manyara region, in Tanzania. With assistance from FARM-Africa the group now understands the importance of forest conservation for effective beekeeping.

The Madunga Beekeeping Group, which started with the support of FARM-Africa in 2005, now has fifteen members. They were given 27 modern beehives by FARM-Africa. Kopa Ama said, “We are preparing to do our second harvest in September. We harvest twice a year in September and January. The first harvest did not give us a good result because ants attacked the hives. Since then we have been trained how to prevent ants and have been inspecting the hives closely. This time we expect to get at least 100 litres of honey.”

Ama continues, “On average we expect to sell the honey for 2,000 Tanzanian shillings per litre. We are planning to open a bank account for the group and carry out activities according to the group’s plan, which include buying more hives and giving training to the other community members.” The group also hopes to start selling modern beehives that will increase their income while at the same time helping to improve livelihoods and forest conservation.

Ama explained that honey has high cultural value in their village. It is believed to have high medicinal value. Honey is used to make a local brew called, gesuda, and is given as part of dowry in weddings.

“Our challenge is meeting the demand.” Says Ama, “There is enough local market for honey so all we need to do is work harder. Farming is our major livelihood in this area but we can greatly supplement it with beekeeping. And we do not want to stop with honey, among our next plans are getting trained on how to process wax.”

Paulina Hotay

Paulina Hotay, who is thirty-four years old and a mother of five, is one of the members of the Raffia Weavers Group in Murray Village. She has been weaving Raffia since childhood but has mostly used it for her own household purposes before FARM-Africa began working in the area.

With training and support from FARM-Africa, Paulina now makes baskets and mats from raffia. She stated “Making baskets is easy and takes me four to eight hours; mats on the other hand take as long as a week. I cannot make too many of those unless I am sure I can make good money out of it”.

Paulina is a busy woman who has to take care of her kids, prepare food, work on the farm, fetching water, and clean the stable each day. The huge list of daily activities that Paulina must complete, leave her with only a couple of hours each night to work on her raffia before going to bed.

“I have seen positive changes in my life through the sale of raffia and I will keep on working with it. Since raffia planting and training started in the village I have been able to make many products and sell them in the local markets”

“I now make 15,000 Tanzanian shillings a month and this helps me to pay for my children’s schooling, clothing and supplements my household income. Before the intervention, I hardly made 2,000 shillings a month, so the intervention has bought us real benefits. My daughters did not use to show signs of interest in weaving raffia, but now seeing its prospects in supporting our livelihoods, I hope to encourage them start working with me soon”.

Paulina thinks women around the Nou Forest, including herself, will be able to spend more time working on raffia products if demand for these products increase. “Work in the field can be carried out by my husband, while I stay at home and work on my raffia. To start working like this, I need to be able to raise more money from raffia than I do now. I am very happy FARM-Africa is working with us to identify markets so that I can sell more.”

In the villages, raffia mats are used as bedding, while the baskets are used to hold various materials including ugali (maize) flour, vegetables, charcoal and clothes.