For the 2024-2025 planting season

Once again, Wells for Zoë actively involved numerous communities in the planting of seedlings cultivated in their nearby nurseries. The selection of land for planting was left to the communities, allowing them to choose areas within their locality.

We again did this adding a few new communities at new sites in Enyezini with new funding from the Priceless Planet Coalition (PPC) from MasterCard through Conservation International & the World Resources Institute. Donors from the Plant for the Planet / Trillion Tree Campaign website and directly from our website also helped fund various planting and the associated Land Restoration efforts which increased greatly in all areas with a great focus on Soil Erosion Control.

Despite challenges caused by erratic rainfall patterns a total of

were planted this season in Landscape Restoration areas.

Season 2024/2025 saw 14 community tree nurseries with solely indigenous trees established

Soil Erosion Control was again a huge part of the work happening on nearly all sites as planting of trees can only be successful if soil is stabilised. Thousands of stick fences and contour berms as well as stone walls were installed in eroded areas. A guidebook that was based on the work of WfZ in these sites has been produced by Conservation Management Services explaining more about the methodology of this approach. To improve soil quality, compost heaps were established throughout the planting sites and the compost added during the planting season.

Community Restoration

As in previous years, fruit tree seedlings were raised at the Lusangazi eco-farm and provided to community members, mostly women, during nutrition outreach sessions. Additionally, the well-being of the communities involved was further enhanced through direct support across various Wells for Zoë projects. Clay-and-Brick Rocket Stove training led to the construction of hundreds of new stoves with the goal to have a stove in every house. As Female Empowerment is at the core of the work of WfZ, thousands of reusable Sanitary Pads have been produced and distributed by the Tailoring Team.

Education efforts included school tree-planting activities and training on recycling and agroforestry. Preschools now maintain organic food gardens with multiple crop varieties and tree species known to act as soil-improvers.

Our forestry outreach clinics (now numbering 17), in partnership with the Mzimba North and South District Health Offices and Ekwendeni Mission Hospital, allowed for about 20,000 patient consultations. Teen mothers and chronically ill patients received targeted support through follow-ups and home visits and we are quite excited about our partnership with Interplast Kurpfalz e.V. and more especially Dr. Joachim Gröschel who facilitates the training on telesonography.

Our extensive reporting and transparency that has become a particular feature synonymous with Wells for Zoë was again furthered this Season and all our supervisors and managers have been involved with collecting ground truth data using the Flority App. Tens of thousands of GPS-Photos have been taken and uploaded to our online platform (greenhouse.) and we are currently working to present all this data on a new version of our map.

Again this season, the communities we support succeeded in planting millions of trees in Misuku, Enyezini, and throughout Mzimba including Kavula, Mtaja and Embangweni…