Building the Future: A New Chapter in Our 25-Year Vision

The first two months of the year have been about more than just planning; they’ve been about building the very foundation for our work over the next quarter of a century. You may have noticed a shift in our activity, and we’re excited to finally share the infrastructure we’ve been developing to bring our long-term vision to life.

At the heart of this is a belief that a 25-year vision isn't something you achieve alone. It’s a legacy you build with an entire generation. To do that, we need to empower people with the tools, knowledge, and opportunities to contribute. Here’s a look at the key platforms we’ve launched to make that happen.

Launching Our Digital Ecosystem

We are thrilled to introduce the first of our new digital platforms, designed to connect, educate, and empower.

- The Opportunities Hub: We’ve gone live with our opportunities platform at eHub.forezava.org. This is a central space to share opportunities from both within our organization and from our wider network. Our goal is to make it easy for anyone to find a way to plug into the work we’re doing and contribute to the vision we’ve set out.

- The Forezava Digital Academy (academy.forezava.org): Experience is our greatest teacher, and we want to share what we’ve learned. The Digital Academy is a new platform where we will share experiential lessons gained from our eight years of on-the-ground work. You’ll find practical, bite-sized courses on a range of topics central to sustainable community development, including:

    - Tree seedling production and climate-smart agriculture.

    - Effective communication strategies for driving development.

    - How to articulate and share a compelling vision for the future.

This academy builds on the success of our in-person training sessions from last year. Now, we’re digitizing those programs with proper transcriptions to make them accessible to a much wider audience. We'll also be curating and sharing links to other amazing online programs, creating a rich learning environment for anyone eager to grow.

And this is just the beginning. More platforms are on the way as we continue this journey.

The Work Ahead: A Focus on Action

While we’ve been building our digital foundation, our physical work on the ground continues with renewed energy. Our vision is bold: to produce 15 million tree seedlings over the next 25 years, which averages out to 600,000 seedlings annually. Can we achieve it? We believe we can. This year, we’re aiming for our steady target of 160,000 seedlings, a crucial step on the path to our larger goal.

We’re also excited about a new venture we launched this year: apiculture (beekeeping). We noticed that beekeeping is already a part of life in many local homesteads, with many families managing at least one bee colony. We want to harness and support this existing passion. We have secured the resources to produce and distribute 200 beehives to the community. This isn't just about honey; it’s about creating sustainable opportunities for young people to produce, to create, and to thrive.

Join Us, Learn with Us, Help Us Build

Our digital platforms are active and available for anyone ready to learn and contribute. We will continue to create and share relevant, practical content—through videos, blogs, and our online hubs—documenting not just what we are doing, but how we are doing it.

We invite you to explore our website, engage with our content, and most importantly, help us build. Your feedback, ideas, and even constructive criticism are invaluable as we work to create a better world, together.

We look forward to interacting with you on this journey.

See you on the other side.

About Author: Kevin Makova