Greenpop has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Ripple (www.ripple.org.za) to fundraise for an expansion to its Woodstock tree nursery, turning it into a green education hub for the community.
Two years ago, Greenpop took over a neglected piece of land on Mountain Road in Woodstock, and turned this into their tree nursery. The nursery is at the heart of Greenpop’s mission; it’s where all the trees are kept that they plant across under-greened areas of Cape Town, and where they cultivate a thriving vegetable garden.
“We have managed to transform this space from a pile of rubble to an abundance of green,” explains Misha Teasdale, Greenpop’s co-founder and Tree-EO. “But we have a bigger vision for it. We want to create an innovative green education hub accessible to everyone, where people can come together to learn, share, and eat. A space where we’ll spread awareness on the importance of trees, of growing our own food, and of taking care of our environment.”
Greenpop plans on using money raised to purchase a container to up-cycle in true Greenpop style into an innovative green workshop space. This will allow the organisation to host groups of school children for interactive eco-lessons, and teachers and groundsmen from their beneficiary schools for skill-development workshops. The space will also be accessible to anyone in the community interested in learning about trees, urban growing, and related green issues.
“Education and activation are such essential elements of our vision – of our Treevolution,” explains Lauren O’Donnell. “It empowers us all to become self-sustainable and it encourages our whole community to take care of the trees we plant together.”
In addition to Greenpop’s new education centre, the tree nursery needs an upgrade on several levels. If enough funds are raised, Greenpop will purchase further tools, seeds, water tanks, and fences. “It will all hugely help in our goal to grow more trees, and to turn our nursery into a beautiful showcase and resource for urban greening,” says Misha.
People who contribute towards the campaign can also choose a reward for themselves. Anyone who contributes R100 or more will get their name added to the design that Greenpop will paint on the container. From R200, people can also choose additional rewards, which include small trees, signed Jeremy Loops CDs, Levi’s jeans, lunch with the Greenpop team, tickets to Greenpop’s Platbos Reforest Fest, art prints by Greenpop’s Zambian director Uncle Ben, and even a weekend for two at a luxurious guesthouse in Constantia. Additional rewards will be introduced during the course of the campaign. Most rewards have a limited amount available. (See a full list of rewards below.)
About Greenpop
Greenpop is a Cape Town-based social enterprise on a mission to (re)connect people with the planet. They do this through urban greening, reforestation, and eco-education projects in Southern Africa. Greenpop’s tree nursery in Woodstock forms part of the urban greening initiative they run in Cape Town, which sees Greenpop plant indigenous and fruit trees at beneficiary schools in under-greened and underprivileged areas of the city. The aim of the urban greening work is to empower local communities to improve their environmental and social landscapes by using tree planting as a powerful tool and metaphor for active citizenship, environmental stewardship and learning. Since its foundation in 2010, Greenpop has planted over 12,000 trees at 270 beneficiary locations in Cape Town.
About Ripple
Greenpop’s campaign is part of Ripple’s launch. Ripple, an initiative by the founders of Thundafund (Thundafund.com), is a new South African crowdfunding platform. Unlike Thundafund, which allows commercial ventures to fundraise, Ripple is created for non-profit causes and activist projects.
The campaign will run for 45 days.
Join the Treevolution!
The campaign: www.ripple.org.za/greenpophttp://www.ripple.org.za/greenpop
More information on Greenpop: www.greenpop.orghttp://www.greenpop.org/
Email: marissa@greenpop.orgmailto:marissa@greenpop.org
Phone: 021 461 9265
Sponsors:
Levi’s: http://www.levis.co.za
BOS Ice Tea: http://www.bosicetea.com
Dongola Guest House: http://www.dongolahouse.co.za
Jeremy Loops: http://www.jeremyloops.com
