This month saw the continuation of Fortress Fund’s greening of parts of Gauteng. On 22 May 2019, staff volunteers from Fortress Fund joined Food & Trees for Africa (FTFA) facilitators in distributing 1,000 fruit trees to five hundred excited residents of Evaton and Sebokeng. Each resident received two fruit trees — through the Trees for Homes programme — to be planted at their households. This distribution forms part of the Fortress Fund Super Eco-Cluster initiative in the townships of Evaton and Sebokeng, Gauteng.

Fortress Fund kicked off this initiative in April 2019 with the donation of 375 fruit trees to twenty schools in the communities of Evaton and Sebokeng. On 15 May 2019, staff volunteers joined our facilitators at a wonderful tree-planting and distribution event at Mogogodi Primary School to distribute these trees to the principals of the twenty schools being supported. A few days later, on 22 May 2019, Fortress Fund staff volunteers once again joined FTFA facilitators and the group of Community Educators — local, unemployed residents trained to carry out the FTFA Trees for Homes projects — to distribute 1,000 fruit trees of different varieties (including peach, plum, and nectarine) to five hundred Evaton and Sebokeng residents.

The community members met at Qhoweng Primary School in Sebokeng, one of the twenty schools to receive fruit trees. The school has shown tremendous enthusiasm to make the absolute most of the support offered by Fortress Fund and, on top of this, had expressed a strong desire to meet the Fortress Fund team. The staff volunteers of Fortress Fund therefore met the FTFA facilitator team and eagerly assisted with distributing trees and compost to the thrilled community members. Fortress Fund staff even went so far as to help a number of the home-owners plant their trees.

Fortress Fund, in their ongoing and steadfast commitment to positive social impact and community development, will be rolling out other similar projects with FTFA moving forward into 2019.