I am a retired businessman and have been involved with several charities for most of my 72 years. But I have now thrown my weight behind Tolerance International UK (TI-UK) by volunteering to help with their Green Programme in the rainforests of Peru and Africa. Why? Because I believe that their work for climate change is crucially important for every person and, indeed, every living creature on the planet, including those who come after us.
According to the Prince of Wales “…the biggest single opportunity we have to combat climate change, which can be started immediately and reap benefits fast…is the protection of the…rapidly dwindling rainforests of the world. I wonder how many of you are fully aware of the benefits – to all of us – if we could stop what is happening to them.”
It is this that motivated Tolerance International’s chief executive to plant the first trees in Peru under TI-UK’s scheme in January 2008, twinning this community with a company in Banbury that is funding the tree planting, as well as a social-improvement programme. The 250,000 inhabitants of the Peruvian rainforest (50 per cent of whom are children) are among the poorest in the world. TI-UK is helping them become guardians of the rainforest, as opposed to slashing and burning it; providing them with alternative means of feeding their families; and enabling them to improve their quality of life.
I am moved by the plight of people who live in the Peruvian and African rainforests; I am also greatly concerned about the inheritance I will leave my grandchildren if I sit and do nothing.
• As a sign of personal commitment to this cause, I have undertaken to travel across rugged and inhospitable terrain in Kenya in October 2008 – sleeping under canvas and overcoming my aversion to creatures that crawl and slither – in order to plant the first tree there. This will mark the start of a similar community programme to the one that is now up and running in Peru. To this end, I have committed to raise £1,000,000 via individual sponsorship and from multinational corporations’ offsetting programmes to help fund it.
In short, I need your help!
Please show your concern by sponsoring me and introducing me to companies that wish to go carbon neutral. And please publicise this site as widely as possible. In this way you will contribute to the poverty-stricken communities in Peru and Kenya and, at the same time, you’ll be saving your descendants and mine from the devastating effects of climate change.
Read more about Tolerance International UK. www.toleranceinternational.org.uk
