TREE TWINNING
The gift that just keeps growing
Last Orders in...
Christmas shopping is a herculean task
It's the arduous hours trawling through websites, looking for the best deal or somewhere that has your item in stock.
Then the infamous day comes when you crawl at snail speed into town, fight for a car parking space and step out to face the brutal Christmas shopping frenzy, on those precious Saturdays leading up to Christmas.
And everyone is asking the same question.
"Why? Why did I not do my shopping gradually throughout the year, or in October, why did I leave it to the eleventh hour again?!"
We are here to save you some shopping time and energy.
So that, ladened up with twinkling lights, yards and yards of festive wrapping paper and all the Christmas party food (don't forget the tempura king prawns) you will have a perfect and considerably less stressed run up to Christmas day.
So slurp up the buck's fizz and read on...
By gifting a Christmas Tree Twinning (the gift for Aunty Joan, who you never know what to get, but she needs more than a card), the weighty environmental impact of the holiday season starts to look a little greener.
Our planet is losing a football pitch worth of trees every second, and buying a bauble helps take the added burden of Christmas on the planet into consideration.
Global-warming statistics everywhere suck the cheery spirit out of Christmas, but we have a solution... Even if you think you are all ready for Christmas, there is still one more job to be done.
If we keep planting trees, we can start reversing the devastation we've inflicted on our planet.
We are here to tell you there is good stuff happening all over the world. Forests are being replenished, river banks protected, and biodiversity restored.
So, if you are questioning the woeful state of the earth, kick "how are we ever going to achieve this?" to the curb, and start asking "how do we get involved?"
You guessed it!
(AND we will post them straight to Aunty Joan with a gift message)
We love the famous words of Jane Goodall:
“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
We can’t tell you to paint yourselves green and lie across Westminster bridge in protest of the world’s deforestation crisis, because that’s not how we all like to express ourselves.
But just as we tell the girls in our BRAVE empowerment programme. YOU have a voice and a choice.
A choice to decide what kind of difference you want to make in the world.
You can choose to help plant 100,000 trees in Malawi with us this Christmas.
Twin your Christmas tree with trees in Malawi, and your one-time, single-year Christmas tree will pay itself back tenfold (or offset a plastic one).
Because we need to plant more trees right now.
We see first-hand-on-the-ground changes are happening; they may not hit the media, but we see forests growing and society changing around us. And. It’s. Exciting.
It may sound counter-intuitive, but we don’t want to receive millions of dollars to plant millions of trees on mass.
Before you think that is an utterly insane statement for a tree-planting project - have a read of some of our partner stories:
Precious Kaunde Ntayamwana Village:
“For the last 2 years I have been caring for my woodlot trees, there is now a wall of green by my house. It beautifies my house, also making it safe from strong winds and is better for breathing fresh air.”
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Ziwoni Malimusi- Mselema Village:
“Before the Family Tree Project came to help us, we were spending all our money on fertilizer. The fertilizer trees now save us many Kwachas, we no longer need to save all year, we have our own fertilizer trees! The harvest from maize has been even better than with bought fertilizer. The Changu Changu Moto is also saving us from buying firewood. Now we are can manage much better”
Bett Gustino – Ntayamwana Village:
“My family now has many trees, we do not need to buy firewood. This tree cuts and grows again. It helps my family. The oven uses only small bits of wood. Now our family is happy.”
_edited.jpg)
Each £10 bauble funds the planting of ten trees in Malawi. Hand crafted in Wales, by an incredible team of volunteers, they are not only sustainable, but cost the charity nothing. This means every-single-penny is planting trees and providing environmental education in workshops to communities, schools and prisons in rural Malawi.*
Sent to you in bio-degradable plastic free packaging
How it works
What's more...
Your trees will provide a family with a livelihood and a sustainable life-long supply of life-essential wood.
Give prison inmates a vocation and opportunity for reform through planting forest.
Inspire students to make change possible in Malawi and make educated and environmentally conscious decisions for their futures.
*excluding online purchases subject to a processing fee. (51 pence)
Tree Twinning is a part of Fisherman's Rest Community Projects Tree Project in Malawi. This is our fourth year selling baubles and each year we plant a few more trees than the last...
At the current rate of deforestation, there won't be any trees left in Malawi by 2079. The rapid deforestation is caused by clearing land for tobacco, farming, livestock, charcoal making, building, brick making and cooking. The impact is clear to see, with crops failing due to soil infertility, flooding, landslides, loss of habitat and lack of timber! Forests have the ability to stabilise the climate, reduce flood risks, cool the ground level temperatures, prevent soil erosion, restore biodiversity and improve crop yields.
Since 2013 we have been working with local government and traditional authorities to protect existing woodland and establish new forests, as well as creating income generating sustainable woodlots for local people.
Training, education and year round support is provided by us. We teach how to establish nurseries, which species are suitable and how to germinate and nurture them. We facilitate communities to create and enact bylaws, to protect existing and newly planted forests.
Working with key stakeholders, committees, and farmers, we have facilitated and supported hundreds of people to establish, rear and plant native seedlings.
The impact is turning into a green belt of forest over Madziabango and Nankhumba zones.
Government and community bylaws meetings
Form committees
Introduction education and training then more education following at each stage
Cycle starts again each year
Seed collection
Nursery formation
Care and management
Site preparation
Planting
Weeding and protection
Who we partner with:
Government
Prisons
Communities
Schools
Individuals
How we partner:
.jpeg)
LET'S DO THIS!
Together change is possible.
When you buy a bauble, you are planting ten trees in Malawi. Either a family, a school or a prison in Malawi is planting those trees to receive highly nutritious fruit (also can be sold for additional income), improved soil integrity, coppiced wood and restored eco-systems.
Your trees are life-giving beyond expectations.
Handmade in Wales, by an incredible team of volunteers, the baubles are sustainable and cost the charity NOTHING.
Your £10 works hard planting trees and providing environmental education in workshops to communities, schools and prisons in rural Malawi.*
One bauble keeps the environment front of mind - in a positive way - on Christmas day.
.jpeg)
And did we mention? The baubles are the second-to-none solution to save you from the last minute panic of buying for extended family and friends who have everything…
A bauble is also a great conversation starter. What’s that on your tree? Well, now you’ve asked, let me start with a few festive Christmas carbon facts about Santa...
And as the years tick by, your trees will continue to live and breathe, soaking up carbon. If you bought a bauble in 2020, our first year of twinning, your trees will be 2 meters high and sink approximately 50 tonnes of carbon each year (around 5 tonnes per young tree).
Isn’t that something?
And not only that, you:
Provide a family with a livelihood and a sustainable life-long supply of wood.
Give prison inmates better nutrition, a vocation and an opportunity for reform by planting a forest.
Corporately plant a community forest, protected through by-laws.
Inspire students to make change possible in Malawi and make educated and environmentally conscious decisions for their futures.
Once used - please throw your bauble back into a forest to naturally bio-degrade or keep it forever!
Tree & Pocket Friendly Maths
Cost of windblown Welsh ash - donated by local farms: £0.00
Cost of laser engraving - donated time: £0.00
Cost of packaging - donated: £0.00
Cost of online payment processing: £0.51
Cost of advertising - donated: £0.00
Cost of bauble: £10.00
Amount heading to Malawi to plant trees: £9.49
"What a great way to give and receive this Christmas. Tree twinning- planting into something that will give to others-the heart of Christmas." Aaron Davies-Whitfield
Here is What Tree Twinners Say:
"It was a unique present, we gifted baubles to family, twinning their trees for them! They looked really really good. The packaging was neat and fun to open. We used the gift messaging to personalise them. It's a clever idea, and I'm pretty chuffed there are a few trees in Malawi now. Planted by us." Gwen Thomas
"Love that we can ‘twin’ our Christmas tree to Malawi knowing 10 trees will be planted there, making a difference to the community. The baubles look fab on our tree too!" Helen Griffiths
What Helen Whiter, a long-standing volunteer and supporter has to say about us:
"After I retired, I was keen to do some volunteering overseas, which is how I came to discover Fisherman’s Rest. I was so impressed by the work they do, and it was such a wonderful experience, that I have now been back 3 times. Over the years, I have seen the impact as their work has grown: new schools built, more classrooms, libraries and toilets in existing schools, with breakfast porridge, served in more schools. All of this means that more children go to school, in particular girls, so classes can be enormous! Local people (both men and women) are now trained to maintain the village water pumps. Conservation is high on the agenda, with tree planting and demonstrations of how to build a fuel-efficient oven.
I’ve mainly worked in schools but have helped on other projects as well. I’ve supported the women’s literacy classes and the Girls’ Project, helped build an oven and seen the chicken projects in schools, where learners look after chickens and develop business skills. I particularly like the fact that Fisherman’s Rest are employing and training up a large team of local workers, some of whom now lead on projects. They are making such a difference and always looking for new ways to move forward. And once the pandemic has settled down, I shall be going back."
Buy a bauble and you will:
Plant ten trees in Malawi in schools, prisons, protected forest & household allotments.
Provide education alongside tree planting. Covering, effects of deforestation, tree germination, care and the benefits of securing trees for the future.
In the long term, help combat Malawi's deforestation crisis and help households survive by coppicing, preserving trees and farming sustainably.
What's included?
A hand crafted Welsh ash wooden slice bauble to grace your Christmas tree. Individually gift wrapped and boxed, nestled in sustainably harvested moss from our woodland, packaged in bio-degradable eco friendly packing .
Option to include an additional personalised gift message and send the package directly to it's new home.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Malawi?
Deforestation is a huge problem in Malawi. 89% of the population cook on wood-fired stoves or open fires. Wood is used for construction, warmth, sterilising water and cooking. Without this resource, many people will die of illness and starvation and the land will degrade to sand, useless for growing food.
Combined Postage?
Yes, as you add more baubles to your basket, the reduced postage will be automatically calculated.
How long has the project been established?
We have been working in Malawi for over 30 years. FROM Wales was registered as a Charity in the UK in 2012. We started the Tree Project in 2013.
Safe Payments
We use WIX payments to complete our transactions, Wix Payments is fully PCI DSS compliant, which is the highest information security standard for companies accepting credit card payments. It's also PSD2 SCA compliant, which is important for European merchants
Online Orders
Once you click “BUY NOW” for your bauble, you will head to the checkout to complete your purchase with our payment provider- WIX stores
Easy Returns
We hope you do not need to return your product. But if you do, please contact our customer service and we will sort any issues with you asap.
Customer Service
If you have any questions or problems with your order please call our UK number +44 (0) 1994 758 146. Leave a message if we are unable to take your call. We will endeavour to be in touch within 24 hours. Or please email bethan@fromwales.org
What trees do you plant?
Please have a look at our Tree Project web page. We outline what we plant, where we plant and why!
Delivery
We will send out all orders within 48 hours of payment, using Royal Mail 1st Class delivery. Please do remember, post can take longer over Christmas.
What charity is this?
Tree Twinning is run by FROM Wales UK registered Charity 1149385. Please check us out on the Charity Commissions website.
Too Expensive?
We are sorry you may think so. But our experience has taught us that planting trees well needs a team of skilled people, who are constantly training and monitoring the communities, schools and prisons involved in the project. To truly make effective impact, this is what it costs us. For more details on the extent of the Tree Project, please read more here.
How do I add a gift note?
As you move through the checkout process, you will see a text box to "Add gift message". If you miss this, please email bethan@fromwales.org on the same day as purchase, with your order number and the message you would like to include.