In February 2003 a team from Menschen für Menschen sat with several hundred men and women in the new project area Babile beneath one of the last remaining tall trees. They all told their tales of woe: drought and crop failures had made them dependent on foreign food donations. 

You must plant more trees,” said Karlheinz Böhm and explained to the crowd, almost none of which had attended school, in an impressive manner the connection between an intact environment and ample precipitation. At the end of the discussion a farmer put their feelings into words: “Karl, you have opened our eyes! Up until now we thought the drought was a punishment by God, on which we had no influence!”

Realisation was followed by action. Together with the inhabitants of Babile and the other project regions, neglected communal land was selected, training courses were held and a programme was devised for replanting. In addition, special nurseries and the necessary irrigation systems were laid out. The farmers themselves planted the seedlings and tended to the delicate plants.
To date thousands of farmers have been able to turn their farms green, produce wood for their own needs and the conserve the soil for the agriculture that is so essential for their survival.

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