June 3, 2015

Eight things we’re celebrating today

From the children in our Asháninka Project, here are eight things we’re celebrating for our Birthday.

In our eight short years our partner villages have achieved a lot.

With your support they are stronger than ever. Here’s eight reasons why.

Cool Earth - building schools to save the rainforest

1. We’ve supported 13 rainforest schools across the world. Books, new classrooms and even entire schools all help ensure that the children in our projects have the best possible start.

Cool Earth - supporting fish farm development to save the rainforest

2. We’ve funded 20 community fish farms across Peru. This means a protein rich lunch for families, plus a sustainable income from selling young fish to other villages.

Cool Earth - growing cacao to save the rainforest

3. In eight years our Asháninka partners have grown, harvested, fermented and dried 96 million cocoa beans. Grown in the shade of the rainforest canopy, this cacao has doubled household incomes and helped keep rainforest and families safe.

Cool Earth - Buildings to save the rainforest

4. We’ve helped invest in 39 community buildings – everything from medical outposts and community meetinghouses to cacao stores. These simple structures are helping to strengthen our partners and ensure they are best placed to protect their forest.

Cool Earth - ensuring a safe clean water supply for rainforest communities

5. Having a clean, safe water supply makes a life changing difference to any village. We’ve helped the villages of Coveja and Cutivireni get a reliable supply from natural springs and now they’re busy helping their neighbours do the same.

Cool Earth - harnessing the power of the sun to save the rainforest

6. One thing the tropics are not short of is sunshine. In eight years our rainforest partners have enjoyed 35,000 hours of daylight – providing power for schoolchildren’s solar lamps and drying the cocoa beans that are out-pricing forest destruction.

Cool Earth - strong villages mean safe rainforest

7. A safe forest needs a strong village which is why in our eighth year we’re training local women as safe birthing attendants, ensuring there are many more happy birthdays ahead.

Cool Earth has protected 120,405,600 rainforest trees

8. Cool Earth now has more rainforest under 24/7 protection by indigenous people than any other NGO – with 120,405,600 trees kept standing. That’s the best birthday present we could have wished for. Thanks for making it possible and here’s to the next eight years.