Photo: Belu Filofteia and Stela Malureanu from Nucsoara village, next to our plantation in the Carpathian mountains in Romania.
Two of the forest elders we were able to provide food for at this difficult time, thanks to your generous support of our Feed the Elders Campaign.
We are currently in our last week of our spring campaign. We have raised 97% of £55k goal, with 306 contributors. With three days left to raise the remaining 3%, we are running a fundraiser live streamed event on Facebook this Friday night. We’d love you to join us and our music ambassadors to celebrate the end of our Spring campaign and raise donations for food boxes and tree planting.
Covid-19’s impact has been felt on a global scale, but the older generations, particularly those in remote communities, are among the most affected.
Forests Without Frontiers launched an urgent appeal to raise funds for food boxes for 51 vulnerable elders in the village, and we have been able to help those most in need.
Working with our partners Carpathia, we are providing essential supplies – while maintaining the safety of rangers delivering it, by following strict social distancing and hygiene guidelines. Many elders are alone, their children and grandchildren often in quarantine in the city. Without access to money for food or shops nearby, and the loss of regular contact – this really is a lifeline to the indigenous mountain elders and a vulnerable rural population.
Belu Filofteia, 77. Nucsoara, Romania
Photo Credit: Conservation Carpathia Georgiana and Mihai Catan
We are continuing to support our forest elders
– and we’re still raising funds –
If you feel you can help at this time, please do.
“The seasons are changing. We normally have more vegetables growing by now. There has been drought. They are not growing like they used to. I’m worried about these things changing.” - Stela Malureanu, 79. Nucsoara, Romania
A heads up about our new Elders Campaign
Connecting to our Elders is a core value for Forests Without Frontiers. We believe we must support the older generations and bring them together with the younger generations. We have much to learn from their wisdom and traditions.
We will soon be launching Elders for Earth, a campaign to celebrate the histories, wisdom and knowledge of our Elders, through storytelling and sharing. We need our communities to come together – just as the ecosystems work in the forests with saplings rooting alongside ancient trees – we all have a place and role to play.
In these testing times, we need to turn to our elders, to check in and offer support.
Nico with musicians Babu Ion (left) celebrating the 90th birthday of Buna Ana (right) in the Orastie Mountains, 2018 - The Elders of the Forests Without Frontiers project and Nico’s album ‘Be One’.
From day one, our project has been rooted in the stuff of stories and the importance of intergenerational relationships. Watch how a shared love of music and the forest created the album “Be One” and started Forests Without Frontiers.
Is there anything you could do right now?
Perhaps call older family members – a short chat can make all the difference – and look around you to the wider community too.
Call on your elders. Check in with them. See how they are doing and if there is anything they need from you.
Ask them to tell you their stories.
Listen to them. Deeply.
“Don’t forget that we all came from somewhere, none of us just arrived here out of nowhere.”
Babu Ion