Joanne Hutchinson, the founder of Socio-Economic And Environmental Develpoment Solutions (SEEDS) has been growing (SEEDS) since May 2011 and officially obtained charitable status on Oct. 29, 2013.
Joanne has had a lifelong love of animals and concern for the environment. Always one to fight for the ‘underdog,’ Joanne has never been one to sit back at wait for others to do the right thing.
Raised in Toronto Canada, Joanne spent her weekends growing up in the barn (at least the adults always new where she was) of her Grandparent’s farm in Stroud Ontario.
Always dreaming of going to Africa, it was made possible in August of 2011 by World Vision.
Joanne sponsored a child from Zambia Africa for six years and World Vision drove her 700k, to his village of grass huts, to meet him and his family in August 2011.
Typically you would visit your sponsored child for the afternoon but not Joanne. She had come all this way and was determined to spend some time with the family.
Joanne met 16 year old, Njamba, his twin sister Ngebe and their wonderful mother and took the family and World Vision guide and driver on a Safari to Liuwa Plains National Park. Then, back to a guest -house for dinner and an over night stay.
The following year, 2012’, Joanne and her husband Carl went back to Barotseland in Western Province Zambia to pay for Njamba and his older brother Kufuku to attend their local high school which is a 1 ½ hour 4×4 drive (through sand) or 10 hour paddle in a dug out canoe, from their home.
The two boys rented a room in the town of Kalabo and did well in school.
Joanne felt good that she had accomplished her commitment of paying for her sponsored child’s education to the end of high school. It had taken 16 months of planning the right educational tools to take, clothing, medical supplies and raising money for her to get the boys in school.
Joanne & Carl came back to Canada and got back into the routine of daily life.
Well Carl did! Joanne could not get Zambia out of her heart!
Joanne had taken seeds, from the vegetables she ate in Canada, over to her Zambian family, as they are subsistence farmers, on both visits.
Joanne had witnessed the poverty and lack of available seed in Barotseland as her Lozi Family acted as if she had given them gold when she gave them the seeds she had brought.
When home for the second time Joanne started saving seeds again.
Then she thought, why not send the seeds over to Zambia?
Joanne researched what was necessary to register a charitable organization in Canada, found two great Directors in Ellena and Sorcha and Socio-Economic And Environmental Development Solutions (SEEDS) was born on October 29th, 2013.
We are cutting down on waste going to landfills in Canada, giving people a source of food and income and helping save the diversity of seed.
Due to Joanne’s first love, animals, it was only fitting that SEEDS would help the Elephants in Zambia as well and why not help the environment while we are at it? Unfortunately there are only animals in National or Private Parks in Zambia, which is how African Parks are trying to keep them safe. By selling the trees to these parks we are helping the animals that live there and the air we breathe. It is hopeful that if you plant the trees elephants love in a specific area away from villages, they will go there to eat and stay away from people. This could also provide a way to better protect elephants as they will be in the area you planted the trees when the fruit is ripe so increased security could be arranged during this time. The more the people have to eat, will hopefully reduce the need to poach.
If you plant or hang hot chili peppers around vegetable gardens, the elephants will stay away as they don’t like the hot peppers.
Joanne believes that the human race will not survive unless we all come to realize that we are just another species, and our interdependence with other species is crucial to the survival of our planet.
Thank you for taking an interest!
It all started by sponsoring a child in Zambia Africa through World Vision in 2005′. To read some of the 56 blog posts of the two trips to Barotseland to visit her sponsored family
go to http://medwoman.wordpress.com. and type “World Vision made my dream come true” in the SEARCH box beside the title of the blog. This will take you to the first blog that I wrote.
Most of the pictures taken and all of the video on this site are from Joanne’s camera from her five visits to Zambia. Apart from the vegetables and pictures needed to produce this site.
You may look forward to many more pictures and video as the web site grows. Happy Planting!
