Youth Speaker entry #17: Misha Teasdale (South Africa)

My name is Misha Teasdale, I am 34 years old. I run an award winning social enterprise based in Cape Town, South Africa, Since 2010 we have planted over 50,000 indigenous and fruit trees within Southern Africa. Greenpop hosts corporate groups in facilitated tree planting in under greened communities of South Africa, turning grey communities green. Outside of this we also host large tree planting events. Recently we hosted our Reforest Fest which brings people from all walks of life together to plant thousands of indigenous trees, create meaningful experiences through workshops talks and other activities.

I’m currently gearing up for the fourth annual Zambia Festival of Action. This is an opportunity for local and international volunteers to plant trees, attend speaker evenings, workshops, and concerts featuring musicians from all over southern Africa!

Greenpop has several satellite projects due to vast numbers of organizations and activists across the continent needing trees planted, but not having the management systems or funding in place. To date we have four projects we work with in this way between Tanzania and Cape Town

Sustainable development is economic growth being socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable. I search for sustainable development both in my world and in my personal life. I want to thrive in all aspects of my life. I aim to do so through creating value for the world. A triple-bottom-line with a business mandate of adding value rather the being negative or neutral impact. I want to share this value with all. I am a huge fan of trees, they are means to translate my values to better the world as a whole. As a boy, I was fostered. My foster parents loved me as their son, and gave love unconditionally. Five years on, I went back to my mother who continued to sacrifice and provide me with unconditional love. This humility I was given, gave me a foundation in centering my life’s work around adding value to the world around me.

I have had the amazing experience and privilege of being flown to various countries to attend conferences and accept awards for the incredible work that my team and community do under my direction.

I feel that I have the potential to make big change happen through inspiring my peers and my community. By being a leader, I hope to share my passion for the environment and my experiences in appropriate technology, mass participation and social innovation.

Text, picture and video are submitted by Misha Teasdale (Greenpop-South Africa) – mishateasdale(at)gmail.com

The content, structure and grammar is at the discretion of the author only.

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This post is published as an application by the author, to speak as a youth representative at the World Forestry Congress. Have a look at the other entries too!

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