Organic fertilizer production demonstrations & workshops increase both quality and quantity of crop yields.
Dry-season container farming techniques mitigate climate change, enable fresh greens during arid times, and facilitate food production for people with limited mobility, or those without farms.
Helping Maasai and Samburu, moving from a pastoral existence, toward a more settled life in simple, achievable steps.
Funding for community agrarian start-ups with a pay-forward methodology that ensures continuity, expansion and our redundancy.
"Rita and Jeff did an amazing job and really caught the people’s attention. It was fantastic to see how they managed to engage the villagers and involved them, and how passionate and dedicated they are. Their project is absolutely brilliant in its simplicity, and the villagers understood that it is such an easy concept"
Barbara Coccia
Greystoke Mahale Manager
Nomad-Tanzania
12,000+ families in 5 East African countries
THE CHALLENGES
Poverty and marginalization.
Depletion of natural resources, water scarcity, and especially soil degradation from chemical fertilizer use.
Human/wildlife conflict, poaching and illegal wildlife trade.
Increased drought, extreme weather changes and the food insecurity that results.
We focus on women as they are the backbone of community, and youth because they are the future.
WE PROVIDE
-Training workshops to compost animal manure and other organic material into healthy, FREE, sustainable fertilizer.
Container farming strategies to access fresh greens during arid times.
-Tree seedlings and nurseries to combat erosion, drought and poaching.
Coffee and fruit saplings to generate income.
-Poultry & Rabbits, Bee-keep
WE PROVIDE
-Training workshops to compost animal manure and other organic material into healthy, FREE, sustainable fertilizer.
Container farming strategies to access fresh greens during arid times.
-Tree seedlings and nurseries to combat erosion, drought and poaching.
Coffee and fruit saplings to generate income.
-Poultry & Rabbits, Bee-keeping, Seeds
-Micro-finance initiatives
-Social business mentoring
THE RESULT
Investing in livelihoods directly builds social and human capital, develops resilience, strengthens community bonds and reinforces peace initiatives.
"WE touch and own this project" - James, the head of Barlonyo, Uganda co-op.
. Our various projects encourage slow, steady development growth- think crawl, walk, run- focused on he
THE RESULT
Investing in livelihoods directly builds social and human capital, develops resilience, strengthens community bonds and reinforces peace initiatives.
"WE touch and own this project" - James, the head of Barlonyo, Uganda co-op.
. Our various projects encourage slow, steady development growth- think crawl, walk, run- focused on healthy, sustainable utilization, management and conservation of the environment and natural resources.
The Guardian Project has directly provided
7,380 sheep & goats
925 chickens
1 industrial incubator
2,000 fertilized eggs
967 rabbits
20 Guinea Pigs
18,325 kgs of crop seeds
31,620 fruit and shade trees
7 Community Bee-Keeping Start-ups & Expansions
3 Worm Farms
3 Fish Farms
1 Greenhouse
1 acre of land
750 Library Books
1 Watertank
420kgs girls/womens clothing
240 Pairs Women's Running Shoes
2,000 Pairs Reading Glasses
4 Hockey Bags Filled With School Supplies
1 Printer
3 Laptop Computers
3 cell phones
2 Ipads
3,500 gunny sacs
Countless hours training many thousands of farmers, hotel/camp/lodge/park staff.
The pay-forward means many of these numbers double again, & again, & again...
The Guardian Project is in
Rwanda
Uganda
Eastern D.R.Congo
Tanzania
Kenya
Bhutan
Cambodia
The Guardian Project-
a simple, transparent, scalable, sustainable, community-building, income-generating, peace-building, agriculture and conservation initiative...really!
Parents of 4. Grandparents of 6. Rita is the daughter of refugee immigrants. Jeff was raised by a single mother. Both grew up in challenging circumstances in Canada, the land of opportunity. Business success enabled the blessings of extensive global travel and Rita & Jeff quickly realized that the majority of the world's people live in poverty and insecurity, often in the interest of Western affluence and ease.
It seemed callous to continue traveling without doing something to change these circumstances in a sustainable and scalable way.
Having already spent years in philanthropy, and having their own family foundation, Rita & Jeff knew that charitable handouts have proven to be mostly ineffective & unsustainable, and strip people of their independence & dignity.
In 2010, The Shit Starts Here, the first eco-initiative of The Guardian Project- Rita & Jeff Rayman, organic fertilizer production, was launched in Rwanda, followed by poultry & rabbit distribution, vermiculture, bee-keeping and container farming strategies mitigating climate change.
A hand up instead of a handout.
Rita & Jeff continue to focus their energies on a more socially equitable and environmentally balanced world.
“With The Guardian Project, we facilitate a lasting and regenerative change, in a way that we are almost invisible in the process, other than having seeded that change."
"A charitable dollar has only one life; a Social Business dollar can be invested over and over again." "In my experience, poor people are the world's greatest entrepreneurs. Every day, they must innovate in order to survive. They remain poor because they do not have the opportunities to turn their creativity into sustainable income." -Dr. Mohammad Yunnis
"Success in protecting wildlife habitats in Africa “depends on creating programs that are controlled and embraced by the local people. I am pleased to endorse Rita and Jeff’s project...crop yields increase, food production increases, and people are able to generate an income...I commend Rita and Jeff for their commitment to this innovative, effective program and I wish them great success."-Dr. Jane Goodall
Our Partners
