Pictured above: During the 2019 Champion Trip, Champions joined Legado: Namuli’s field team and Executive Director Majka Burhardt to meet with Sr. Serrote Voloua, a member of the Mucunha Natural Resource Management Committee, to learn about his garden of native plants and trees, and his involvement with the project.

Making a Splash: Giving with Impact

In June 2019, Pete and Mary Sue Vorbrich journeyed to Mozambique as part of our 2019 Champion Trip to spend time with Legado’s Field Team for two weeks of learning and adventure.

As major donors to the organization, they wanted an up-close-and-personal look at how their gifts were being invested and the long-term impact of their support. They also brought along their 13-year-old daughter, Frances, to share the experience firsthand with the next generation. We are honored to share a few of their reflections on the experience:

“We’re committed to giving to Legado— especially now after having been there in person— because the work is direct, localized, hyper-focused. In your portfolio of giving, you’re often giving to a dispersed impact and a broad net. Giving to Legado is an opportunity for individual donors like you to make a huge difference on an outsized scale.”

“Rather than being a drop in the ocean, you’re like a big splash in the pond. I find it to be a good balance for our philanthropic portfolio to sometimes be the drop and sometimes be the splash.”

Mary Sue Vorbrich, Legado Supporter and 2019 Champion Participant

“A lot of international aid is very specific engineering like dams, roadways, schools, Or, it’s social engineering— literally changing the way people live their lives.”

“At Legado, it’s completely different— the team works with local communities to define goals and objectives that make sense to them. What I saw is that this kind of an involved, collaborative approach is much heavier lifting in the early days.”

“It would be easier to hand out tools and seeds. But, in the long term, the Legado way is going to be much more successful as community leadership is fortified and will be able to successfully advocate for themselves.”

“It takes longer to support people in developing their broader vision for their lives and for their community— but building on that vision as a foundation— well, there’s nothing quite like it.”

Pete Vorbrich, Legado Supporter and 2019 Champion Participant

Learn more about how you can give and to join us on our 2020 Champion’s Trip.

Conservation as a Family

Basiliana João and Felizardo Jonasse never imagined they’d have a child who was a conservationist. As the parents of eight children, Basiliana and Felizardo live in a home on the edge of the mountain side on the outskirts of Murrabue, the gateway into the Namuli highlands. Basiliana and Felizardo keep track of the comings and goings of all of the people on Namuli, and when the Legado: Namuli field team arrives on the mountain, they always smile knowing their son Filimonio is with them.

“If Legado: Namuli had not come, there would already be no trees left.”

– Felizardo Jonasse, father of Legado: Namuli Team member Filimonio Jonasse

“Many other families have children who have left the mountain to go to work,” Felizardo says, “but we are lucky because Filiminio comes home every day.”

Filimonio is Basiliana and Felizardo’s eldest child.

“At first, I would come home to visit and talk about all of the new things that I was learning,” Filimonio explains.  “Soon, my mother became interested and made her own decision to become involved with the project and my father joined the Producers’ Association. They learned that they could not cut or burn the trees and that their crops will flourish if they plant in horizontal lines. Once they made these changes, they observed improvements in their harvest.”

People in the community are proud to have a technician from their community working with the Legado: Namuli team, and they look to Filimonio as a model for them and their families. Felizardo explained that the community is impressed with Filimonio’s desire to give back to his own community, instead of looking for work in the city.

Always with a smile on his face and a laugh you can recognize with your eyes closed, Filimonio says, “On a social level, I have learned what it means to work in a team. I have grown so much, both personally and professionally, and for this I am truly grateful.”

“Since I began working with the project, many people have opened their minds to the various things we are teaching,” he explains. “They trust me because they are my family and my friends, and they saw me grow up. Now they understand that the project is about protecting and conserving what we have. They have changed their way of thinking, and they are thankful for what they have learned. They have seen the results for themselves.”

Filimonio’s goal is to further study environmental management and continue to work with the community to promote better understanding of how to practice agriculture and conservation.

With the light of the sun reflecting off the mountains outside of the window, Felizardo reflected on the impact that his son’s job has had on so many people. “If Legado: Namuli had not come, there would already be no trees left. Sitting around the fire, we listen to the stories of what our children are learning and what they dream of for their futures. We are content and we want the future of our children to be successful.”

Read Filimonio’s story, as shared in our 2017 Annual Report.