Hello everybody,

Thank you so much for the kind donations that were made. We will put the money to use in a very transparent and clear way, so you can follow every single cent that comes in and goes out, and how it is spent.

Our mission in Global Tree Initiative (GTI) is to improve people’s lives in general. Of course, there has to be an action first, in order to start the whole reaction chain, so planting trees is the first step. It is active compassion towards earth and every sentient being, without any expectation in return.

That is true generosity.

From there, starts a whole new process of lifestyle, attitude, ways of relating to the world, and relating to oneself.

It starts with very basic things, like when you go shopping, you take your own bag so you don’t have to take an extra plastic bag home.

You buy local, right? You try to use less water when you wash the dishes, brush your teeth, or flush the toilet. Very basic things that may look insignificant, but in the long run, they do improve many things. Also, you will feel better with yourself. You feel conscious about your existence and the result of your existence. There is a consequence for our existence, you know? So our attitude is really important.

If we have a non-caring, egoistic, selfish attitude, we are going to be huge consumers with a huge carbon footprint, without any kind of actual conscious-caring for the environment and the future of our children.

One thing is to live the moment, and another thing is to literally ignore the future, by living the moment. By being so attached to ignoring, we focus so much on what we want in the moment, that we don’t really care.

What GTI really wants to help us understand and participate in, is an adaptation to nature and not the other way around, where we force nature to adapt to us, and even then, we are still not happy. So, it is very important to make this transition.

For the future of GTI, for me, I would love to create products that are eco-friendly and long-lasting. For example, children’s toys, clothes, cleaning products, organic and biodegradable bottles, etc. so we can actually be able to make GTI sustainable, and so we can keep it moving, keep it going, and keep it functioning, even after we are not here. We also have to stop single-use plastics.

For me, truly, the new religion is taking care of Mother Earth, the Pachamama, and ensuring that we are going to survive as a race, you know? Otherwise, we can be great Dharma practitioners or Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jains, any kind of religion, or even just have a warm heart, but it is not enough. Today, what we really need, is to unite.

All religions have to come together, all warm-hearted people have to come together, everybody who actually has just a little bit of feeling that “maybe, we can do better”.

That is the purpose of GTI, to bring everybody together. To create a global community of conscious citizens that will not take “no” for an answer. We need to make changes, and we need to be able to affiliate with other like-minded organizations, so that eventually our voice, the collective voice, will have to be heard by the governments and the politicians, and also the big companies and corporations. For me, without ethics, there should not be any business. Business should be an ethical concept and anything you buy should be passed through a certain checking zone to demonstrate that the product is not harmful to the environment or sentient beings, in the long run.

How many children’s toys are so bad and full of plastics and liquids? They break and create more pollution, more plastic, and we are not conscious of it because we don’t have a certain education. So, part of GTI is to create that education, to offer that education, to train people, and to share that information with people.

There is so much more to it than planting trees. Trees are just the beginning. It is just the tip of the iceberg! There is so much more behind it.

I want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, not just from myself, but the whole team, future generations, and Mother Earth.

The trees that have been planted and dedicated in collaboration with GTI have an estimated 70% survival rate. Most of the trees that have been planted will grow and will probably survive way beyond our lifetime. So, the impact is much larger than we can ever phantom or imagine.

Thank you so much, and hopefully, we won’t have to fundraise or ask for donations once we have a few sustainable, eco-friendly businesses that can actually create and replace many of the products we use every day, which are not beneficial for the environment, and also create bad karma for us, you know? Because, I mean, it is one thing if we don’t know, but it’s another thing if we know, but we are still doing it. Then, the karma is even worse even though we have a good intention. Sometimes, the intention and the action must go together.

It is also self-compassion to take care of oneself and to love oneself, it reflects in loving others and taking care of others. So, taking care of the environment is also very helpful to create self-love, and self-healing.

Tenzin Ösel Hita