Our main focus was to visit and help in Nhambita, Mozambique, with a company called "Envirotrade" in the carbon trading business.  They have been working with CAA to erase their carbon footprint.

A carbon footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced. For CAA, this would include company air travel, cars, and all forms of energy consumption.

This has been done by planting thousands of trees, digging wells, and increasing African crop yields through the utilization of new fertilizers.

Envirotrade has made massive strides since CAA has become involved, and they have been able to purchase new tools, firefighting equipment to control wildfires, transport vehicles, and a new tractor.

There have been many improvements made, but the fact that now over 300 people in rural Mozambique have employment – is by far one of the greatest accomplishments.

The volunteers were taken on a tour of the entire project, learned about each aspect of the organization, and were then put to work!

Reforestation is central to CAA's carbon neutrality, and the volunteers worked directly in the fields to further that goal.

While in the Gorongosa National Forest, the volunteers spent days clearing the ground using local hand tools, dug holes to place the trees, and hauled in hundreds of trees to the work site - where they were all planted by hand.

Of the many accomplishments – all were in agreement that spending time with the locals was by far the highlight, and hopefully the bridges that were built will create a partnership that will only grow and develop.

With this experience, we hope to bring about greater awareness, expand our responsibility to the environment, and enable further opportunity.