The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times(32)

Jane told me that Patricia and Jason started by working out ways to reconnect the young people of Pine Ridge with nature and their culture. They got a group to help remove trash and start a small organic garden. They wanted to teach them about traditional foods and medicinal plants. “They revived the traditional Hidatsa or ‘three sisters’ plots,” Jane explained, “planting corn, beans, and squash together.” These plots produce plentiful high-quality yields with minimal environmental impact. The corn provides the support for the beans to climb; the beans replenish nutrients in soil; and the large squash leaves provide living mulch and serve to provide shade, conserve water, and control weeds.

“During that first season everything flourished on the little plot. The corn grew to be six feet tall, but just as the kids were getting excited to harvest it, one of the Roots & Shoots members had an especially difficult weekend—he had a meltdown. He broke through the fence and cut down and trampled all the corn.


Patricia Hammond taught the Roots & Shoots groups in the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota about traditional plants, working with the elders. (JASON SCHOCH)



“Patricia told me she felt like giving up,” Jane said. “Instead, she and Jason and the Roots & Shoots kids mended the fence and started again. Patricia and Jason ultimately created twelve community gardens and three farmers markets for the community. She said the gardens helped her community reconnect with the land once again and feel hopeful and joyful.

“I think that the three pillars of Roots & Shoots,” Jane concluded, “helping people, animals, and the environment—really tie in with the ancient belief of many indigenous people that we are all one.”

When the youth began planning and helping with projects, those who joined the program gained a sense of purpose and self-worth that they had lacked. “Roots & Shoots really made a difference,” Jane added. “Many members graduated from high school and a couple went on to university. And Jason and Patricia are still nurturing and expanding their work on the reservation.”

“It is inspiring,” I said, “that the program can make a difference even in a community where so many other programs have failed to help.”

Jane smiled. “I think it’s successful for a whole variety of reasons,” she said. “Firstly, because the young people get to have a say in their activities. It’s a bottom-up movement. And if they choose a project, then they work at it with great enthusiasm and passion. Secondly, most of the groups are in schools, and all the teachers who agree to get involved do so because they are inspired by the concept—that it is a program that embraces all the concerns and interests of the different members of the group. There are always some students who want to help and learn about animals, some who are most concerned with social issues, and some who are passionate about their environment. In addition, it links young people from different countries and is a great way of learning about other cultures.”


The children of Pine Ridge have taken to gardening with pride and delight. (JASON SCHOCH)



The more Jane spoke about these kids, the more animated she became.


Chinese university Roots & Shoots students visiting a child with cancer, bringing toys and telling stories. (JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE/CHASE PICKERING)



“All these young people are changing the world for the better every day,” she continued, “and every time they accomplish their project successfully, their feeling of empowerment increases, and they become more self-assured. And because we are always looking to partner with other youth organizations that share our values, the students become more and more hopeful that together they will succeed. And again and again, they achieve the hoped-for outcome.”

Jane’s stories affirmed that when we feel we can make a difference, and we’re given the means to do so, positive outcomes can happen that in turn allow hope to prevail. It was a powerful example of what the research had found contributes to hope: clear and inspiring goals, realistic ways to realize those goals, a belief that one can achieve those goals, and the social support to continue in the face of adversity.

Jane told me another story of hope in a desperate place, a camp for Congolese refugees run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees—UNHCR—in Tanzania. She explained that Roots & Shoots was first introduced into the huge camp by an Iranian staff member of UNHCR, but he left after a short time and three young Tanzanian volunteers, one after the other, had continued the task. “They coped with endless bureaucracy, were given a tiny bare space as an office and somewhere to live, and eventually got Roots & Shoots groups into several of the schools.” She said they also organized and got funding for programs to teach the members skills—like organic vegetable gardening, hairdressing, cooking, and raising chickens, which eventually successfully replaced illegal hunting for bushmeat.

“On one of my visits, each Roots & Shoots family was gifted a hen and a cockerel,” Jane explained. “We knew the animals would be well looked after because their children had learned how to feed them and keep them safe at night. During the day they pecked around the houses. For both parents and children these gifts were seen as precious—they had so few possessions. And soon these hens would produce chicks, and they would get a little flock and have the luxury of adding eggs to their handouts of rice and cassava. Of course, our Roots & Shoots groups were providing fresh vegetables, too.”