Supporting children’s education through baobab

Why do we go on and on about baobab?

Baobab, Unrooted’s “super-fruit” is harvested from the baobab tree and is present in all our products for that extra boost of nutrients. It is sourced from South Africa and Zimbabwe, and is fair wild certified, meaning this fruit is guaranteed to be ethically sourced and maintained.

Our baobab supplier works with over 5,000 men and women in rural areas of Zimbabwe and South Africa creating social programs, fair incomes, and environmental protection. Each segment of the supply chain of the fruit plays a crucial role in the livelihood of the communities and local environment. Unlike other capital and resource-intensive agricultural products, the baobab tree is a frugal contemporary and can survive completely naturally - despite its size - on very little water and nutrients. As baobab fruit is a wild harvested product, the harvesting process requires no expensive technical equipment or irrigation – only the workforce of collectors and their time is needed to collect the fruit.
In these regions it is mainly women who benefit from the additional income through baobab harvesting. This labour empowers women with a fair wage to pay for additional fees, household items or school fees. This business initiative also generates funds to new preschools for children who are in these communities.

Join the effort

By purchasing any of Unrooted’s products, you are directly and indirectly supporting the education and livelihood of the children of the baobab harvesting communities. The indirect support comes through investing in a system that creates a wage that is more than 2x higher than any other agricultural job in the area and empowers women who are statistically known to put their wage towards family needs like education and health.

At Unrooted we have partnered with Organic Africa and Bayoba to take it one step further by directly paying for the children of harvesting families to go to school indefinitely.

This initiative is currently sponsoring 41 school children of the baobab collectors in the South-Eastern and North-Eastern areas of Zimbabwe with scholarships for their school fees, which cost approximately $50 per year in Zimbabwe. The rural communities targeted live in extremely remote and arid parts of the country and are some of the most impoverished people in Zimbabwe. The children who have benefitted from this education programme come from the families most in need. Therefore, the payment of their school fees has made an enormous impact on their lives.

We hope that in purchasing our products they don’t just taste sensational, but make you feel sensational for the planet and for the people most closely connected to the baobab fruit itself. Please reach out to Hello@unrooteddrinks.com for any further questions or concerns you might have; we are always willing to hear how we can improve!