Garden twinning

Garden Twinning was inspired by our supporters’ love of gardening, and the life-changing effect gardening can have on the lives of families we work alongside in rural Africa.

We don’t link individual donations from Garden Twinning to specific gardens, as the cost of administering this would reduce how much we are able to spend on delivering life-changing training to families living in poverty. Rest assured that every pound you donate, will go towards supporting our life-saving training supporting farmers to grow their families out of poverty.

We have based the cost of your Garden Twinning donation on the accurate cost of providing training in sustainable agriculture to a family in one of the six countries where Ripple Effect works in rural Africa, for a three-year period. This is an example of what your money could achieve, but your donation will be used wherever the need is greatest to make a real difference to the lives of families living in some of the poorest parts of rural Africa.

The first 1,500 gardens twinned support our Women of Migori project Kenya where we are working alongside families so they can grow enough to eat from their gardens, set up small business and go after their dreams. Subsequent twinning gardens support our wider work across rural Africa with the donation representing the accurate cost of supporting a family for a 3-year period. 

The families we work with focus on growing diverse and vitamin-rich varieties such as sweet potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, spinach and squash to name a few. Often families also grow African leafy vegetables such as black night shade, spider weed and jute mallow.

If you tell us you’d like to receive ongoing emails from us, we’ll continue to keep you updated on the impact of your donation and further ways to get involved. This will include how gardening can be life-changing for the families we work alongside, plus tips on how to make the most out of your own garden. We are unable to give you information on specific family's gardens as the cost of administration would be too high.

When you receive your Garden Twinning plaque, you’ll also receive a planting guide which references the plants grown across our projects in rural Africa, plus some techniques farmers are using their gardens. You’ll also receive a QR code to access a webpage on our website with further information.

We have based the cost of your Garden Twinning donation on the accurate cost of providing training in sustainable agriculture to two families in rural Africa for a three-year period.

You will also receive a garden twinning certificate to put up in your community space and have the opportunity to book a speaker to bring the work of Ripple Effect to life.

By Garden Twinning, you are joining a community of gardeners who are kindly supporting our projects in rural Africa. We hope our Garden Twinning pack will inspire you to grow more in your own garden, plus learn more about how the families in rural Africa we work alongside are changing their own lives through growing. You’ll also receive a plaque in recognition of your gift to show off in your garden – we hope you’ll tell you friends!

Online – you can order here on our website using your debit or credit card.

Cheque – if you have received an order form in the post you can return this and pay either using your debit or credit card, or with a cheque made payable to Ripple Effect.

Telephone – you can call our friendly supporter care team on 01225 874 222 from Monday to Friday 9am-5pm.

Your plaque will be made from sustainable timber resources and all other printed items are produced on paper from sustainably managed forests. We hope that our supporters will enjoy learning from their resources, but we’d also love it if they were shared with friends or recycled after use.

Please note that we will aim to dispatch gift orders within 5 working days of your order being placed, so please order in advance to avoid disappointment.

Our plaques are not personalised but have the following text:

'This garden is twinned with another in rural Africa.

Growing side by side to plant hope for the future.'

Yes – all you have to do is change the delivery address as you go through the checkout process.

You will receive an automatic confirmation via email that your order has been placed.

We will send you a hook with your plaque, so you are able to hang it on a wall. However, the plaques also stand up by themselves if you wish to display on a shelf or window ledge.

The Gift Aid system allows Ripple Effect to reclaim the tax on all Garden Twinning donations from UK taxpayers. Ripple Effect can claim 25% back on every donation/garden twinned i.e., £15 on top of your £60 donation – at no extra cost to you!

You can make a Gift Aid declaration to Ripple Effect if you are a UK taxpayer by completing the Gift Aid details when making payment on our website or using a paper order form.

The idea of Garden Twinning is that you display your plaque in your garden or home. We hope you’ll show it off with pride, and that your friends might be inspired to twin their gardens too, raising further funds to help more families in rural Africa to grow enough to eat and plant hope for the future.