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 cost of providing training in sustainable agriculture to three families in one of the six countries where Ripple Effect works in rural Africa, for one year. 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 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 have based the cost of your community Garden Twinning donation on providing training in sustainable agriculture to six families in rural Africa for one year helping to build a resilient community.  

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 add their details and address when adding to basket. You can edit those details from your basket page in case there were any mistakes.

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 £3 charge covers:

• Packaging materials (e.g., protective envelopes, boxes, eco-friendly wrapping).
• Postage costs for sending your gift safely.

We keep this charge as low as possible while ensuring your gift arrives securely.

We want to keep gift donation amounts transparent and ensure as much as possible goes directly to the projects you are supporting. By keeping postage separate, you can clearly see the difference between your charitable donation and the small fee that covers delivery.

Garden Twinning is only available to supporters in the UK. Unfortunately, we are unable to post Garden Twinning packs overseas. If Garden Twinning orders are placed with an overseas address, it will be treated as a donation only and a pack won't be sent.