Three Roots & Shoots stories, from Belgium, Guatemala and Israel, show how differently #HopeInAction can look around the world, and how much it shares at its core: Noticing what a community needs and acting on it.
Paula, from a Roots & Shoots group in Belgium, developed a pollinator project from scratch. She planted wild flowers in schools, presented on the role pollinators play, and ran a card game she designed herself to bring the topic to life for younger students.
The hands on approach caught attention: Paula was invited to join the Roots & Shoots retreat in Malaysia, where she met young people from across the programme doing similar work in their own corners of the world. A self made card game and a trip to Malaysia is not a bad outcome for a school wildflower project.
Two Roots & Shoots groups in Guatemala have been quietly getting on with the work of caring for their environment and their community.
The Einstein Ecoclub spent 2025 focused on environmental education with children and adolescents, producing organic fertilisers and disseminating native seeds as part of community educational processes. Their work promotes the care of soil and local resources, and indirectly contributes to the wellbeing of local fauna by promoting healthier ecosystems.
Meanwhile, the Guardians of the Planet group took a family centred approach, involving whole families in waste classification and the reuse of plastic bottles to produce and sell pots, promoting responsible habits and a productive family activity.
Two students. Two Bedouin elders. Seventy years of development and a lot of knowledge at risk of being lost.
As part of their Roots & Shoots human services course, the students sat down with Bedouin elders to document their understanding of medicinal plants, natural history and ecosystem services, asking specifically what younger generations need to learn, and why it still matters. The recordings are now being shaped into a storytelling exhibit at Yezreel Valley College.
What the students took away was something harder to quantify: The realisation that preserving cultural identity and ecological restoration are not separate things. They are the same work.
If you feel motivated by these stories, you can be part of this global movement.
Find your local Roots & Shoots office and take action today—by joining a group or starting your own. Together, we can build a more compassionate and sustainable world.
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