Greenheart’s Impact Grant awardees from the 2025 seasons share gratitude to the donors that helped make their projects possible.
Dear Greenheart Impact Grant Team,
I hope you are doing well.
I am writing this letter with a full heart to sincerely thank you for believing in me and in the vision behind the Olmekenyu Drops of Dignity project. Your support has gone far beyond funding—it has been a source of encouragement, trust, and possibility.
Through this project, we have taken meaningful steps toward addressing a very real challenge in the Olmekenyu community: access to clean and reliable water. What started as an idea is now something tangible—something people can see, touch, and benefit from. Watching the progress of the water tank construction and knowing what it will mean for families, especially women and children, has been deeply fulfilling.
This journey has not been without its challenges, but it has been incredibly rewarding. It has taught me resilience, responsibility, and the importance of community-driven solutions. Most importantly, it has reminded me that even small, intentional actions can create lasting change.
I am truly grateful to Greenheart for giving me the opportunity to turn this vision into action. Your support has made a real difference, and I carry that impact with me as I continue working toward sustainable solutions in my community.
Thank you for walking this journey with me.
With gratitude,
Naomy Chepkemoi
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Dear Greenheart Donors,
I am Ho Thi Kim Hang,project coordinator of Mekong Youth Climate Policy Lab (one of the programs under the youth organization “Cu Doi Xanh Changelife- https://www.facebook.com/cudoixanh.changelife/). Thank you for selecting our work for the Greenheart Global Impact Grant. I want you to know who you have invested in, and what your generosity has already begun to build.
My work started close to home. The Mekong Delta is my hometown, a region of more than twenty million people whose rice fields, fish, and drinking water all depend on a river system that climate change is steadily breaking down. Every dry season, saltwater pushes further inland. Every rainy season, the floods and landslides arrive harder than the year before. I watched neighbors lose harvests, and I watched young people my own age conclude there was nothing they could do about it. I disagreed.
My path back to that conviction ran through Greenheart. In 2025, I joined the Work and Travel program as a Greenheart Ambassador Scholar. That experience showed me what it means to serve a purpose larger than yourself, and it reminded me that opportunity given to one young person rarely stops there. I carried that lesson home. I began organizing because I believe the people closest to a problem deserve the tools to help solve it.
Through the work at Youth Organization, I learned I was not alone. A British Council survey found that 69% of Vietnamese youth want to act on climate change, yet most never get the chance. They have no access to climate science, no data literacy, and no real seat in the policy conversations that decide their future. Over the past few years our team ran more than twenty activities, worked directly with over 6,000 young people, and reached 145,000 more. Eight in ten told us their understanding had changed, and every one of them committed to greener habits. That response taught me something simple. The will is already there. What has been missing is the structure to channel it.
The Mekong Youth Climate Policy Lab is that structure, and your grant is what makes it real. From January 2026 to June 2026, we trained 30 core youth researchers, ages 18 to 24, through a full curriculum: climate science, climate justice, environmental management, policy and governance, and field-based research in their own communities. They gathered their own data, analyzed it, and presented it at our Green Generation Incubation Conference, producing a youth manifesto for the region’s future. Around them, our outreach has reached at least 5,000 more young people. These figures have faces for me. They are the next researchers, organizers, and advocates who will still be standing here long after the visiting experts have moved on.
Your grant funds a program. It also tells thirty young people, from a place too often written off as already lost, that someone halfway around the world believes their voice is worth investing in. That belief travels. As a Greenheart Ambassador Scholar who received that belief once, I now get to pass it on. It is the seed of a network that will keep growing long after this grant is spent.
On behalf of every young person who will walk into our first session because of you, thank you. I look forward to sharing their work, and their progress, with you in the months ahead.
With sincere gratitude,
Ho Thi Kim Hang
Project Coordinator of Mekong Youth Climate Policy Lab
Greenheart Ambassador Scholar, Work and Travel 2025
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Dear Donors,
I would like to express my deepest gratitude for your generous support, which made the Roots & Renewal: Environmental Action in Mali project a reality. Your contribution was not only a financial investment but also a sign of trust and belief in our mission to protect the environment and inspire community action.
Through your support, we successfully organized a community tree-planting event and cleanup activity that brought together local youth, students, and residents. Participants learned about waste management, climate change, and the importance of collective responsibility for our planet. Beyond planting trees, this project planted seeds of awareness and hope—reminding everyone that real change begins when communities unite for a common cause.
This experience has deeply motivated me to continue promoting environmental education and sustainability within my community. I am committed to transforming Roots & Renewal into a long-term initiative that continues to grow each year, expanding its impact through partnerships with schools, youth groups, and local authorities. With your continued encouragement and guidance, I believe this project can evolve into a lasting platform for environmental action and leadership development.
Once again, thank you for your invaluable support and for empowering young people like me to take meaningful steps toward a greener, more sustainable Mali. Your generosity continues to make a real difference—one tree, one community, and one action at a time.
With sincere appreciation,
Dolo Emmanuel
Project Leader – Roots & Renewal: Environmental Action in Mali
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Dear Donor,
My experience shows that change begins with small but consistent steps. Each lesson is not only
informative but also a new milestone in a child’s worldview. Each interaction between a teacher and a
volunteer is proof that the partnership between the state and civil society works. And every step forward in
developing a culture of volunteering in Ukraine is a contribution to the global network of solidarity and
cooperation.
I am sincerely grateful to Greenheart and those contributing for making this path possible. Your
support has brought to life thousands of new stories of change — in classrooms, in communities, and in the
hearts of young Ukrainians. And it is precisely these stories that shape a future where volunteering is not an
exception, but the norm, and where helping others is not an obligation, but an inner need.
With respect and gratitude,
Olena Vuzka-Malets
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If you are interested in supporting the Greenheart Impact Grants, please visit our donation page to learn more.