Case study: How trees helped Sultan

"I can give my children nutritious fruit to eat." Sultan, Bangladesh 

Sultan lives in a refugee camp in Bangladesh with his wife and daughter. The camp has suffered extremely high temperatures and it can be hard to find food or make a living. 

CAFOD’s local experts provided mango and plum saplings to Sultan who has been growing them in his front yard ever since. The trees provide shade from the hot summer sun and somewhere to keep cool. As the trees develop, they will grow fruit to provide him and his family with nutrition they would normally struggle to find. They can also sell any wood from the trees for money or use it as firewood to cook their food. 

Sultan enjoys looking after his fruit trees and watching them grow. When he and his family are able to leave the camp, he plans to leave the trees for the people still living in the camp to make the most of. He hopes they will continue to provide cooling shade and nutritious food for the people who live there after them. “It is a good deed to plant trees”.