Why donate a Spekboom plant?

• Our Spekbooms are home grown at our beneficiaries so you will be contributing to employment and generating income for underserved communities.
• Spekbooms are climate change superstars and aid in our collective fight against climate change.
• All donations contribute to Call 2 Care's mission to improve lives through education in underserved communities.
• Spekbooms are an extremely low maintenance and adaptable plant that will thrive in the hands of worthy recipients while respecting biodiversity.

What is the Spekboom for Climate Change Project?

Spekboom for Climate Change is a Call 2 Care project with the vision of battling climate change, reducing carbon footprint and greening & educating communities.

Spekboom is a South African succulent with some incredible properties. It is an edible, resilient plant which even has certain medicinal benefits. However, the benefit of Spekboom which sparked Spekboom for Climate Change is that it acts like a carbon sponge and can remove tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year. This impact on reducing our carbon footprint has motivated Call 2 Care to work towards getting as many Spekboom planted in as many areas as possible.

What are the Benefits of Spekboom?

Helps to fight climate change and air pollution

• Acts like a carbon sponge to soak up carbon dioxide in atmosphere, which improves the quality of air we breathe can absorb between four to ten tonnes of carbon per hectare
• Helps us move forward to a carbon free world
• Stores solar energy to perform photosynthesis at night
• This makes a Spekboom thicket 10 times more effective per hectare at carbon fixing than any tropical rainforest.

Edible for humans and wildlife

• Plant is nutrient rich with a especially high Vitamin C content.
• Spekboom flowers are nectar-rich and provide food for many insects (endangered bees).

Leaves can be used medically

• Sucking the leaves can quench thirst, treat exhaustion, dehydration and heatstroke
• Can crush the leaves to provide relief for blisters
• Chewing leaves can treat a sore throat and mouth infections
• Juiced leaves can be used as an antiseptic and to soothe skin aliments (pimples, rashes, insect stings, sunburn)
• Breastfeeding mothers can eat the leaves to increase their milk supply