My volunteering journey with ITF
Natasha Matsaert is a Masters student in Anthrozoology. She is also a Design Volunteer at ITF. In this blog post, she shares her love of trees and the environment and what led her to volunteering with us.
My journey with ITF started in Kenya - the origins of ITF and the country in which I too grew up. It was here that I heard about ITF’s work and became inspired to get involved in environmental conservation.
As a student I volunteered regularly in our local forest, Karura, planting trees and learning about flora and fauna. I have also visited and been educated by local guides on other forested regions of Kenya, including Kakamega, Arabuoko-Sokoke, Loita, Mt Kenya and the Aberdares.
My childhood is characterized by the smell of Eucalyptus, streets of purple jacaranda flowers, crimson baobab candy, and always, always the diligent sidestepping of acacia thorns. Indeed, my time in Kenya could be described as a ‘tree safari’.
I grew up in a family of tree lovers
My mother, Harriet Matsaert, started Tree Safari, a project that collects and shares interesting stories about Kenyan trees and forests and also sparks people’s interest in exploring these beautiful landscapes.
Studying Anthrozoology
My personal connection to Kenya, its forests and people has been my primary motivation behind volunteering with ITF, but I was also inspired to get involved due to my Master’s degree in Anthrozoology.
Anthrozoology is typically defined as the study of human-animal interactions, but its scope also naturally extends to include forms of nonhuman life such as plants and environments.
In my studies I have been particularly interested in urban greening/rewilding and affective human-plant relations that foster healing. I am hence both fascinated and inspired by ITF’s work to draw local people, trees, and wider nonhuman life together in respectful and sustainable ways.
Living well with the more-than-human world has never been more important. And trees – as centres of biodiversity and powerful symbols of unity and connectedness - can be seen as evocative anchors for such relating.
My time volunteering with ITF
Thus far in my time volunteering with ITF I have created a series of icons for an upcoming impact report. These icons will help to communicate the reasons why ITF plants trees. For instance, to improve livelihoods, increase biodiversity, and provide forest services. The icons will also visualise the organisation’s achievements in numbers, including quantities of trees planted and staff and volunteers trained.
The process of designing these icons has already taught me a great deal about who ITF is as an organization and its values.
This has helped me to develop my illustration and communication skills, and given me a better sense of what it is like to work within an environmental organization. It has been especially rewarding learning from the comms team about the demographic of the ITF family, its corresponding social media goals, and the execution of meaningful digital branding.
Volunteering has been a continuity throughout my life and is an act of giving which, in my experience (and with due risk of sounding cheesy), gives right back. As a volunteer I am lucky to be in a position where I can support and learn more about ITF’s important work whilst also developing the skills for a future career in communications.