“I always had this passion, and we had a network of youth who knew about the challenge, (climate change) and were burning with desire, however nobody could take the bold first step. After this course and the seed funding from PTLS.  That was where the spark started and now… We have more young people volunteering, more communities adopting the vision and the impact is tremendous.” – John Geraji Jacob

Since earning his certificate in Climate Justice and Faith in 2025, John Geraji Jacob’s class project to plant trees in his native Taraba Province in Nigeria has expanded to unite hundreds of young adults from different religions to work together to improve their land, water, and community through planting trees. This project is not only greening the region, it is building interfaith dialogue and relationships that strengthen the fabric of society.

John is a member of the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria, where he volunteers as a worship and youth group leader. When he heard about the opportunity to join the Certificate in Climate Justice and Faith program, he was intrigued with the opportunity to connect with a global community, “to form a synergy of friends have the same vision and goal. Everybody will do nothing if nobody does something.”

For his final project called a Sacred Action Project John knew that he wanted to bring together youth from various organizations he’d been involved with over the years to work together to improve their community. He launched Greening Taraba to create a uniting movement that youth from all backgrounds could join to help fight deforestation. Taraba is a province in northeastern Nigeria nicknamed “Nature’s Gift to the Nation” because it is known for its lush forests and clean water. However, since 2002 the province has lost 18% of its total tree cover (source, globalforestwatch.org).

With a seed grant from the Center for Climate Justice and Faith, John has organized a network of 400+ youth from a variety of schools and community groups to join the Greening Taraba program. These youth meet monthly to pick up garbage in their community and have planted more than 100 trees in deforested areas to reduce the risks of flooding and landslides. Greening Taraba has launched Green Clubs in schools to bring students together to give them ownership over the trees they planted and create a lasting culture of caring for creatin in the school. One of the students recently told Simon, “I am happy that I’m part of this team. At first, I didn’t think we could do anything significant, but now I see the progress we have made and now I am sure we can do anything.”

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