The Duke of Sussex, as we all know, is a conservationist through and through. He acquired his mother’s compassion for people, especially children, and his father’s passion for conservation.
He married a renowned feminist – Duchess Meghan – whose passions and advocacy are well documented. This duo, through their fervor for charities, and everything else in between, have managed to raise and ignite passions in me which I allowed to lay dormant. Some of my reasons (excuses to be honest) were “What good will it do?”, “This problem is insurmountable and besides nobody will come on board”…There are a lot more excuses but let me leave it here.
Whenever the opportunity arises, I will give a donation here and there and that will be it. This changed when I started paying attention to the amazing work that this Royal Couple do. Don’t get me wrong, giving is good and anyone who can should, but I am talking about a deeper awareness and need to be involved and to care. Duchess Meghan’s patronages are known and supported worldwide because of her hands on and can do approach, and she gets the job done. Likewise the Duke of Sussex who has an impressive body of charitable work. Thankfully, other people were also watching and taking note of what the Duke and Duchess were doing and wanted to help and support their initiatives and so a community of Sussex Supporters began.
Social media platforms were built from personal resources, with podcasts and blogs designed to debunk the lies and mistruths being told about the Duke and Duchess, particularly Duchess Meghan, and to shine a light on the incredible work they do. Outside of these platforms, the community of supporters have banded together and thrown their support fully behind the Sussexes and their initiatives: the support is not just in word but in deeds as well. Several fundraising drives have organically sprung up inside the supporter base and have been highly successful e.g. #GlobalSussexbabyshower.
This community of amazing men and women continues to grow from strength to strength and the latest initiative, #SussexGreatForest, proof of the power of grassroots organizing, has been conceived by 12 brilliant women within the Sussex squad. At the time of going to press, the campaign is well over 4,000 trees into its 10,000 tree goal!
Omid Scobie first reported on this heartwarming gesture in his November 20th 2019 article titled “Sussex Fans Launch Touching Campaign to Plant 10,000 Trees in Harry’s and Meghan’s Names”.
Trees are going up all over the world in honor of Prince Harry, Duchess Meghan, Baby Archie and of course, any future offspring the couple are blessed with. When posterity recounts this moment, may it be noted that a lovely couple in the face of incalculable efforts to impede, persevered in their dedication to caring about people and communities, and in the process energized a crop of doers for the sake of the collective. You can participate through the four selected tree-planting organizations, Tree Sisters, The Green Belt Movement, One tree Planted and International Tree Foundation or by going to the Sussex Great Forest webpage.
The Duke and Duchess have redefined for me what it means to be Royal and privileged. It is a caring, engaged, proactive and authentic model that I relate to and respect.
The fact that none of the organizers or participants are in any way obliged, yet fully invested is a testament to the inspirational power of this dynamic duo. Through them, a lot of us have come to know about some worthy charities/organizations, who some support on an ongoing basis. In a way, the supporters are using these drives to refocus the unprecedented attention that the Sussexes garner, onto what really matters- the causes that they work so hard to improve. It is a worthy answer to the cacophony of nonsensical gossip and tripe that the media are so intent on feeding their readers. For that, I say Ayekoo* to all Sussex supporters for all you do to lift this beautiful couple up and to contribute to our communities.
*Ayeeko means well done in Twi, a dialect of the Akan language, which is spoken in southern and central Ghana.
