Meet Feston

I want to tell you about one of our newest VBT members, Feston Bigirimana (pictured above). Feston grew up in Rwanda in a grass hut he shared with his mother and his grandmother. His parents couldn’t read or write and they survived, in poverty, by growing what they ate on a small plot of land.

Despite these challenges, Feston’s mother prioritised her son’s education and at the age of 9 he started primary school. He found he was regularly top of his class, leading to him being picked out by a Christian child sponsorship programme.

Fast-forward to now, and Feston is just about to complete his university degree while also launching the Global Green Project. His new not-for-profit organisation aims to help schoolchildren from his local district of Kayonza plant their own tree-beds, helping to fight climate change but also giving the local communities an income source as they sell the fruits of the trees they plant. Each tree costs $1 to plant and they want to plant 50,000.

I’ve just got off a Zoom call with Feston and his enthusiasm is contagious. At the moment the thing he needs the most is exposure – which is why I’m telling you about him now – but I wanted to share Feston’s story because it shows that it’s not geography that connects us at Vegan Business Tribe, but our shared ethics. Feston found me on LinkedIn after looking for other vegan professionals to connect with.

And that’s what makes our business movement what it is. It’s doesn’t matter if you are a vegan travel agent in the US or a vegan entrepreneurial climate activist in Africa, we are all on the same mission and share the same ethics. And the fact that we can connect and offer each other support, even if we are thousands of miles apart, is what’s so amazing about this tribe.