Volunteer for a startup restoring land and empowering rural African communities 🌳

Rural Watch Africa Initiative (RUWAI) We restore degraded landscapes and empower rural communities with sustainable agriculture, beekeeping, and green livelihoods.

RUWAI tackles the urgent, interconnected challenges of deforestation, climate change vulnerability, and rural poverty in Africa. Many rural communities rely on unsustainable practices like slash-and-burn farming and illegal logging, leading to widespread land degradation, soil depletion, and increased desertification. This vulnerability, coupled with limited resources and high unemployment, forces many—especially youth and women—into destructive practices, worsening food insecurity and biodiversity loss, including the rapid decline of critical pollinators like bees.

RUWAI employs a holistic, community-driven solution focusing on Sustainable Agroforestry and Land Restoration through large-scale tree planting and Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). They promote Sustainable Beekeeping to protect pollinators and create an alternative income source, and train smallholder farmers in Climate-Smart Agriculture and regenerative techniques to boost food security. Furthermore, RUWAI focuses on Economic Empowerment by creating green livelihoods through agro-processing, eco-tourism, and microfinance, with a special focus on empowering women. By integrating these strategies, RUWAI restores ecosystems, builds climate resilience, and creates sustainable economic opportunities, ensuring that rural communities and nature can thrive together.

Role (Volunteer, unpaid): Graphic Designer

Role Description: Rural Watch Africa Initiative (RUWAI) is seeking a passionate and creative Volunteer Graphic Designer to support our communications, campaigns, and community-impact projects.

We are looking for someone with strong visual design skills and in-depth knowledge of modern graphic design tools and workflows to help us translate ideas into impactful visual concepts.

Responsibilities:

• Design high-quality graphics for social media, reports, campaigns, and events
• Support branding, visual storytelling, and project communication
• Collaborate with the RUWAI team to translate ideas into visual concepts
• Ensure consistency with RUWAI’s brand identity

Required Skills & Tools:

• Adobe Creative Cloud Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign)
• CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
• Figma / Adobe XD (for UI/UX and digital layouts)
• Canva (advanced use)
• Affinity Designer / Affinity Photo
• Motion graphics tools such as Adobe After Effects or Blender (optional but valuable)

Who We’re Looking For:

• Someone creative, reliable, and able to meet deadlines
• A designer passionate about community development, climate action, and impactful storytelling
• A volunteer who wants to build their portfolio while contributing to meaningful rural development work

Time Commitment: Volunteer 10+ hours per week for 6+ months remotely 💻

If you want to make change, apply to volunteer with RUWAI!