CBC’s 10 Champions of Change series profiles exceptional volunteers who have contributed to bringing positive change to local and overseas communities.

The series uncovers some fantastic volunteering stories and provides a fascinating insight into the motivations behind volunteering abroad.

One such featured volunteer is Jeff Schnurr, a 25-year old ‘career tree planter’ from Canada. Jeff founded Community Forests International in 2008, which is an organisation that aims to restore ecologically degraded areas all over the world, but particularly in Tanzania.

R​eflecting on his community volunteer efforts Jeff explains: “To be honest, I’ve never really thought of myself as a volunteer, or what I do as charitable – to me the work I’m engaged in offers me a path for positive change, providing me with a meaningful way to interact with the people and places that surround me.”

For Jeff volunteering abroad stemmed from a search for meaining in his life. Aged 21, Jeff “was up against the pressures of early adulthood. What did I want to do with my life? What did I hope to achieve?… The quest for meaning, for purpose and the void it caused had me searching”.

Finding himself in Pemba in Tanzania, Jeff was asked whether he thought he “could plant trees as I’d done in Canada” and immediately “felt a new sense of place, a new sense of belonging.”

​Through many hardships, Community Forests International has successfully planted more than 300,000 trees in 14 rural communities in Pemba. Nowadays “the Pemba Trees project is what I do. The purpose and the meaning that comes from my efforts, and the people that work alongside me help sustain my vision. Together, we have been able to support the thousands of Pemban that now plant trees for timber, fruit and the countless ecosystem services they provide.”

Find out more about CBC’s Champions of Change on their website.

F​or more information on Inspire volunteer opportunities browse our volunteer work and destinations pages.