Barefoot college

Barefoot college (Social Work and Research Centre) is an Non-governmental organization founded by Bunker Roy in 1972 at Tilonia, Rajasthan, India.The organization was started to solve grave problems like drinking water, girl education, health & sanitation, rural unemployment, income generation, electricity and power, as well as social awareness and the conservation of ecological systems in rural India.

Here's a note from their site on how they changed barren or desert-like land into a green place by Planting Trees.

"Most of the wasteland in Rajasthan is barren because of over grazing and desert-like conditions. The Barefoot College helps rural communities to regenerate this land. The College by providing seedlings from its nursery of drought-resistant trees, shrubs, and grasses, has developed more than 500 hectares of wastelands into pasturelands. The villagers had since 1980 taken up the responsibility of planting trees to develop the wastelands. These have now been handed over to the villagers who maintain them."

See how the trees are able to bring sea changes even to deserts. Once become trees these saplings hold the soil tightly preventing erosion. The roots as well as the fallen leaves then act as sponge to hold the rain water from easily evaporating and running away.