An initiative to plant trees developed by teachers and students

After participating in the climate summit in Nairobi, a group of teachers have developed an initiative to involve students from different schools in a tree growing program.

Through a group dubbed Go Green for a Green World, 100 students with the help of their teachers will be Go Green ambassadors who will work with other schools to meet the strategic goals that the group has set to the year 2030. The students and teachers have been part of the environmental club at St. Terressa of Culcatta school. The club has now broadened it’s perspective to merge with other schools in order to achieve the set goals.

Chris Wandera the founder of the Go Green for a Green World says that they look forward to a great partnership with hundreds of schools around the country to champion tree planting from Early Childhood Development stage to the tertiary level where they have already started planting trees with university students within Nairobi.

“As Go Green we are foreseeing a green world facilitated by our students across the country. We have set a very high target for this initiative. The president looks forward to 10 billion trees by 2030 but for us we want to achieve 12 billion trees. This is achievable because we will commit ourselves as teachers and students across the country,” Wandera said.

According to the Go Green teachers the initiative was birthed after attending the Africa Climate Summit which called for collaborative efforts. The teachers now say that they will create a platform where more than 300 schools will be influenced and sensitized to plant and grow trees in their schools and other locations within their locality.

“We have started by setting an example in our own school. All the students in the Environmental Club have all planted at least 5 trees which they are growing them in school and at home.” Douglas Ochieng’ the Environmental Club patron explained.

“We have also sensitized the parents and they have taken the initiative positively in fact, the parents provide a video evidence on how the children are taking care of the trees. That is very encouraging. If we have such determination in the targeted number of schools, we are definitely going green by 2030,” added Douglas.

According to the club Patron, the school organize a monthly tree planting activities in different places where they put measures to make sure that the trees are being taken care of. In the past 2 months the students have planted trees at Isinya in Kajiado county and at an orphanage at Chokaa in the Eastlands of Nairobi.

“Our take home point from the Africa Climate Summit was make our environment green. Out of that we have equipped our students with the knowledge on how to take care of the environment and how to appreciate it. Today we are here to actualize that. We are encouraged as leaners and teachers to inculcate this it should be part of us all. We will make the world Green if we continue with these efforts,” Noela Anyango a Go Green member elaborated.

70 students together with their teachers visited KenGen Ngong Hill where they planted more than 300 trees with the help of Wild Life Officers within the premises. The Go green initiative challenged the ministry of education to also put into place a program where students can be able to learn and schools empowered with resources to go out there and participate in tree planting and environmental conservation activities.