The opportunity to plant 200 indigenous trees was taken up with enthusiasm by learners and teachers at the school. Mr DL Naidu, the Life Sciences teacher, coordinated the Arbour Week activities, with themes around the environment covered through performances of poetry, singing and plays put on by each class. Issues such as climate change, global warming, and the important role of trees in the environment were addressed.
“We decided to highlight Arbour Week to our learners and help them understand the importance of trees all year round. Young people need to be aware of issues affecting their environment and not to take nature for granted. The donation of the trees was fantastic as it afforded us the opportunity to green our school and combine it with teaching about the environment,” said Mr Naidu.
As part of the Wildlands Conservation Trust’s vision of “A Sustainable Future for All”, the Indigenous Trees for Life programme affords poor and vulnerable communities the opportunity to purchase food, clothes, education support, building material, water tanks, solar water heaters, solar powered lighting and bicycles, all while growing indigenous trees to assist in conservation initiatives.
With support by companies such as Game, the project runs in over 24 communities, with 3500 tree-preneurs growing and trading over 350 000 trees a year, which are then planted back into the community or in reforestation programmes run by Wildlands.
Siphesihle Secondary School is just two years old and severely under-resourced, and Wildlands would like to appeal to anyone who can help the school with paper supplies and support with photocopier maintenance, to contact Simone Dale on 033 3436380 or e-mail her atsimoned@localhost/import-data-post .
Picture: Siphesihle Secondary School learners get stuck in planting over 200 trees during Arbour Week, learning about the value of trees to the environment.
Picture credit: Wildlands Conservation Trust
WILDTRUST (registered as the Wildlands Conservation Trust - IT No: 4329/1991/PMB)