Six School Tree Nurseries

             Prunus Africana, Leucaena Leucocephala, and Acacia Angustissima. The Prunus is a medicinal plant and would raise money for the school and the Leucaena and the Acacia are both agroforestry species and could be used to improve the soil fertility of the school gardens or provide some shade for the school yard.

Over the course of April and May I worked with ERuDeF to establish six tree nurseries, each at a school that ERuDeF had either already worked with or was planning to start working with in the near future. First I went around and introduced myself to each of the schools that we were planning to work with and to introduce the idea of creating a tree nursery with them. Then, on the next visit that I made to the schools, I described the program, what the school was expected to contribute, and the species of trees that we would be planting. We had to plan and do all of this very quickly because exams were going to be starting soon and once that happened all of the teachers and students would be too busy to do anything else. We asked the schools to contribute the land for the nursery (since the trees, once planted would become theirs), the fence and shelter, and we asked for some students who were interested to help us plant on the day of planting. We planted

               So we had everything ready to go, most of the schools were close to finished with their shelters, the seeds had arrived, and we were hours from planting when the seeds got locked into the office of one who went to the field and would be gone for a week! So, I had to rush around to all of the schools and reschedule the day of planting at each school. Many of them were not happy about having to reschedule on such short notice but we did it. It was ok and it worked out.

               When the person returned from the field I got the seeds and we did the planting. Preceding the planting at each school Emmanuel (an ERuDeF employee) and I gave a short lesson on the environment and the importance of trees.

               Here are some pictures and some specifics about the planting at each school.

We started at GTHS (Government Technical High School):

The soil was tougher than we had thought at first so the tilling was difficult. The students wanted to take the seeds home to plant them at their houses.

The second school was Standard Primary School:

The girls were chosen by the teachers to help with the tilling and the boys were sent for palm fronds to finish the shelter. They were very interested in the tree planting.

The third school was CS Fontem (Catholic School of Fontem):

 

The students were very excited to plant trees but then it poured! This is after the rain but we are all soaked because we had to finish the shelter in the pouring rain and till the soil! It was cold! Most of the school got to help in the planting.

The fourth school was CS Menji (Catholic School Menji):

The students came prepared with their hoes. As we did the planting they were good at staying organized, though there were so many students that wanted to help we had to keep switching out so that everyone could do something.

The fifth school was GBHS (Government Bilingual High School):

So many students showed up to help with the planting here; we had to send some away because there were simply too many in the area. We ended up with around fifty. Many of the neighborhood children that I know were among the group from this school.

The sixth school was Our Lady Seat of Wisdom:

This is a school that was established by a group of Italians following the Folkari movement. It is a private school. We worked with the Environmental Club. The club had nearly fifty members so we worked with just a selection of students from the club.