Planting trees along the river

Our primary school children took part in a tree-planting exercise along the Mudi river - a river that runs through Blantyre City and which for many years, has been heavily polluted. Trash accumulated along its banks, under the bridges, and literally in the river waters. The children learnt about the ‘Mudi river clean-up’ project, launched by small civic-society organizations.

They saw by themselves the devastating impact of years of pollution: hundreds of bags of trash (clothes, shoes, plastic and glass bottles, etc.) have already been taken out of the river; the waters are green in color due to the pollution by local factories and the smell is strong; trees have been depleted; and there is no fish, no frogs swimming in the river. The children learnt about composting, sorting out trash in order to recycle it and turn it into art, and how to plant trees on the banks of the river. At Jacaranda School for Orphans, we have an environment program whereby children learn how to grow seedlings and then plant them in our Jacaranda educational forest. We regularly reach out to our local communities and the city authorities to take part in tree planting exercises. We plant over 10,000 trees every year - in the hills around Blantyre that are affected by deforestation and soil erosion; as well as in villages in rural areas. We also teach our children about permaculture - compost making - and recycling.

We donated 400 tree seedlings to the Mudi River Clean Up campaign. And we will keep on taking groups of our children to take part and learn on how to protect their rivers and their environment.