UGANDA: ‘Greening the School’ Project Continues to Make Progress Despite Covid19 Pandemic
Pine trees planted 2019 near Fatima Girls Comprehensive Secondary School premises-Aloi. courtesy photo
Isaac Ojok
The Education Commission at Uganda Episcopal Conference (UEC) Catholic Secretariat is implementing the tree planting drive in schools and other tertiary institutions across the country with the vision to preserve and rejuvenate the environment.
Under the theme ‘Greening the School’, the tree planting drive was launched in the year 2019 in Lira with support from the Ministry of Water and Environment and collaboration from other partners like Food and Agricultural Organization-FAO among others.
Rev Fr Ronald Okello the Executive Secretary for Education commission says the tree planting drive is intended to promote Laudato Si, the Encyclical letter of His Holiness Pope Francis given to awaken the people to protect our common home.
Pope Francis’s Encyclical Letter Laudato Si appealed to all people to take urgent action in tackling the environmental crisis by making a paradigm shift to allow all human beings to live sustainably in dignity.
In an interview with AMECEA correspondent when asked to comment about the progress of the initiative, he revealed that through the project, they intend to avail varieties of trees which are environmentally friendly but also beneficial to all Catholic founded Schools across the Country.
So far, Fr Okello noted that a total of 8 dioceses across the country have started to implement the drive in the first phase and plans are underway to extend the activities to the other dioceses in the country. Already implementing the program in the first phase are the Archdioceses of Tororo and Gulu and the Dioceses of Lira, Arua, Nebbi and Soroti.
According to Fr Okello, the implementation of the project went successfully in the first phase with a variety of trees already planted in about 15 thousand acres of land.
He went on to note that although the success of the program is already registered, plans to advance to other dioceses are being hampered by Coronavirus restrictions since all learning institutions in the country are temporarily closed to contain the spread of the virus among learners.
Although this is a challenge, he said it will not discourage the initial vision laid for every child in school to have at least a pair of trees planted in a bid to protect environment and preserve the ecological system.
Apart from bringing schools on board to implement the project, he disclosed that the plans are underway to extend the program to parishes among Small Christians Communities (SCCs) to enable them live in healthy and productive environment.
Another future plan, according to Fr Okello, is to empower the communities in a way through which they can mobilize resources that can aide them to remain self-reliant within their vicinities.
Relatedly, the government of Uganda in collaboration with other partners have been distributing tree seedlings to farmers under various projects with the intention to mitigate the erratic consequences of global warming and climate change.
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