My 20 Trees and Me launches in Nakuru County, Kenya

Project update

25 Apr

Written By International Tree Foundation

Back in December ITF took part in The Big Give Christmas Challenge to raise funds for our ‘My 20 Trees and Me: Growing Up Together ’ project in Kenya.

We told the stories of Ruth, Denis, Fridah and Clinton – four children from Mount Kenya intent on planting trees to improve their natural environment and their future.

Thanks to many generous donations, we raised £10,390 in early December. This figure rose to £11,435 in February. With this funding, we’ve launched our ‘My 20 Trees and Me’ project with an additional 10 schools in a new area of Kenya in partnership with the youth-led, self-help group, Globe Gone Green.

Images from Globe Gone Green’s past school projects

This project aims to engage children in tree planting within their school grounds and help them develop an understanding of the local and global importance of trees and forests.

The project will work with children aged 6-17 years in Nakuru County. The participating children will help to plant 10,000 trees, 6,500 of which will be indigenous species.

We believe it is important to plant indigenous trees, which bring many benefits to local ecosystems and biodiversity. Non-indigenous trees are often preferred by local farmers as well as schools, because they grow quickly and can provide timber and firewood. Teaching children the importance of conserving Kenyan trees is key to this project, and we hope this will influence the children as they grow up and manage their own farms.

One native species that will be planted is Croton megalocarpus, a tree which plays an important role in ecosystems; it helps with soil conservation and provides shade and protection from wind.

5,000 children will gain environmental education and learn tree planting skills, which they can carry forward to help them plant trees at home in the future.

The children will also be taught how to care for their trees as they grow, regularly watering and weeding the seedlings they have planted. This will ensure the best possible survival rate for the seedlings planted in the schools.

Thank you to everyone who pledged or donated to this campaign, your generosity will make a difference to the education of thousands of children, allowing us to implement projects like this one with Globe Gone Green. We hope to announce new schools projects soon, funded through our Big Give Christmas Challenge Campaign.