Zakwathu Ku Namitambo (ZKN) Trust, a group of individuals from Namitambo in Chiradzulu distributed tree seedlings to three schools which took their turn to plant around their premises.
The tree seedlings were distributed to Namitambo, Chingoma and Malowa schools after Wildlife Environmental Society of Malawi ( WESM) donated 430 tree seedlings to Zakwathu Ku Namitambo Trust upon request.
Zakwathu Ku Namitambo Trust members mostly from Blantyre and Zomba led tree planting exercise in the three schools on Saturday where the members together with the learners planted gresidia and caicia wa milimo among others.
Zakwathu Ku Namitambo Trust National Coordinator, Pachalo Namatumbo said the trust wanted to lead by example by encouraging learners to plant trees.
“Learners should learn the responsibility of planting and caring trees for future use. We want Namitambo to reafforestate this area, to ensure total forest cover” he added.
Namatumbo expressed hope that there will be high rate of tree survival considering that the trees are planted within school premises.
He therefore called on learners to take good care of the trees and said the trust will keep on monitoring the seedlings every time members visit Namitambo.
ZKN Trust was established to facilitate various development projects at Namitambo to uplift livelihood of people in the areas.
Speaking during the tree planting exercise, Namitambo Primary School Headteacher, Charles Majawa said the school was grateful for the donation saying this is in line with what the learners are taught.
“We encourage them to care for the environment. The donation is ideal for the learners and be assured that we will take good care of the tree seedlings,” he said.
He said once the trees grow, the school will use the fire wood for future School feeding programme while some will be sold,” Majawa said.
The school has some trees that were planted sometime back by former learners.
The headteacher therefore expressed optimism that the tree seedlings will grow to useful trees for the future and assured ZKN that each class will be assigned to take of the newly planted seedlings until they grow full trees ready for use.
Zakwathu Ku Namitambo distributed 130 seedlings to Namitambo Primary School, 150 seedlings to Chingoma school while Malowa received 150 seedlings.
Forestry Assistant, Brand Abraham, who is based at Traditional Authority Mpunga area in Chiradzulu said apart from providing shades, trees act as wind shield against strong winds that mostly blow off classroom roofs.
“They provide some shield against strong winds and this is why we encourage schools to avoid being in the open,” he said.
The Forestry Assistant therefore hailed ZKN Trust members for being patriotic to their home on issues of afforestation and other social protection issues.
During the current forestry season, people at Namitambo have received tree seedlings from One Acre Fund and from Chiradzulu District Council through Climate Smart Enhanced Public Works Programme to plant in hills and along streams to control land degradation.
Chiradzulu has many hills but most of them are bare following serious deforestation in the past.
