
Malindi parish, which is under the Anglican Diocese of Upper Shire, has planted trees to mitigate the impact of environmental degradation in the area.
Speaking during the tree planting exercise which occurred on Sunday at Malindi in Mangochi, Parish priest reverend Njalam’manu Banda said that the tree planting exercise is very important because it replaces the trees which were cut down and also teaches children in the church the importance of trees and role they should have in environmental conservation.
“Our mission centre is on the foot of the hill and the beach of the eastern shores of Lake Malawi, people have vandalised the trees. Every rainfall season, we have floods which create galleys everywhere; our place has become so risky, so we have decided to plant trees every season to reduce the challenges we are facing,” said Banda.
He continued saying that they have planned to plant more than 1000 trees around the mission areas, which cover the churchyard of St Martin Hospital, all schools around the mission and St Martin workshop.
Speaking on behalf of church members, Mercy Makumba said that they will protect the trees they have planted as the bibcommandsands them.
“Genesis 1 verse 26, God gave us the power to protect everything that was created, including trees. We are very excited as a church for the exercise that was led by our church priest; because of that, we will make sure that these trees are being well protected, and the exercise that happened today should be done every year, as the priest said,” she said.
So far they have managed to plant more than 500 trees around the mission on this day.
By Tiwamyeni Hanken Boma