The "One student, One tree" program
The students from Antanimora lower secondary school in the Boeny Region are actively involved
Raherinandrasana Steven Platino in the 9th grade and Raveloarisoa Holy Francisca in 8th grade, are students at Lovasoa Antanimora College of Marovoay School District, Boeny Region. This school is one of those that benefited from the “one student, one tree” programme funded by UNICEF and implemented jointly by the Regional Directorate of Environment and Sustainable Development and the Ministry of National Education. The project instils from an early age the values of the respect for the environment, especially for future generations.
Steven and Francisca stood out through their motivation in the environment-related topic, and their participation in all the activities of the programme among all the other students of the school.
A special mention for Francisca who memorized all the instructions. She is passionate about everything related to nature and the preservation of the environment. “I am touched by everything that is happening to our forests because of arson fires and other acts of vandalism, I have always wondered what I can do with the community to address this issue; and now thanks to the support from the Ministry of National Education and UNICEF, with all this material, I feel really comfortable, I wouldn't miss for anything in the world any of the activities related to this programme,” she said, “With the nurseries, I’ll see the young plants grow, and who knows, then we can all find some shade or pick the fruit…”
The Director of the college said, “We used to have initiatives, but for lack of means and knowledge, we could not go far, but since the insertion of the “one student, one tree” programme in our school, we have received adequate training with the equipment and the plants. There is also this nursery which is now used for the maintenance of young plants that will be used for reforestation. We’ve never seen this before and we didn’t even dare imagine it. Unlike what I saw before, it’s palpable and concrete. I think that now we can go further and try to honour this activity through care and maintenance …”
At the time of writing, the school received other seedlings through other donors, in addition to what it had previously received. This promises encouraging development for this activity in the district and perhaps even in others, as this is considered a start.
