350 Flowers

I designed this just two days before World Environment Day.
Coincidentally, the slogan 350 CO2 was in line with the theme of this
year’s WED. I organised a soccer match with another young environmental
group in town, and we stopped by the site and talk about what I wrote
in relation to the theme of WED. The match attracted many people from
the village, and I had the opportunity to answer many questions about
what CO2 350 PPM means.

The site is very strategic — it’s by the roadside and on a small
slope. It is about 100m sq., and located in the heart of the town. We
plowed the whole area and planted more than 50 roses seedlings from my
small nursery. I hope to put a small lawn behind the flower design and
plant a tree in the lawn with the community. By September, the flowers
will have adapted very well and the design will be able to be read from
a distance. I believe in symbolic and practical demonstrations like
this — it makes sense to me since climate change is impacting my
community. When the flower design is done, I will organize a talk about
it at our local community radio station. That is the joy of being a
volunteer to protect nature.

I am making arrangements for a 350 tree planting. We shall plant
fruit trees as well as ornamental trees. I thought of fruit trees
because besides helping with climate change, in the long run, it will
provide income for the community, especially to the SYFA volunteers.
Most of the natural trees will be planted in a spring catchment which
is still to be decided, and some in schools and churches. These trees
shall be bought from other nurseries out of Nkambe (about 180km on poor
roads). I am still to start my own nursery behind the new SYFA Resource
Center which we are aspiring to buy. We hope to plant all these trees
this June so that they can adapt before the rains go away in October.
If this planting is successful, I will choose another community to
carry out same exercise with youth and children of the area.

I understand that the beginning is always difficult, but bit by bit, we shall reach the top of the mountain one day.

Location