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Blog by MBP Reforestation Volunteer, Hilary

 

Planting with Students in the Kianjavato commune

 

EPP Kianjavato students with trees6_HilaryHamilton
Photo courtesy of Hilary

 

Everyone loves a field trip. That’s a fact. But the excitement we’ve been met with the past month when planting with children from local schools, you’d think they were on their way to Disney World. Once a year MBP’s Reforestation Team organizes planting events for each school in the Kianjavato commune. In total, there are nine schools which span a twenty kilometer distance from Tanambao Besakay, a very small village near Vatovavy, all the way to Ambohitsara on the other side of Kianjavato. Not only are the kids happy for the chance to get out of the classroom and plant trees, but the teachers, too are excited for the events because it gives each school the chance to earn credits from the Conservation Credit program, which they can save up and redeem for solar panels.

Preparations for planting were pretty much the same as other events with holes being dug and filled in the days leading to the events. Generally we assumed each child could plant ten trees and determined our total based on the number of students participating but for the most part they could have planted at least double. The kids have been hard working and the Reforestation Team has sworn that the students better at planting than the people we sometimes hire.

For our first event, we were joined by Victoria and she, Donovan and I went into the field early with the rest of the team to place seedlings before the children arrived. Things were business as usual until we heard in the distance the faint sounds of the “Rahampitso-rama” (a song about the future of conservation) coming towards us and all of a sudden a sea of children crested the hill with Fredo leading the way. The plan was to divide students into groups of ten each led by a reforestation team member and Victoria soon found herself in charge of teaching ten students how to plant trees, only five minutes after learning herself. Despite the group of children being very young, they worked quickly and were as most children are, keen to impress us with their planting skills.

None of the planting events went badly, but certainly as we started planting with older children, the events became a little more challenging. Instead of singing Rahampitso-rama they were singing Barinjaka and at times a little less focused, but they were still eager to show us what they knew about planting trees and reforestation. We had children from EPP Kianjavato write sentences about the planting event and while almost everyone said they wanted to plant more trees, there were also some very intelligent responses that showed their understanding of the importance of the forest to their futures. One student wrote, “If all of these trees will be a forest in the future, we will be very happy in Kianjavato. It is good that we now know how to plant trees. It is good to plant because we can save our future.”

Already we’ve planted 8,823 trees with the students and should reach over 10,000 by the time the events are complete. I’m a little sad to know I’ll only be a part of two more planting events with the schools because it’s as enjoyable for me as it is for the students. The entire atmosphere of these events is lighter than regular events and leaves you with optimism for the future of the Kianjavato forest. Another student wrote “…when I am older I can see the lemurs go where we planted. When I am old I will have security for my future,” and I hope the student’s ambition for his future will reached in the not so distant future.

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