By Moses Nyirenda

Lilongwe, February 25, Mana: Rotary Club of Lilongwe-Lingadzi is on a mission to plant 100,000 trees this year in schools and communities, among other places, across the country in order to address deforestation in the country.

The club’s President, Giorgia Prizzon, made the remarks Saturday when her club, in partnership with Youth Progressive Environmental Solutions (YPES) and Ladder to Learning, planted 500 trees at Kambewe Primary School in Lilongwe.

“We are planting trees in partnership with local organisations that have capacity to take care of the trees. A lot of trees are planted but survival rate is very low,” Prizzon said.

The club has been implementing the tree planting project for three years now and in the first year they planted 11,000 trees with 20,000 in the second year.

Prizzon said this year they are looking forward to work with communities in developing tree seedlings nurseries to ensure that there are enough trees to sustain the tree planting exercise.

Kambewe Primary School Head Teacher, Sanudi Mzini, commended Rotary Club of Lilongwe-Lingadzi for planting trees at his school.

“We are grateful to Rotary Club of Lilongwe-Lingadzi for the initiative. Trees are very important and I hope those planted at our school will benefit both the school and the community in future,” he said.

He said the school will take care of the newly planted trees by, among other things, watering them during the dry season.