Support Youth to prevent environmental degradation

As a reminder, in the district exists a high failure rate among pupils at secondary school, and many of them have no choice but to find jobs as motorbike drivers, engage in activities that destroy ecosystems and, in the case of girls, marry at a very young age. The beekeeping project supports 30 young people including 16 women chosen by village assemblies, to begin practical training in beekeeping. These young people built 60 modern beehives by themselves and hung them in the Mlele Hills forest reserve. November was the time of their first harvest. Thanks to this training, they learnt how to harvest honey while preserving the trees, the hives and, of course, the bees. They also developed their logo and communication.

The environmental education project has continued to work with eight primary schools and one secondary school in the Mlele and Nsimbo districts. In each school, pupils looked after a nursery of fruit trees and native trees as well as a test plot with one part under conventional cultivation and the other under agroforestry. The students also received planting equipment and technical training. The fruit tree seedlings were mainly planted around the schools to diversify the pupils’ diet and provide them with fruit. The indigenous tree seedlings were put to good use by planting them on communal plots, such as around the new dam in the village of Nsenkwa or around hospitals and village offices. These plantings make it possible to avoid using exotic species for shade. More than 1,800 pupils, 51% of them girls, 90 teachers and four village game scouts were fully committed to this agroforestry initiative. They worked in close collaboration with the schools and environmental officers from the Mlele and Nsimbo districts.

Links:

• Our last article about this project on our website
• Our website