BY BANELE MAGONGO
MBABANE – World Vision Eswatini (WVE) took a significant step towards environmental sustainability by donating 220 trees to Dinga Central Primary School on Wednesday (June 5, 2024) in celebration of World Environment Day.
This donation aimed to serve as windbreakers for the school’s structures and help reclaim an existing donga within the school premises.
According to World Vision Eswatini, the planting of 220 trees at Dinga Central Primary School coincided with the World Environment Day celebrations (which took place on June 5th, 2024). The trees were generously provided by the Eswatini Government’s Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs’ Forestry Department, highlighting the country’s commitment to environmental preservation and awareness.
Joining the school’s children and teachers to plant the WVE National Director Tinah Mukunda, who was in the Shiselweni Region on a field visit to see projects and programme initiatives implemented by the organisation in the Gege.
Speaking after briefly engaging the pupils and planting some trees inside the donga at the school, Mukunda said: “There’s no better place to start preparing for this day, World Environment Day, than to come to the community and have conversations with children on issues of climate change.”
Mukunda said, in line with this year’s theme for the global event, they would be continuously talking about issues of land restoration, stopping desertification, and creating resilience against drought.
Speaking to this same issue, Dinga Primary School Head Teacher Samuel Mavuso, said as a school they were also concerned about the issues of land degradation, evident in the donga that had found its way into the school’s premises. He also noted that deforestation, seen in the absence or reduction of trees, exacerbated climate change, which caused challenges such as the shortage of rain.
“Once there is no rain, there will not be enough food for us, so it’s important that we do not cut trees and, if we do, we should plant twice what we have cut down,” the head teacher stated, addressing the learners.
