‘Make a difference to the planet – plant trees’, this is the message British Council Kenya employees had in mind as they left their offices and went to a secondary school in the coastal city of Mombasa to plant 500 indigenous trees recently.

These tree seedlings were planted at Shimo La Tewa Secondary School in Mombasa as part of a commitment by British Council staff to offset carbon emissions generated by staff attending a three-day regional strategy meeting in Mombasa.

Shimo La Tewa Secondary School is an active participant of the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms project and the planting exercise was done in partnership with 60 students, all members of the school’s Connecting Classrooms club. Connecting Classrooms is a British Council initiative that connects schools in sub-Saharan Africa with schools in the UK, with the aim of enabling intercultural dialogue and understanding.

As Kibisu Agufana, the club’s organising secretary, points out: ‘People have always asked for opportunities to change the world. Through Connecting Classrooms, we at Shimo La Tewa have found an easy way of making a difference to our planet – planting trees.’

Elizabeth Githinji, regional support manager East & Central Africa, says over the last 12 months, Connecting Classrooms and Dreams + Teams have been partnered with the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Billion Tree Campaign.

The worldwide tree planting campaign aims to plant at least 1-billion trees worldwide each year.
African and UK schools involved in the projects will plant five trees for every international flight they take as part of the project. In a call to further individual and collective action, UNEP has set a new goal of planting 7-billion trees by the end of 2009. The campaign strongly encourages the planting of indigenous trees and trees that are appropriate to the local environment.

Githinji says their tree-planting activities begun in 2007 with the celebration of World Environment Day. ‘We aim to plant at least 100 000 trees across sub-Saharan Africa in the next two years,’ Ginthinji says.

Connecting Classrooms is a partner in the Billion Trees Campaign initiated by UNEP. She says that although the British Council projects Connecting Classrooms and Dreams + Teams are different in terms of deliverables, they both have the same objective and that is empowering children and young people.

Many of their joint curriculum projects are based on researching their respective environments. The young people then study, debate and discuss freely the issues affecting them and while exchanging ideas on best practice.

‘To this end they plant trees to offset carbon emissions from the transcontinental flights they make during the year,’ Githinji says. ‘Last June in Mombasa, Kenya, during the project managers meeting we planted over 500 trees with local schools. It is my hope that this becomes a standard in every British Council office.'

‘The schools will inform the British Council of how many trees they have planted and the British Council informs the Billion Trees Campaign,’ she says.

‘To date, more than 2-billion trees have been planted,’ Githinji adds. ‘One Connecting Classrooms cluster in Kenya has so far planted 3500 trees, far more than required to offset their own carbon emissions.’

She says the Climate Change programme is a British Council initiative whose aim is to strengthen networks and relationships among decision makers, influencers and future leaders worldwide to tackle climate change.

‘The Climate Change programme will help people understand why issues around climate change need to be tackled now; mobilise public pressure for progress on international agreements and establish relationships and networks which lead to action.’

Githinji adds that she believes that climate change is one of the greatest social, economic, political and environmental challenges facing our generation.

‘My feeling is that we have talked enough: it’s time to shift to action-based solutions,’ she says. ‘It’s time for each of us to take individual responsibility for our environment, while still continuing with the idea of collective responsibility to achieve the goal of a better world for us and future generations. The time for action was yesterday!’

For Githinji working in Connecting Classrooms and Dreams + Teams has enabled her to pursue her passion for development. ‘I’m pleased to be working for projects that enable Africa’s youth to participate in the global arena but also to tell their own stories in their own words,’ she concludes.