Teens moving mountains with their love for the environment

Safaricom staff William Otieno (left) David Salat of Muthaite Secondary School and Paul Ochieng from M-Pesa Foundation Academy plant a tree Mau Eburu Forest.

File | Nation Media Group

By  Joshua Wafula

Student at M-Pesa Academy

M-Pesa Academy

What you need to know:

• The organisation carries out mass tree planting every January, May and September.
• The target is to plant a billion trees in 10 years across the country, hence the ‘Billionaire Campaign’.
• In 2019, the group founded their tree nursery, which provides some of the seedlings.

From their classes at the M-Pesa Foundation Academy, a group of teenagers saw how the forest cover was decreasing, famine and hunger caused by lack of rain, as well as lack of clean water because of pollution.
In 2017, the teens decided to do something about it. They formed Impact Green World Transformers (IGWT).

The organisation carries out mass tree planting every January, May and September. The target is to plant a billion trees in 10 years across the country, hence the ‘Billionaire Campaign’.
In 2019, the group founded their tree nursery, which provides some of the seedlings. The group has so far planted trees in Western, Nyanza and Rift Valley. To preserve trees, IGWT is also working on coming up with alternative sources of energy to discourage tree cutting for fuel.

Community service

To learn more about trees, IGWT members don’t miss the annual Mau Tree Planting Activities organised by the M-Pesa Foundation. In March, July and October, the group also participates in community service such as providing children’s homes with food and other basic needs.

So far, the group has managed to reach out to 10 homes. However because of Covid-19, the home support services had to stop.
April, August and December are for cleaning up, which is often conducted in estates, drainage systems and rivers.
To ensure continuity, IGWT members remain part of the group for life and take on roles even after they leave school in the group’s board. Currently, Sylvester Omondi, who is an alumnus, serves as the person in charge of membership.

Love environment

Salome Makasi serves as the secretary of the board, while Ibrahim Maloba and Mark Michael, who are part of the board, are also in charge of community service. There is also a chief executive officer, Joseph Gift.
The requirement to be part of the group is to love the environment.  The group is seeking to organise more activities such as marathons, writing, painting and environmental summits.
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