By Philip Yatai

Women Initiative for Sustainable Environment (WISE), an NGO, on Friday took its tree-planting campaign to the Nigerian Customs Staff Primary School, Barnawa, Kaduna, as part of efforts to promote the practice among younger generations.

Ms Olanike Olugboji, Founder and Programme Director of WISE, explained that the exercise was to make children understand the need to live in harmony with nature for sustainable development.

According to her, the only way to ensure sustainable development is to catch the children young and get them to be aware of the environment, love it and take up the responsibility to take care of it.

“In the light of climate change and its accompanied environmental degradation, there is the need to exploit and manage the environment and sustain it.

“This will enable us have environmental resources for today while the next generation will still have more than enough.

“But to achieve this, we must get our children to imbibe the culture of planting trees, manage environmental resources properly and do things that will help the environment,” she said.

Olugboji described the school as one of the cleanest and environmentally friendly primary schools in the state.

She explained that her NGO’s pilot tree planting programme took place in the school about 15 years ago when the school was a bit shabby and lay bare without a single tree.

“We decided to visit the school this year to see if the trees we planted have survived, and we noticed that not only did the trees survive, additional trees had also been planted.

“There are now more trees and the environment is looking green and lush.

“This is a good orientation for the pupils of the school because they will be used to trees and they will love trees.

“Being that most of the pupils were not aware of how the tree in the school came about, we decided to come and plant another set of trees together with the children for them to nurture and take care of them,” Olubgoji said.

WISE also joined the pupils in celebrating their cultural day and supported them with a celebration cake, snacks and drinks.

Mrs Bolaji Olaide, Head Teacher of the school, expressed appreciation to the NGO for the gesture, describing it as very impactful to the school, the teachers and the pupils.

“This school is looking greenish today because of the effort of Women Initiative for Sustainable Environment which has been supporting us to maintain a clean and green environment.

“The school is looking so attractive that people are using the environment for their wedding reception and other social gatherings,” she said.